Why do animals in different countries where other languages are spoken speak differently?

Allergic2Life

I don't know, I'll ask them. Aug 08 06, 12:03 AM

peasypod

Do you mean, for example 'English' dogs say woof, but Japanese dogs say 'wang-wang' and Spanish ones say 'gau-gau'? Or do you mean the parlance of a parrot who has copied his masters vocab and speaks whatever language that may be? Aug 08 06, 12:20 AM

Brinjal

Or do you mean they respnd to the language which their owner speaks to them in. Aug 08 06, 12:42 AM

Flynn_17

I think they're referring to the animal noises made. Here is quite a good reference site. http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/animals.html In the words of the Hungarian pig, "röf-röf" Aug 08 06, 5:24 AM

jules_babe

It's 'arf arf' in this neck of the woods. Aug 08 06, 5:53 AM

Baloo55th

The noises animals make don't usually fit exactly to human speech, so people make the best fit they can. Sometimes this is a bit far off - have you heard a dog going 'bow-wow'? Also, you heve to remember that the way the sound is written in a foreign language may not be quite what it appears to be to an English speaker. Both 'gau-gau' and 'wang-wang' said in the way a native speaker would sound far better than 'bow-wow' and 'woof'. Aug 08 06, 7:11 AM

zbeckabee

Animals are the same as humans in that they LEARN to associate a certain action or item with a certain sound or set of sounds. Some people train their dogs using commands other than the standard "sit, heel, fetch, etc." in order to maintain strict control of their animal. A certain U.S. "law enforcement program" applies this technique while utilizing the German Language. Aug 08 06, 8:51 AM