Onomatopoeaia in other languages?

[cattiechaos]

For example, in English we would say "Ouch!" or "Ow!" and in Japanese it'd be "Itai" (literally, "pain".) I was wondering how other languages express sounds like crash/bang, "argh" vs "ahh!", "Uh..." vs "Um" or "Er". (I find it humorous that some Americans will use "thingamabob" or "thingamajig" when they are casting about for a word they do not

Comments

[crumplelush]

Um and er in Japanese is ano and eto. Cats say nyan, dogs say wan.

[bmh4d0k3n]

Hence Nyan Cat. Lol.

[cattiechaos]

It all makes sense now xD

[flamingspinach]

Actually that song was originally called Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! and the lyrics consist of "nya" repeated, not "nyan", which is clear from viewing the original video. The Nyan Cat video was created six months later by some (non-Japanese) youtube user.

[bmh4d0k3n]

Cracked.com has an article on onomatopoeia around the world: 6 Noises Foreign Languages Suck At.

[shorofsky]

That's what horses say in Danish. I had the hardest time getting my head to understand that horses in other languages don't say the same thing even though they sound the same. It's a funny thing.

[k0dama]

.. cats traditionally go "ya-ong"
oO Has Korean changed that much?

[cattiechaos]

Oh no, I've heard it as both "nyeow", "nyah", and "ya-ong" (hence the word "ya-ong-ee" for kitten - sorry if the transliteration is off!)

[k0dama]

but it is standardized as "ya-ong".

[cattiechaos]

I apologize for the mistake ^^

[mack_the_spoon]

One of my favorites that I learned in French class is that ducks say "coin". (It makes perfect sense when you read it in French, and sounds silly when you try to read the English word instead.)

[eyeballmassage]

it's seriously the BEST approximation with a montreal joual accent

[khe12]

Well, in Russian an equivalent for "Ouch" will be Ой ([oi], something like this, but [i] is very short here), Ай [ai] or Ох [oh]. The same sounds may be used for other emotions, it depends on the circumstances.
As for animals, cats say "мяу" [mjau], dogs - гав [gaf], frogs - ква-ква [kwa-kwa].
If you need some other sounds, just write them in English, I'll try to translate.
And sorry, I can't watch the video.

[cattiechaos]

Thank you!

And no problem, someone else was able to translate for me :)