Flann 5 wrote:

LanDroid wrote:How 'bout what in that context means "that's a great example of..." Even works for "What a jerk!"

Why so snarky Mr Moderator? I wasn't attacking Johnson. Just a play on words. I knew what he meant in context.

I don't know what snark you're talking about, I wasn't even talking to you? I merely tried to answer a question for johnson1010 and looks like he agrees with the answer.

Ok. Landroid. Sorry. I misunderstood and blamed you wrongly.

This might not be exactly on point, but it does have to do with words. I've tried to find out why languages sound different from each other and haven't found a satisfactory answer. I'm told that languages evolved, kind of like living things, but still, why does Chinese sound so different from English? It can't be anything to do with different vocal apparatus one group to another, because a baby born to Chinese parents but raised here has no problem imitating the English sounds it hears. So why, exactly? Is it something about the sounds present in the original environments that the evolving humans imitated in their fist efforts at speech? I don't have a clue, really, and would appreciate some bright ideas.

Being a bit of a word nerd myself, I've wondered about this myself. More specifically, How is it that different languages have widely different words for the sounds made by animals?

As a child growing up in a bilingual community in Quebec, Canada, I recall being puzzled as to why my French speaking friends were using different words for the same animal sound. I especially recall the words used for the rooster sound. I would say "cock-a-doodle-doo", my French speaking friends would say "co-co-ri-co". It was confusing. After all, we were hearing the same animal sound.
Derek Abbott, a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia is conducting research on the subject. He may have something for us in a few years. In the meantime you may want to have a look at this short article on the subject:

mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/ ... me-animals

If you go to the end of the clip you will see people speaking many different languages saying the word for different animal sounds along with the animal speaking in its own tongue. It's a hoot!

I don't get a "C" sound from a rooster, so maybe the English word "cock" influenced how the sound was captured. Not really, I guess, because other languages also have the word beginning with a hard "C." The snake sound is an interesting one mainly because it's hard to imagine many people hearing a snake "say" anything at all. Do they really go "hiss,", as almost all languages have them doing, or is the hiss mythical?

Thanks for the helpful hint.

The hiss is real enough in some snakes, and this clip may be giving you more than you want to know about the subject:

https://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?p=wh ... e=avastbcl

Maybe a bit off topic, but I thought this was interesting from the "ASK" site:
"A snake can also make a growling sound as a way to warn predators entering their space. They also spit, which is most commonly attributed to cobras. Even more surprising, the Sonoran coral snake can make a sound like a quacking duck by expelling air through its digestive tract."

LevV wrote:The hiss is real enough in some snakes, and this clip may be giving you more than you want to know about the subject:

https://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?p=wh ... e=avastbcl

Maybe a bit off topic, but I thought this was interesting from the "ASK" site:
"A snake can also make a growling sound as a way to warn predators entering their space. They also spit, which is most commonly attributed to cobras. Even more surprising, the Sonoran coral snake can make a sound like a quacking duck by expelling air through its digestive tract."

Hi LevV. A curious thing I came across is that burrowing owl chicks imitate the hiss of a rattlesnake when threatened by predators.
Seems to work well for them.

http://birdnote.org/show/burrowing-owls ... attlesnake

I'm not sure what benefit it is to the Sonoran coral snake to quack like a duck unless it's to lure ducks within range and to their doom.
They are not real ducks but quacks really! Quack is a word with two meanings also.

As something of a "word nerd" myself, I suggest the follwoign radio program. It is on National Public Radio, and locally I hear it on Saturday afternoons at 1:00 PM Central Time (U.S.). It is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett. More information, including topics previously discussed, and if your local NPR station carries the show, at waywordradio.org.

Dwill, and LevV,

Check out this video on the evolution of the English language!
Cool.





My suspicion on the origin of language is that it developed, like we see in some monkeys, as calls to alert of predator danger.
Different predators have different alert calls and the monkeys look where they expect a certain kind of predator depending on the call associated with it. Hawk alerts make them look up.

after that, when you are trying to name things, the most obvious thing to me seems to be trying onomonopia. "Fwoosh!" could mean fire. "Crack-kow!" could mean thunder.

Then as those sounds are used and more nuance is introduced variations are applied and the sounds drift. How are the sounds different in different languages?

I heard of a study that we are capable (obviously) of making any sound in any language, but like a muscle not used, the ability to make and affinity to pick out that sound atrophies as we become accustomed to using and listening for our own language's sounds.

Maybe I'm just getting older, but honestly if somebody says a word I am not expecting, or in a context I'm not familiar with, I will sometimes mis-hear it entirely.

johnson1010 wrote:I'm a word nerd.

I'm interested in words and how they come to be what they are, where they came from, and how they are used.

English is so complicated because of the way it was created and how malleable it is. I love this video because it speaks to that: