本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Ever since I can to Canada, I found out that the words that imitating different kind of sounds are so different between English and Chinese. When Charlie came home from school and talked about the sound of pigs which was “oink, oink” I couldn’t help laughing. Since then, I kept asking him about the different sound words and had so much fun.

The following are some examples of the sound words that I have found out.

English; Chinese

pig: oink oink; heng heng (哼哼)

dog: woof woof; wang wang (汪汪)

cat: meow meow; miao miao (喵喵)

cow: moo moo; mou mou (哞哞)

sheep: baa; mie (咩)

frog: rib-bit rib-bit; gua gua (呱呱）

bird: chirp chirp or tweet tweet; ji ji zha zha (叽叽喳喳）

duck: quack quack; ga ga (嘎嘎）

rooster: cock a doodle doo; gu gu gu (咕咕咕）

clock: tick tock; Di Da (滴答)

balloon bursting: pop; peng (嘭)

gun shot: boom, kaboom; peng (嘭，砰) or da da da (哒哒哒)

heart beating: thump thump; peng peng (砰砰) or tong tong ( 嗵嗵）

sneezing: ah-choo!; ah-qiu! (啊嚏)

water dripping: drip (drop); di da (滴答）

kissing: smooch, smack; boh (啵) (This word is a modern creation)

car horn: honk or beep-beep ; di di (嘀嘀)

bouncing: boing; I believe there is no exact matching Chinese word, but I like the English word best. Imaging a spring in a cartoon movie jumping around and making the sound “boing, boing, boing,….”

Those words are called onomatopoeias(象声词). According to wikipedia, Onomatopoeic words differ across languages because they always have to conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system they are part of. In the case of a frog croaking, the spelling may moreover vary because different frog species around the world make different sounds. Either way, I have been enjoying the experience of linguistic exploring.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net