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But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids, Why do pigs oink? (1)

Why do pigs oink? (1)

Jane 00:21

This is But Why: A Podast for Curious Kids, from Vermont Public Radio. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions from kids just like you and we find answers. Sometimes you send us questions that seem really simple at first. But when we start peeling them apart, we find so many different layers. Here's an example:

Jacob 00:42

My name is Jacob, and I'm four years old, and I live in Quebec, Canada. My question is, why do pigs do this [pig sound]? Bye bye!

Jane 00:55

Why do pigs make that noise? There are several ways we can tackle that question. One would be to try to figure out what a pig means when it says [pig noise]. Another would be to examine why we translate that pig sound as oink oink when we write or talk about it. Jacob actually made the sound, as you heard. But often, when we talk about what pigs say, we just say "oink, oink." You probably learned that when you were really really young. Like, as soon as we start to talk, our parents love to ask us what animals say, don't they? Dogs say ruff, cats say meow, cows say moo. But I bet your parents didn't teach you what a camel says--at least not if you live in the United States--or a fox. So why do we give words to the sounds of certain animals and not others? And why do we have different words for the same animal noise depending on what language we're speaking? Today, we're going to take Jacob's question and examine it from both of those angles.

Jane 01:59

And on that question of what we say animals say, we actually asked for your help. Lots of you sent us recordings of what animals say in all kinds of languages other than English, and we're going to hear what you told us throughout today's episode. Let's start with cats. In English, we often say that a cat says meow. Here's what you told us cats say in the other languages you speak.

Various Kids 02:24

CAT SOUNDS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Jane 02:27

was Yanne, Maisyn and Theodore. How about dogs?

Various Kids 02:31

DOG SOUNDS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Jane 02:50

Those dog sounds came from these kids:

Various Kids 02:52

My name is Mae and I am five years old. My name is Daniel. My name is Shira. My name is Meera. Hannah. My name is Reva. My name is Riya. Sofia. And my name is Devin. Rehan Hi, my name is Brian. Asher. Everett. I'm Marcus and I am three. Clea. Adhi. And my name is Citlali and I'm nine years old.

Jane 03:17

And check out all the languages they were speaking: Dutch, Farsi, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Marathi, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Spanish and Telugu.

Jane 03:32

Okay, let's do another. What about frog? In English we might say a frog says croak or ribbit. But here are some other options:

Various Kids 03:42

[Kids explain how to make frog noises in other languages.]

Jane 04:20

Those frog noises came from:

Various Kids 04:22

My name is Ellie. Hello, my name's Gael. Felippe. My name is Emma. My name is Iris. This is my five year old sister Tanan. Say hi, Tanan. Hi!

Jane 04:34

All right, we got to do one more, one more animal.

Kavan 04:36

My name is Kavan. And in Gujarati goat says bey bey.

Jane 04:43

And in English we would say a goat says "mehhh." Why do we have all those different ways of explaining animal noises? It actually says more about our languages and cultures than about the animals. After all, they don't speak our languages. We wanted to know a little bit more. So we reached out to someone who actually studies this kind of thing.

Arika Okrent 05:04

My name is Arika Okrent and I'm a linguist and I write about various subjects in language in a way that I hope more people can understand.

Jane 05:05

Erica, what is a linguist?

Arika Okrent 05:18

A linguist studies language by looking at what people actually do, not what people should be doing or how they should be talking, what's correct or incorrect. They look at people in the world using language and try to determine what they do and what that says about how humans work and how our minds work.

Jane 05:41

So you're not like a Spanish teacher, or Hindu teacher. You're not going to teach me a language. And you're not a speech therapist who's helping me make sure I can say my words correctly. You're somebody who studies language and how we use it and why we use it the way we do, kind of.

Jane 06:01

Yes, sort of in the way that a geologist looks at rock formations and says, you know, here's what they look like. And here's what that means about history. And here's what that means about chemistry, just by looking at the thing in the world. So linguists are looking at language in the world and how people use it.

Jane 06:22

I asked Arika why we give different words to animal sounds in the first place. After all, a dog doesn't really go ruff ruff, or guau guau; it goes [dog sounds]. And a pig doesn't go oink oink. It makes us sound like [pig sound]. So why don't we just make those sounds? Why do we instead give them words like ruff ruff or oink oink?

06:46

We are giving a name for the sound, which is...it's a difficult concept because we understand that we have words for things out there in the world. So you see something and you it has a word that's a house, or that's a picture or that's a bag, whatever it is. We realise that the word itself doesn't look like the thing we're talking about. But when it comes to sounds, when we name a sound, we have the expectation that it should sound like the sound. And in some ways that does--we have a word "beep". And that kind of sounds like a beep. But it's not exactly the same. It's not [horn sound] or whatever an actual beep sounds like because we've given it a name. And when we do that, when we give a sound a name, we're restricted to what our language can do, and what it is allowed to do. And there's a million sounds that the human voice can make. But languages only use a subset of those. And different languages use different subsets of those. So English has these sounds, and French has those sounds and different languages take advantage of different human sounds. And that's what we have to use when we give a name to a sound. So they're going to be different in different languages.

Jane 08:17

So like in English, you might say a bird says tweet tweet. And in Spanish, you might say it says pio pio. And you can hear, even in the way I'm using my voice and raising it up high, I'm kind of making the sound of a bird but it's different from those two languages. In a case like that, is it mostly just that's what people kind of chose and copied each other? Or is that about what our languages tell us we can do as well?

