Even Cows Have Accents

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:12 am

Apparently cows moo with an accent. This is hilarious.

http://reuters.excite.com//article/20060824/2006-08-24T170443Z_01_L23410567_RTRIDST_0_ODD-COWS-ACCENT-DC.html

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:13 am

On a second thought - who knows? Maybe mice in different areas don't squeak the same as well...

icabod · Post by **icabod** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:57 am

Brian; I heard a clip on cbc yesterday about it, and they also mentioned birds..go figure

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:21 pm

Crazy.

Speaking of birds, some research scientist probably got a huge grant from the British government to study this "branch of science".

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:26 pm

How about flies, mosquitos? Ehm. Butterflies? Fish?

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:34 pm

Well take it from me Sheena, Canadian mosquitos don't have accents they have attitude. Plus they seem to fly in very organized squadrons reminiscent of the World War I flying circus headed up by the Baron Manfred Von Richthofen.

They attack in pairs and don't give up until they have managed to draw blood.

Did I tell you that I hate these little beggars?

icabod · Post by **icabod** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 2:09 pm

I'm with Brian on the mosquitos, they're downrite hostile...

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:03 pm

Yep, i can understand it. Just reminded me of - when Mousie was about 4, i've once heard her talk to somebody in a very friendly tone (from the other room). I came to her to see what was happening & who was she talking to and... "Please understand: i'm sorry, didn't want to kill you, but you wanted my blood!!!!"

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:38 am

The roosters in Bali crow very differently from the ones we're familiar with...having spent some considerable time living in small rural villages there, I've had plenty of opportunities to take note of this. Obviously they're making the same basic sound as our roosters, and for all the same reasons, but it comes out with a 'foreign accent'. Since the species we call chickens came originally from the jungles of Indonesia, I guess it would be more accurate to say it's our chickens who've developed the 'foreign' speech patterns...

On a slightly related topic, I've always been fascinated by the way onomatopoeia differs in human languages around the world, especially when describing the sounds made by animals. We're so comfortable with our own cultural directives in this regard that we don't often stop to consider that dogs don't exactly 'bark' or say 'woof'...these are understandably crude approximations of what are really complex sounds.

In Bali, dogs do not 'bark'...they 'gong'.

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:39 am

In Russia, dogs say "gav". Or "gav-gav". Or "gav-gav-gav". Etc.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:51 am

Brain: Thanks for this. I was truly moved.