# How do dogs bark?



## Boljon

It'll be fun if we compare the onomatopoeic words for the barking of dogs in different languages.

ATTENTION: NOT the verb like "to bark", but the ONOMATOPOEIA like "bowwow".

*Chinese*: Wang1 Wang1
*Japanese*: Wang Wang
*Korean*: Meong Meong


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## chauvejean

English: Roof Roof


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## Zsanna

In Hungarian: vau vau.

I thought in English it was woof, woof... 
It also seems to me as if there was something like "bow wow", is that right?


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## Dr. Quizá

*Spanish:* ¡Guau, guau! 

Hence, some small children call "guauguau" or "guaguá" to dogs.


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## panjabigator

Panjabi: bhau bhau
English: Bow wow, woof woof


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## avok

Turkish: hav hav


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## chauvejean

Roof, roof; is the most common in English, then probably woof, woof. bow wow is  rare.


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## deine

Lithuanian:

au au..


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## Nanon

French: "ouah, ouah !"
See more here.


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## OldAvatar

Romanian:
_ham-ham_
or sometimes
_hau-hau_


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## ewanek

Czech: haf haf 
 as in 'home'
[a] as in 'some'
[f] as in 'fire'
Approximately )


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## בעל-חלומות

In Hebrew it's usually "hav hav" or "haw haw".


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic it's 'aw 'aw.


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## Kraus

In Italian: bau bau


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## theo1006

In Indonesian the verb to bark is an onomatopoeia: menggonggong.
Yet when you imitate the sound a dog sounds differently: auk auk.


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## sokol

In German it's 'wau wau' - and smaller children, too, like to refer to the dog as 'der Wauwau'.

This, phonetically, is very close to Italian 'bau bau', Arab ''aw 'aw' and others - the different phonetics and spellings of the different languages obscure, to a degree, similarities.


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## DrWatson

In Finnish dogs say '*hau hau*' and also '*vuh vuh*'. Children may also call dogs *hauva*, similarly as *Wauwau* in German


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto* dogs usually say either, "ŭa! ŭa!" or "boj! boj!"  Of course, there aren't a lot of Esperanto-speaking dogs around   There are Milu', who is Tinĉjo's little partner, and Snufiks, loyal companion of Asteriks...


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## Lingvisten

In Denmark the dogs say: vov vov (puddles and other small dogs could also say: vuf vuf)


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## sokol

Yes, "wuff" too would be possible in German. But mostly it's "wau".


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## kusurija

Boljon said:


> It'll be fun if we compare the onomatopoeic words for the barking of dogs in different languages.
> 
> ATTENTION: NOT the verb like "to bark", but the ONOMATOPOEIA like "bowwow".
> 
> *Chinese*: Wang1 Wang1
> *Japanese*: Wang Wang
> *Korean*: Meong Meong


 
Japanese corrected by my humble person to ワン ワン[wan wan]
By the way, how to say the verb like "to bark" itself (if it isn't offtopic)?
In Czech: štěkat
In Lithuanian: amsėti, loti[lo:ti]...


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## dudasd

Serbian dogs say "vau vau" or "av av".  And when they are angry, they say "rrrrrrrr".


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## sokol

dudasd said:


> And when they are angry, they say "rrrrrrrr".



How could I forget about that one  angry Austrian dogs always say "grrrr".


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## Kangy

In Spanish, the verb "to bark" is *ladrar*.


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## Qcumber

Zsanna said:


> In Hungarian: vau vau.
> 
> I thought in English it was woof, woof...
> It also seems to me as if there was something like "bow wow", is that right?


You're right. It's "bow wow" and "woof woof".
I have never heard of "Roof Roof".


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## elephas

Russian: gav-gav (_гав-гав_), there is also the verb "gavkat'" (_гавкать_) which is emotionally charged along with more polite-neutral "layat" (_лаять_). For small lap dogs, it's "tyaff-tyaff" (_тяф-тяф_) with corresponding verb form "tafkat" (_тявкать, тяфкать_). All those forms can be used as derogatory for human talk to put someone down, as a comeback in a fight.

"А ну не тяфкать!" === "shut up!"
heard from a Russian drill sergeant: "Взвод закроет пасть или будет дальше гавкать?" - "You men is gonna keep yapping or shut your mothtraps up?"


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## badgrammar

Funny, in English I have always spelled it "ruff ruff".  Maybe there are two versions, one for Texans, and another for the rest of the English-speaking world  !!

There is also "arf arf".


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## noncasper

In vietnamese : they say "gau gau" or "wau wau" for the barking of the dogs


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## Zsanna

Thank you, Qcumber to have answered my question. I've never heard of "roof roof" either but it's interesting that there is apparently an American "version" of it (N°27).
Now I'm really curious if in Scotland or Wales there is also "special" version...


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## Abbassupreme

"To bark", in Persian, is "paars kardan" I'm not positive on this, but I think "woof-woof" translates to "wow-wow" in Persian.

Also, "haapu"  is the word Persian-speaking kids use for "doggie"


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## zalacain56

As far as I know, in czech is also "Baf baf" but maybe the spelling is "Vaf, vaf". I'm not sure, but that said to me my teacher of czech (she is czech).


