Warren,
I don't know of any studies, but it sounds like an interesting
topic. With credit to Greg Wray, a fantastic bird example is the
hoopoe, with the binomen "Upupa epops," supposedly based on its bird-call.
Phil
At 04:21 PM 4/19/2008, you wrote:
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
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Phil
Novack-Gottshall [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Assistant Professor
Department of Geosciences
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, GA 30118-3100
Phone: 678-839-4061
Fax: 678-839-4071
http://www.westga.edu/~pnovackg
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