Animal Sounds

"Cock-a-doodle-doo" or "cocorico" – or maybe even "ko-ke-kok-ko-o"? What gives? We all hear the same animal sounds, but we imitate them differently in our native language.

Presumably, the sound of a cat in Athens is basically the same as a cat in Sydney, or one on the streets of Rio. So why don’t all languages represent those meows in the same way?

We all hear the same animal sounds, but we imitate them differently in our native language. This is more surprising for native English speakers than it is for the rest of us, du…