Re: onomatopoetic animal sounds

On Fri, 13 Apr 2001, J Matthew Pearson wrote:

> daniel andreasson wrote:
>
> > Obvious ObConlang: Is there a connection between the names
> > of the animals and the sounds they make in your respective
> > conlangs? :)
>
> In Tokana, owls are "houn", frogs are "mots", and wild boar are
> "sonki".  The first word is clearly onomatopoetic in origin, and I
> suspect the other two are as well.
>
> Tokana used to have an onomatopoetic word for cat, namely "miua"
> [miwa], but then I banished cats, and so the word no longer exists.
> [When I decided that the Tokana lived in North America in an
> alternate universe where there had been no colonization from the Old
> World, I restricted their inventory of domestic animals to those
> which an advanced society in the Americas with little or no contact
> with Eurasia might be expected to have, namely dogs (brought over on
> the Bering land bridge or domesticated from native wolves), llamas
> (imported from South America), turkeyfowl, and ducks/geese.  No
> cats, chickens, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, or goats.]
>
Wouldn't horses have come over the landbridge too?

-------ferko
Ferenc Gy. Valoczy

Suurt chugunikka peene ahjo suhe et toukka.

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