Animals Speak Different Languages Too

Language is complex. For instance, take onomatopoeia. These are words whose sound reflects their meaning. For instance, bark and woof express the same thing but the second one communicates much more and does so without a paragraph of explanation.

Other Uses

Onomatopoeia is widely used in everyday speech to transmit thoughts quickly and describe things effectively. It is a common rhetorical technique in literature, cinema and television. One television show that consistently used onomatopoeia was Batman in the 1960s - it was used to make the action sequences more dynamic but became a cult aspect of the show.

In many languages, onomatopoeia-like words are used to describe complex concepts. These words might not fit exactly with the definition of onomatopoeia but share many of the same characteristics, such as conveying a complex meaning through a very economical use of sound. The Japanese use words such as bara-bara to signal a particularly chaotic state and giri-giri to represent an event that happens just in the nick of time; bling, on the other hand, is used in the English language to talk about the glint of precious metals and other expensive and shiny objects.

Onomatopoeia in Different Languages

Although the function of these words is to imitate a sound that exists outside language, onomatopoeia is not the same in every language. So, while a horse might make one sound in one language, it makes another sound in another. The words tend to change and conform to the rules and sounds of the linguistic system of any given language. The best way to learn them is by spending time with native speakers of the language; so, if you want to know what sound a duck makes in French, google 'language courses France'. Learning French in France will help you pick up these subtle aspects of the language much faster. It is easy to see just how much these sounds can vary in different languages by looking at a few animal sounds: