Onomatopoeia? You must be barking

Convinced as I am that my mobile phone is a Satanic Contractual necessity, I tend to ignore it until the end of the day (except when the bastard wakes me up...and when I want to know what the weather is...or train times...whatever). The other week, a teacher from one of my schools was constantly trying to get in touch with me, but I was never noticing until it was far too late to call back. Finally, he got through to me, and whatever emergency that required my attention could be laid to rest...

...one of the students wanted to know how to spell "yuck"...

"Onomatopoeia" - The formation or use of words such as "buzz" or "murmur" that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

This formation is subjective depending on the way your culture hears these sounds. For example, dogs in Japan don`t say "Woof" - they say "Wan". This has come up in lessons once or twice, and I`ve been asked to demonstrate what the English dog utters. The result has me, temporarily driven mad by the sheer absurdity of it all, barking in front of forty-odd students.

Funnily enough, although it`s to be expected, I`ve been listening to local dogs recently...sounds more like "wan" every time...

There`s more besides - dogs seem to have the monopoly here, saying "kian kian" (when puppies), "gari gari" (when biting) and "paku paku" (when gnawing bones). That`s another interesting thing, if you consider the etymology of Pac Man (also, so I`ve heard, based on a Japanese {and Native American} folk tale about a massive head that rolls around eating stuff...but I`m having a hard time verifying that).

Ahem...cats say "nyaa nyaa" or goro goro (when purring); mice, "chu chu"; ducks, "ga ga"; pigs, "bu bu" (the Japanese for "pig" is "buta"); bees, "boon"; birds, "pi" or "piyoo" and frogs, "kero kero"

Interesting stuff, although I`ve yet to be convinced of the academic validity of the correct pronunciation of "woof".

For a pretty good list of animal noises around the world, why not check my source?