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travelingirl68 · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 10:49 pm Post subject:

Why thank you Stephen! That is what I get for having read Newsweek magazine. Rolling Eyes

I would choose 'nutaryuk' from the list provided.

carnac · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:52 pm Post subject:

Travelingirl - "bloodle" is WONDERFUL! I love it!
By the way, look up "Sapir - Whorf Hypothesis" and continue with search for "snow". Sapir is blamed for the error about Inuit snow words, but it really wasn't his doing. See also Steven Pinker, "The Language Instinct".
What is the sound of a tissue being pulled from a box?

travelingirl68 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:58 pm Post subject:

Tissue out of a box: Fwip

The Goblin Queen · Joined: 31 Jan 2005 Posts: 23 Location: Vancouver, BC

Maybe this is why spoken/written language will one day be transcended, since there is already so much that we communicate and have the ability to communicate without sound/written word/etc.. And there is so much that we experience that cannot be expressed in most any of these mediums that we have been shown. And a lot of that is universal. Maybe that is something that also connects us all? Who knows.
Just a thought.

^_^

-Meghan

travelingirl68 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:12 pm Post subject:

Interesting point Goblin, but it makes me think of the variety of ways languages/cultures express the sounds of animals... Now that I want to post an example, I am drawing a blank - but I know there are some interesting variations on their sounds... Anyone want to post their current location's animal noises? (Please keep this thread out of the gutter! Wink

)

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

travelingirl68 · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 12:26 am Post subject:

Every post I have seen from you Stephen Jones (I feel that I should call you 'Mr. Jones' for some reason) has been linguistically enlightening. May I ask your background - academic and professional - and your areas of specialty? I could probably cull the information by trying to find every one of your posts, but I am feeling lazy and direct tonight.

The Goblin Queen · Joined: 31 Jan 2005 Posts: 23 Location: Vancouver, BC

Animal noises? Like how we have the word "ribbit" and in Japanese, as far as I know, it's "kero". Ya know, like in the name of that Sanrio character Kerokerokeroppi?
That's so awesome. Japanese sound effect noises rule.

travelingirl68 · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 12:48 pm Post subject:

yes, exactly Goblin, and still I can't remember all the sounds I learned in Russian and French for these things...

fluffyhamster · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:07 am Post subject:

What I'd like to know is, do Inuit speakers refer to snow on their coat as 'dandruff' - as in, 'Oh no, look, my dandruff's getting worse!' (This of course assumes that they have dandruff in the first place).

go_ABs · Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 507

I would've said the noise for clearing your nose is "hoick". Go on, try saying it: give it a good phlegmy 'h' sound.

Mr Jones and Travelingirl: Bill Bryson's book Mother Tongue claims the Eskimos have fifty words for snow - "but, curiously, no word for just plain snow. To them there is crunchy snow, soft snow, and old snow, but no word that just means snow".

Animal noises: my Chinese colleagues look at me and my gf weird when we were talking about this. Like "woof woof" for a dog is "wahwahwah" (maybe this is something to do with the size of a typical Chinese dog..!), a pig is "oink oink" to us, and something like "schwa schwa" to them. A horse goes "neigh" to me, and some kind of snorting noise that must be accompanied by a bucking motion to these Chinese. It made our Chinese lesson that day rather interesting. But I guess you had to be there...

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

travelingirl68 · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 12:01 pm Post subject:

If I liked cold weather better, I would offer to trek on up to Inuit land and ask them myself! Smile

sheepgirl · Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Quebec Canada

I learned in a class last week there is a name for the noise a male llama makes while mating - "orgling".
a word for which there is a name, where you wouldn't expect there to be one! Apparently llamas are very weird animals.