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

Here dogs say: hov hov.
to bark = lajati


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## echo chamber

In Macedonian it`s *av av*


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## Miguel Antonio

When my neighbours quote my dog - a hyperactive Border Collie - they say she utters _ghau ghau _, the _gh _being the way the sound equivalent to the Spanish J is written in Galician, the language that we speak around here as well as Spanish.


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## HUMBERT0

Dr. Quizá said:


> *Spanish:* ¡Guau, guau!
> 
> Hence, some small children call "guauguau" or "guaguá" to dogs.





sokol said:


> In German it's 'wau wau' - and smaller children, too, like to refer to the dog as 'der Wauwau'.


In Spanish is like Dr. Quizá says. We spell it like ¡Guau, guau! or ¡Guaguá!, but some people relax the G and pronounce it like W ¡Wuau, wuau! wuawuá


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## Basaloe

Swedish: Voff Voff!


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## kusurija

zalacain56 said:


> As far as I know, in czech is also "Baf baf" but maybe the spelling is "Vaf, vaf". I'm not sure, but that said to me my teacher of czech (she is czech).


Yes, "Baf baf" might be used in imaginative literature, but it seems be not so common... In such words usually writing doesn't differ from pronunciation. I didn't yet hear "Vaf, vaf" saying in Czech.  .
Most common is "Haf, haf" (IMHO).


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## ayessa003

filipino: aw aw

hehehe


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## mkh

Hi,


Abbassupreme said:


> "To bark", in Persian, is "paars kardan" I'm not positive on this, but I think "woof-woof" translates to "wow-wow" in Persian.
> Also, "haapu"  is the word Persian-speaking kids use for "doggie"


*Paars* and *bark* may be equal words.
In Iran bark of dog: vagh vagh, hab hab, hap hap, ow ow.
The sound of jackal and wolf: zuz, or zuzueh.


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## Keiria

In Catalan: "Bup bup"
In French I thought it was "worf worf"


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## ThomasK

To me the most interesting are the conclusions: what kind of sounds are used ? I am trying to add some temporary conclusions in *bold below *_(so it might be interesting to focus on divergences from or corrections of those temporary conclusions)_:
Starting on this collection I found in another thread ( information from wikipedia) 
I suggest some conclusions below :
- _bow-wow_ (or _woof-woof_) in English, 
- _wau-wau_ in German, 
- _uau-uau_ in Interlingua, 
- _ouah-ouah_ in French, 
- _gaf-gaf_ in Russian, 
- _hav-hav_ in Hebrew, 
- _wan-wan_, _bau-bau_, or _kyan-kyan_ in Japanese, 
- _guau-guau_ in Spanish, 
- _bau-bau_ in Italian, 
- _vov-vov_ in Danish, _woef woef_ [as English woof] or 
- _waf waf_ in Dutch or woef-woef, if bigger
- _wou wou_ in Cantonese, 
- _voff-voff_ in [[Icelandic language|Icelandic, 
- _hau-hau_ in Finnish and Polish, 
- _haf-haf_ in Czech, _hav-hav_ (pronounced like English how-how) in Slovak, 
- _guk guk_ in Indonesian, [is this a plosive ?]
- _bub bub_ in Catalan, 
- _ghav-ghav_ in Modern Greek, 
- _wou wou_ in Teso, 
- _gâu gâu_ in Vietnamese and [plosive ?]
- _meong meong_ in Korean. [strange to me: m to start with ?]

*Some trends I seem to distinguish :*
*- mostly fricatives to start with (is w fricative ?), seldom plosives*
*- fricatives at the end or second part of diphthong (mostly sounding like w)*
*- rather open vowels *

Correct ? But then why meong ? Any ideas ?


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## Outsider

[w] is a labiovelar approximant.


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## ThomasK

I quite agree: labiovelar, but 'approximant' ??? ( i only know liquidae, plosives, fricatives, as consonants). Is it one of those ?


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## Outsider

You might know approximants by the name of "spirants". They are similar to fricatives, but are produced with less friction.

P.S. It seems nobody mentioned the Portuguese onomatopoeia yet. I would say the most common are _ão-ão_ and _au-au_. The two have similar pronunciations; they are composed of diphthongs. My initial guess was that they had originated in an alliteration of _ua-ua_ (_wa-wa_), but then I saw the Finnish example _hau-hau_, and now I'm not so sure.


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## ThomasK

I see, thanks. I must say: I studied phonetics when I was quite young (at 18-19), which is over 30 years ago, alas !

Do you know any other types of consonants by the way ? Or do you know a website where I can find them ?


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## Outsider

Just go to Wikipedia and search for "consonant".


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## ThomasK

Anyone having an idea of how you explain that there are both spirants and plosives at the beginning ? Is is perception (meaning one thinks s/he hears it, but ...) ? Eespecially the _meong_ seems strange to me.


