Animal Speak: Beastly Language

The English language has come up with its own inventive ways to describe the wide range of sounds animals produce. Many such words are onomatopoeic, attempting to imitate in simplified form the unique sound that an animal makes to communicate with another.

PET SOUNDS

Dogs and cats are the animals that humans feel closest to, and we often jump to conclusions about what they are trying to communicate! Dogs typically ‘bark’ (or ‘go woof’) perhaps to show joy or perhaps as a warning. They may also ‘growl’ to show anger, or ‘howl, a long sad sound that they inherited from their ancestors, the wolves, who used it to communicate over long distances. Cats ‘ meow’, a sound used to interact with humans that can have various meanings , or ‘purr’ as a way to signal comfort. 

BIRD SONG

Birds communicate through a wide variety of melodious sounds. The most frequently used words for them are ‘chirp’ or ‘whistle’. Chirping is to emit short, sharp sounds, whereas whistling consists of longer ones. Young or small birds also ‘tweet', a weak chirping sound. On a farm, we can hear pigs ‘oink’, ’snort’ or ‘grunt’, horses ‘neigh’, sheep ‘bleat’, cows ‘moo’, ducks ‘quack’, hens ‘cluck’, and roosters‘crow’, emitting a morning ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’ sound.

WILD ANIMALS

In the wild, owls ‘hoot’, and frogs or toads‘croak’ or ‘go ribbit’. Lions famously ‘roar’ (this mighty sound can be heard up to eight kilometres away), monkeys ‘chatter’, elephants ‘trumpet’ through their trunk, but also ‘rumble’, a low-frequency sound that they use to interact with other members of their group. 

INSECTS

Species that lack vocal chords can also communicate. Insects emit a wide array of sounds called ‘stridulations’ and ‘raspings’. Stridulation results from rubbing together certain body parts: grasshoppers and crickets produce a sound by scraping their legs with their wings. Beetles make a rasping sound by rubbing a body part against a hard surface. Bees produce a distinctive buzzing sound through their fast wing movements. 

EVOCATIVE 

Snakes ‘hiss’ and ‘rattle’ to warn off an intruder; hissing happens when air passes through a snake’s windpipes; rattlesnakes warn their enemies by vibrating the segments at the end of their tails. Whales, notably humpback whales, communicate through their well-known ‘songs’, eerie vocal sequences that can go on for hours, and are apparently produced by a special voice box.