Sunday, January 27, 2008

Cock-a-doodle-do in 40 languages

((For some reason I was looking up information on chickens and discovered that the onomatopeia for rooster crowing is sort of 'kukiriku' in most languages. I also discovered that most languages have a literal dual entendre equivalent for "cock"--i.e. a formal word for male rooster which is also slang entendre for the "pecker."--which I guess is also sorta rooster sounding)) From Wikipedia:

"The sound made by the cock is spelled onomatopœically as "cock-a-doodle-do" in English, but otherwise in some other languages, such as: Arabic kookookoo-koo, Bulgarian кукуригу (kukurigu), Catalan Co-co-ro-co, Chinese goh-geh-goh-goh, Croatian ku-ku-ri-ku Czech kykyrikí, Danish kykeliky, Dutch kukeleku, Esperanto kokeriko, Estonian kukeleegu or kikerikii, Faroese kakkulárakó, Filipino Tik-ti-la-ok, Finnish kukkokiekuu, French cocorico, German kikeriki, Greek kikiriku, Gujarati kuk-de-kuk, Hebrew ku-ku-ri-ku, Hindustani kuk-roo-koon or kuk-roo-kroon, Hungarian kukurikú, Indonesian kukuruyuk, Italian chicchirichì, Japanese ko-ke kokkoh, Korean k'ok'iyo, Lithuanian ka-ka-rie-ku, Latvian ki-ke-ri-gū, Norwegian kykkeliky, Persian ququliqu, Polish kukuryku, Portuguese Có có ró có, Romanian cucurigu, Russian ку-ка-ре-ку (ku-ka-rye-ku), Sanskrit काक (kāka), Serbian ku-ku-ri-ku, Slovak kikirikí,Slovene kikiriki, Spanish qui-qui-ri-qui', Swahili KokoRikoo koo, Swedish kuckeliku, Tamil ko-ka-ra-ko, Thai yeki-yeki-yek, Turkish üü-ürü-üüü, Urdu kuk roo kroon, and Vietnamese ò-ó-o-o."

(((I also found a photgraphic print online of what looks to be the fattest, happiest chicken in the world. The print's simply titled "A Buff Wyandotte Chicken with a Bright Red Comb on a Farm in Kansas." Man, it's like these things want to be eaten.)))

1 comment:

Dr. S. Nagesh said...

A very useful exercise in comparative avian linguistics!
We recently visited Angkor Vat in Cambodia where we met several nationalities from whom we got first hand knowledge of their versions of cock-a-doodle-do. Later after we returned we looked up your site and got further info. Thanks a lot.