I love learning stuff from young children. Half the time they don't realize that you don't understand 98% of what is coming out of their mouths... but they teach you the best stuff when you don't know their native language!
Plus they ask you the same questions over and over and over and over. So if you don't know the answer the first time... you'll know the next day!
I've noticed this before because of both of my languages... but did you know animals "say" different noises in every language??
For example: Dogs say, "guau, guau" and chicks say, "pio, pio" in Spanish. But in English they say, "ruff, ruff" and "cheep, cheep."
Well... tonight, as my little house guest was taking a bath... he started yelling (from the bathtub), something that sounded like, "kuak, kuak! Kuak, kuak!"
I guessed duck.
But when I walked into the bathroom, where I saw him squatting on the rug with his hands on the floor... and he jumped!?!
Conclusion.... frogs here don't say ribbit... they say "ква, ква!" :D
Animal noises are always so fun from a linguistic perspective--some of them are onomatopoeic, and some really, really aren't.
ReplyDeleteCute! I just taught my students some animal noises in Spanish while learning names of animals and they thought it was hilarious, especially "guau, guau".
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