Three examples of English bird names: killdeer (Charadrius vociferous), bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) and dickcissel (Spiza americana).
In Japanese, "cuckoo" is KakkÅ (the macron denotes a long vowel). Makiri Makiri Sei, Ph. D. Postdoctoral Fellow 146 Pearson Hall Department of Zoology Miami University Oxford, OH 45056 (513)-529-3175 ________________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Madhusudan Katti [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 2:31 PM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Onomatopoeia animal names Two examples from India immediately come to mind: House Gecko - Hemidactylus frenatus - is known as Tiktiki in Bangla (or Bengali) language. Tucktoo (local and English common name) - Gekko gecko - is another gecko found in Assam. I'm sure I can remember plenty of other examples if I sit down and think about it for a while. Madhu On Apr 19, 2008, at 1:21 PM, Warren W. Aney 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
