How about the Puerto Rican "coqui"? Carrie
-----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nancy E. Karraker Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 11:58 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Onomatopoeia animal names Hi Warren, Two examples I can think of are "kodok," which is the Indonesian word for frog, probably representing the call of a common species. "Wah" with a rising tone is the Cantonese word for frog, and I speculate represents the sound made by the Asiatic painted frog, a common species in that region which emits a rising bellow. Nancy Quoting Phil Novack-Gottshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > 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 > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > 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 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nancy E. Karraker, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Division of Ecology and Biodiversity University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road Hong Kong, China Phone: +852-2299-0678 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
