Librarians on rainy days often find esoteric questions being asked of them. This current reference search all started with someone stating that German dogs say “Bella Bella”. But it turned out that the German word for barking is “bellen.” As the verb gets conjugated, a dog (hund) bellt, or barks. Hmmm, what did Lassie say? And Rin-Tin-Tin? And a tough question, what does Scooby Doo say?
Back to the subject, here are the conventional representations for dogs’ barks from all over the world. My favorite is the Malay, “gong, gong” ("menggonggong" means barking).
From Wikipedia:
Woof is the conventional representation in the English language of the barking of a dog. As with other examples of onomatopoeia or imitative sounds, other cultures "hear" the dog's barks differently and represent them in their own ways. Some of the equivalents of "woof" in other European and Asian languages are as follows:
English - woof, woof; ruff, ruff; arf, arf (large dogs and also the sound of sea lions); yap, yap; yip, yip (small dogs), bow wow
Afrikaans - blaf, blaf; woef, woef; keff, keff (small dogs)
Albanian - ham, ham
Arabic - hau, hau; how how (هو, هو)
Armenian -haf, haf
Basque - au, au; txau, txau (small dogs); zaunk, zaunk (large dogs); jau, jau (old dogs)
Balinese - kong, kong
Belgium- woef, woef; blaf, blaf; waf, waf (large dogs) Keff, keff; Wuff, Wuff (small dogs)
Bengali - gheu, gheu; bhao, bhao
Bulgarian - bau-bau (бау-бау); jaff, jaff (джаф-джаф)
Burmese - woke, woke
Catalan - bau, bau; bub, bub
Chinese, Cantonese - wong, wong (汪汪)
Chinese, Mandarin - wang, wang (汪汪)
Croatian - vau, vau
Czech - haf, haf; štěk (the bark itself)
Danish - vov, vuf
Dutch - blaf, blaf; kef, kef; waf, waf; woef, woef
Esperanto - boj, boj
Estonian - auh, auh
Finnish - hau, hau; vuh, vuh; rauf, rauf
French - waouh, waouh; ouah, ouah; ouaf, ouaf; vaf, vaf; wouf, wouf; wouaf, wouaf; jappe jappe
German - wuff, wuff; wau, wau;
Greek - ghav, ghav (γαβ, γαβ)
Hebrew - hav, hav; hau, hau
Hindi - bow, bow
Hungarian - vau, vau
Icelandic - voff, voff
Indonesian - guk, guk
Irish - amh, amh
Italian - bau, bau
Japanese - wan-wan (ワンワン); kyan-kyan (キャンキャン)[5]
Korean - meong, meong (멍멍, pronounced [mʌŋmʌŋ])
kurdi - hau hau (حەو حەو)
Latvian - vau, vau
Lithuanian - au, au
Macedonian - av, av
Malay - gong, gong ("menggonggong" means barking)
Marathi - bhu, bhu; bho, bho
Norwegian - voff, voff or boff
Persian - vogh, vogh
Polish - hau, hau
Portuguese - au, au; ão-ão (nasal diphthong); béu-béu (toddler language); cain-cain (whining)
Romanian - ham, ham; hau, hau
Russian - gav, gav (гав-гав); tyav, tyav (тяв-тяв, small dogs)
Serbian - av, av
Sinhala - බුඃ බුඃ buh, buh
Slovak - haf, haf; hau, hau
Slovene - hov, hov
Spanish - guau-guau; gua, gua; jau, jau
Swedish - voff, voff; vov, vov; bjäbb, bjäbb
Tagalog - aw, aw; baw, baw
Tamil - வள் வள் - wal wal;லொள் லொள் - lol lol ;வௌ வௌ - wow wow
Thai - โฮ่ง โฮ่ง (pronounced [hôŋhôŋ]); บ๊อก บ๊อก (pronounced [bɔ́kbɔ́k])
Turkish - hev hev; hav, hav
Ukrainian - гав, гав (hau, hau); дзяв, дзяв (dzyau, dzyau)
Urdu - bow bow
Vietnamese - gâu gâu; ẳng ẳng
Welsh - wff, wff
Photo by Tkorting (Template:My camera) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Post by PCH and MGB/ Main Library
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