Hi, Check out Chapter 3, The Naming of Animals, in the book *Chapters on Language* by Farrar - link below. It appears there are many other references to this topic in the language research literature.
>From Farrar (his italics): "Every fact which as yet we have passed into review would lead us to the conclusion that the first men, in *first* exercising the faculty of speech, gave names to the animals around them, and that those names were onomatopoetic. It is hardly too much to say *that they could not have been otherwise*." Bob On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 7:41 AM, Cara Lin Bridgman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Chinese has many onomatopoeic animal names. Here are some examples: > > Mandarin for cat (mao-mi), cow (niu or nee-oo), dog (gou or go), duck > (ya), snake (se), and the children's name for sheep (yang mei-mei). > > Taiwanese for cat (niao or nee-ao), cow (gu), dog (gao), horse (beh or > bay), and chicken (ke or ge). > > If I've given two versions, one is according to a standard romanization > and the second is transliterated into American English... Of course, no > romanization does tones. When you consider the tones, the names sound even > more onomatopoeic. For example, both syllables of the Mandarin name for cat > should be said in the same high tone. > > CL > > please note my mailing address: > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Cara Lin Bridgman > > P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Longjing Township > http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin/<http://megaview.com.tw/%7Ecaralin/> > Taichung County 43499 > Taiwan Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > -- Robert J. Miller Marine Science Institute University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara CA 93106-6150 (805) 893-7295
