“Why does the dog say bow wow?” is a question I often hear from friends of mine from Mexico. I, in turn end up asking myself the same question. It seems that somewhere between when dog language was translated to English and English was translated to Spanish, there were some misunderstandings. This is not surprising of course and it is just one of countless humorous onomatopoeia that humans use in everyday language. The viral video, “What Does the Fox Say?” by the Norwegian duo Ylvis includes twenty two of these previously used and self-imagined onomatopoeia.
I imagine that big reason for confusion about some animal noises is that many countries that use our Latin alphabet have historically sent out many explorers. These explorers traveled to exotic places and encountered wild and domestic animals in these exotic places. Before the time of audio recording, the only way to record the sounds that animals in those far-away places would make was to write them down and bring back written descriptions of the beasts. This may explain why the “Elephant says toot.”
In the video, an animated fox is shown making musical sounds in a way that can be described as beat boxing. Beat boxing is a technique in which a musical beat and or tune is made with voice and mouth inflection. These noises are often made to imitate musical instruments or other inanimate objects. Not surprisingly, these nonliving things musical and non-musical are what we humans mimic most often.
The strumming of guitars, crashing of cymbals and banging of drums are part of everyday conversation. It is described inter-personally when describing a tune and it is intra-personal when we perform on our drives to work and shower concerts. There are actually genera of music called djent-rock and djent-rap. The djent describes the sound the guitar usually makes when strummed in that style of playing. As a side note, I find it quite humorous that we have ways of describing actual words in singing such as “LaLaLa, BlahBlahBlah and YadaYadaYada.”
We humans have our own noises as well. We cough, sneeze, laugh, spit and more. Different cultures write down and imitate these noises in slightly different ways. For example, my brother has some online friends in Brazil. When they post messages, comments and status updates in text form they write “UAEUAEUAE!” This is written very differently than our “HAHAHA!” However, if we were to sound it out in our native tongues, they would likely sound identical.
One would think that since these noises are not words and do not require translation, that there would be no confusion from language to language. Two people of a different native language for example could imitate an animal and produce quite similar sounds. However, problems arise when written language is used. This is obvious when Vegard Ylvisåker pronounces the duck’s “quack” in British English, with a tall ä as opposed to the American short ă.
There is much speculation on what the seemingly nonsensical noises are, used by Ylvis, to describe the theoretical sound of the fox. Some say that they are actually words from foreign languages that the duo found humorous. I have searched for answers to the root of these crazy sounds and have come up empty handed.
Spoken noises have one thing in common; they are emotional. When you are late for work, your vehicle makes a horrible noise and won’t start, your heart sinks. You will always remember the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you describe the noise to your friends (and the mechanics for that matter). When a veteran soldier hears a loud bang he will be reminded of when he lost his friend on the battlefield. Musicians will remember the concert note for note and word for word (even the lalalas) that inspired them to passionately pursue a career in music. Pet lovers can’t wait to hear their best friend barking for them when they pull into the driveway at the end of the day.
I predict that there will be more discourse on written sounds (onomatopoeias) in the coming years as text becomes an even more dominant means of communication in our world. Text has slowly been replacing speech for hundreds of years. It will also become more prevalent as the globe becomes more and more connected. Tell us about what overseas onomatopoeias you have heard, especially if they are included in the song. Also, do you think these noises will become more cross cultural in the future or not?
I imagine that big reason for confusion about some animal noises is that many countries that use our Latin alphabet have historically sent out many explorers. These explorers traveled to exotic places and encountered wild and domestic animals in these exotic places. Before the time of audio recording, the only way to record the sounds that animals in those far-away places would make was to write them down and bring back written descriptions of the beasts. This may explain why the “Elephant says toot.”
In the video, an animated fox is shown making musical sounds in a way that can be described as beat boxing. Beat boxing is a technique in which a musical beat and or tune is made with voice and mouth inflection. These noises are often made to imitate musical instruments or other inanimate objects. Not surprisingly, these nonliving things musical and non-musical are what we humans mimic most often.
The strumming of guitars, crashing of cymbals and banging of drums are part of everyday conversation. It is described inter-personally when describing a tune and it is intra-personal when we perform on our drives to work and shower concerts. There are actually genera of music called djent-rock and djent-rap. The djent describes the sound the guitar usually makes when strummed in that style of playing. As a side note, I find it quite humorous that we have ways of describing actual words in singing such as “LaLaLa, BlahBlahBlah and YadaYadaYada.”
We humans have our own noises as well. We cough, sneeze, laugh, spit and more. Different cultures write down and imitate these noises in slightly different ways. For example, my brother has some online friends in Brazil. When they post messages, comments and status updates in text form they write “UAEUAEUAE!” This is written very differently than our “HAHAHA!” However, if we were to sound it out in our native tongues, they would likely sound identical.
One would think that since these noises are not words and do not require translation, that there would be no confusion from language to language. Two people of a different native language for example could imitate an animal and produce quite similar sounds. However, problems arise when written language is used. This is obvious when Vegard Ylvisåker pronounces the duck’s “quack” in British English, with a tall ä as opposed to the American short ă.
There is much speculation on what the seemingly nonsensical noises are, used by Ylvis, to describe the theoretical sound of the fox. Some say that they are actually words from foreign languages that the duo found humorous. I have searched for answers to the root of these crazy sounds and have come up empty handed.
Spoken noises have one thing in common; they are emotional. When you are late for work, your vehicle makes a horrible noise and won’t start, your heart sinks. You will always remember the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you describe the noise to your friends (and the mechanics for that matter). When a veteran soldier hears a loud bang he will be reminded of when he lost his friend on the battlefield. Musicians will remember the concert note for note and word for word (even the lalalas) that inspired them to passionately pursue a career in music. Pet lovers can’t wait to hear their best friend barking for them when they pull into the driveway at the end of the day.
I predict that there will be more discourse on written sounds (onomatopoeias) in the coming years as text becomes an even more dominant means of communication in our world. Text has slowly been replacing speech for hundreds of years. It will also become more prevalent as the globe becomes more and more connected. Tell us about what overseas onomatopoeias you have heard, especially if they are included in the song. Also, do you think these noises will become more cross cultural in the future or not?
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