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## MarX

In Indonesian:

*Guk guk!!*
*Gong gong!!*

*(me)nggonggong* = bark


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## ThomasK

Just asking, KarL: is this /g/ a plosive ? And: what is the difference between the two (big and small dogs, /u/ referring to the bigger one ?) ?


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## MarX

ThomasK said:


> Just asking, KarL: is this /g/ a plosive ? And: what is the difference between the two (big and small dogs, /u/ referring to the bigger one ?) ?


 What is a plosive?

I've never thought about it, but "*guk-guk*" is used more for small dogs, and "*gong-gong*" more for bigger dogs. But they're basically interchangeable.
The verb "to bark" only have one form: *gonggong.*


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## ThomasK

A plosive is a consonant that is created by some kind of explosion after an occlusion , that is, a closure and a build-up of air behind that (I hope phoneticians (?) think that is relatively corrected), like b/p, t/d, k/g. See Wikipedia for better explanations. 

It is funny though that your small dogs produce (well, seem to produce) *the /u/ sound*, whereas only big dogs do here (and which sounds natural, because it takes bigger lungs, I think, to make a /u/ heard -- or do phoneticians disagree ? - ; it is not a coincidence that a double bass is bigger than a cello and way bigger than a violin...). But in the end I'll have to believe that there is no logic (hardly any ...) in onomatopeias !!! God forgive !

We do not have separate words for _blaffen_ (barking) either, or not at first sight. We do distinguish between 'keffertjes' (small dogs, saying kef-kef, high-pitched, but the verb 'keffen' seems uncommon) and the bigger ones.


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## Saluton

elephas said:


> Russian: gav-gav (_гав-гав_), there is also the verb "gavkat'" (_гавкать_) which is emotionally charged along with more polite-neutral "layat" (_лаять_). For small lap dogs, it's "tyaff-tyaff" (_тяф-тяф_) with corresponding verb form "tafkat" (_тявкать, тяфкать_). All those forms can be used as derogatory for human talk to put someone down, as a comeback in a fight.


I'm afraid тяфкать and тяф-тяф are wrong, only *тявкать* and *тяв-тяв*. There are NO words of Russian origin that contain the letter *ф* (*f*).
Another common onomatopoeia is *ав-ав* (av-av), although there is no verb авкать.


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## LMorland

badgrammar said:


> Funny, in English I have always spelled it "ruff ruff".  Maybe there are two versions, one for Texans, and another for the rest of the English-speaking world  !!
> 
> There is also "arf arf".


Whenever I should happen to "speak" dog language, I say "ruff ruff" as well. However, the more common written form is indeed "woof woof".

"Arf arf" -- isn't that what Little Orphan Annie's dog said?


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
Γαβ γαβ (ɣav ɣav)
The verb to describe the dog's bark is an onomatopoeic word: Γαβγίζω (ɣavɣ*i*zo, to bark).
[ɣ] is a voiced velar fricative


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## Favara

ThomasK said:


> - _bub bub_ in Catalan,


In the southern dialects we also use _llap llap_ [ʎap ʎap] for small dogs.


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## LMorland

Favara said:


> In the southern dialects we also use _llap llap_ [ʎap ʎap] for small dogs.


Interesting.  We don't do that in English, but we do say that a small dog is _yapping._ 

(We wouldn't use that term for a larger dog -- big dogs always _bark_.  And wolves, of course, _howl._)


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## soconnor

In English it is definitely 'woof woof' (may sound like 'roof roof' to a non-English speaker but it is actually 'woof' and is always spelt like that). 'Bow wow' is sometimes used as has been mentioned!


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## Hurlibutz

dog: wuff wuff, wau wau
cat: miaaaaau


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## Awwal12

I doubt that any specialists in the Komi language will appear on this forum, so I add that in Komi it will be "ув-ув" [uv-uv].


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## LMorland

Awwal12 said:


> I doubt that any specialists in the Komi language will appear on this forum, so I add that in Komi it will be "ув-ув" [uv-uv].


That's very interesting.  It's probably said above, but could you remind us how dogs bark in Russian?

And where is the Komi language spoken, please?


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## Awwal12

LMorland said:


> That's very interesting. It's probably said above, but could you remind us how dogs bark in Russian?


Yes, it was said above by Elephas and Salution.  That is "гав-гав" /gav-gav/ [gaf-gaf].
By the way, the onomatopoeic variant "ав-ав" /av-av/ [af-af] is also possible, but it is very rare.


> And where is the Komi language spoken, please?


It may sound strange, but Komi language is usually spoken by Komi. 
Komi live in the Russian Federation, mostly in the Komi Republic and in Komi-Permyak Okrug of the Perm Krai. ~400.000 people. The language belongs to the Finno-Ugric group.


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## Awwal12

Saluton said:


> I'm afraid тяфкать and тяф-тяф are wrong, only *тявкать* and *тяв-тяв*. There are NO words of Russian origin that contain the letter *ф* (*f*).
> Another common onomatopoeia is *ав-ав* (av-av), although there is no verb авкать.


Well, we speak about the modern Russian language, don't we?  And the *sound* "f" itself is quite natural in Russian anyway, being an unvoiced allophone of "v" phoneme.


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