Hey Warren,
You should take a look at: Terence E. Hays (1994) "Sound Symbolism, Onomatopoeia, and New Guinea Frog Names," Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 4 (2) 153-174... for a bit of a twist, you might be interested in taking a look at research by one of my old college friends, Vicki de Rijke, now at Middlesex University, who has identified the regional accents of ducks: the cockney ducks at the city farm were much louder and vocally excitable than the ducks on Trerieve Farm in Downderry, Cornwall... the Cornish ducks made longer and more relaxed sounds, much more chilled out... the cockney quack is like a shout and a laugh, whereas the Cornish ducks sound more like they are giggling (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/jun/04/science.research) David Hilmy Chief Operations Officer, Director of Conservation, KuTunza Environmental Education Program (KEEP) Europe: 27 avenue de l'Opéra, 75001 Paris, France USA: 2804 Shepherd Street, Mount Rainier, MD 20712 888.379.2879 ~ 202.379.2879 ~ 202.316.4902 (cell) -----Original Message----- From: Warren W. Aney [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 4:21 PM Subject: Onomatopoeia animal names Is anyone aware of a comprehensive study or report on the onomatopoeia of animal names? Of course their are obvious examples such as chickadee, crow, kookaburra, katydid, cuckoo. And it seems there may be other less obvious examples in English and other languages, e.g., duck, cow (Latin bos, German kuh), titmouse (Scandinavian titt), pig (Latin sui), owl (Latin ulula). I also remember running across a speculation that human language may have first evolved as a means of communicating the presence of animals (imagine a proto-hominid running back to his clan calling out "Woo-woo" = wolf = vulpe = lobo). And can you come up with other possible examples? Warren W. Aney Senior Wildlife Ecologist Tigard, Oregon