08:46

Well, when you're saying it in a more colourful manner and you can say, tweet, tweet or cheep cheep and you can sound like the bird. But I can also say, "Oh, that bird was tweeting all morning." In which case, it doesn't sound at all like the actual sound. It's now just the label for that thing that birds do.

Jane 09:07

Speaking of birds, let's hear how you talk about birds in your languages.

Various Kids 09:13

KIDS EXPLAIN HOW TO MAKE BIRD SOUNDS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Jane 09:35

It's kind of interesting that crows get a specific noise. When for lots of other birds, we lump their sounds together and just say they're tweeting. I asked Arika, if we weren't writing things down, would we need to have words for these sounds? Like if we were just speaking, I could say "The pig went [pig noise]. But I don't know how to write [pig noise].

09:57

Yeah, we would still have those words. Languages that aren't written have names for sounds too. Because when I'm in a conversation with you, it takes a lot to sort of stop and go [pig noises]. Like that's not in the normal stream of speech and it takes a little extra effort. And we want to be able to speak in the language we're using and stay in that zone while we're talking. So we, it's good to have words that let us do that from within the limitations of the language.

Jane 10:28

Do you think there is a named sound for every animal, even animals that don't really make sounds?

10:36

No. If the animal doesn't really have cultural importance, then we don't really need a sound for the sound that it makes. So in Turkish, they don't have a pig sound. Because in the culture, the pig is not in, it's not in farms, and these sort of settings that children's books will be about or children's songs will be about, because it's just not an element of the culture. And we don't have sounds for what sound does a sloth make, or I don't know, I don't know if they even make sounds. But it's not something that's in the culture as going down to the farm and hear what all the animals say, or going into the woods and hearing what the animals say. It has to have some place in the culture to be important enough to have a word to talk about that sound.

Jane 11:35

So in fact, when we talk about animal noises, and we know that word, that we know oink means a pig. And if you speak English, you probably know oink is in reference to a pig, that, in some ways, says a lot more about our culture than anything else. It's what we think is important to name that gets a name for the sound that it makes.

11:58

Yes. And it's something that's either in the stories that we tell, or in the things that we talk about with each other. It's it's gotta have a reason to be given a word. And that's true, not just for animal sounds, but for everything. We have the words we have because they're a shorthand way of referring to the thing we want to talk about. And different languages have different words that that don't always match, that don't always directly translate from one to the other because it's not something you need this abbreviated way of referring to, and that's what a word is.

Jane 12:38

While we had Arika, we asked for her favorite animal noise in another language.

12:43

Well, I like the word and the thing that a horse does in Danish is vrinsk. It's I can't even say it. It's V-R-I- N-S-K, vrinsk. And that's very different from a neigh, or what I would think a horse would say. But I can, I can see, okay, a horse, yeah, that can match my idea of what an actual horse says. And it just shows that there's a lot of flexibility in how we can represent what an animal does, and it can use these strange combinations of sounds that English doesn't use.

Jane 13:19

Cool. Speaking of horses, here are a few other names for [horse sound].

Various Kids 13:32

[KIDS DESCRIBE HORSE NOISES IN OTHER LANGUAGES]

Jane 13:38

Coming up, we'll tackle the other way of answering that original question. We'll learn a little bit more about what animals might be saying when they make their various noises. Stay with us.

Jane 13:48

This is But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids. I'm Jane Lindholm. We're learning about the noises that animals make today. We just learned a little bit about why we use different words and sounds to describe what animals say, depending on what language we humans are speaking. Let's hear a few more examples of what you've told us about how you express animal sounds in the languages you speak. Now, in English when we think about hens, female chickens, we often say cluck, cluck. But in other languages hens sy:


Why do pigs oink? (1) لماذا تنبت الخنازير؟ (1) Proč se prasata mastí? (1) Warum grunzen Schweine? (1) Why do pigs oink? (1) ¿Por qué los cerdos gruñen? (1) Pourquoi les cochons grognent-ils ? (1) 豚はなぜ鳴くの? (1) 돼지는 왜 윙윙거릴까요? (1) Dlaczego świnie ryczą? (1) Porque é que os porcos fazem barulho? (1) Почему хрюкают свиньи? (1) Domuzlar neden ağlar? (1) 猪为什么会发臭? (1) 猪为什么会发出叫声? (1) 豬為什麼會發出叫聲? (1)

**Jane** 00:21

This is But Why: A Podast for Curious Kids, from Vermont Public Radio. C'est mais pourquoi: un podcast pour les enfants curieux, de la radio publique du Vermont. Isto é Mas Porquê: Um podcast para miúdos curiosos, da Rádio Pública de Vermont. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions from kids just like you and we find answers. Dans cette émission, nous répondons aux questions d'enfants comme vous et nous trouvons des réponses. Neste programa, respondemos a perguntas de crianças como tu e encontramos respostas. В этом шоу мы отвечаем на вопросы таких же детей, как и вы, и находим ответы. 在这个节目中,我们会回答像您一样的孩子的问题并找到答案。 Sometimes you send us questions that seem really simple at first. Parfois, vous nous envoyez des questions qui semblent très simples au premier abord. Por vezes, enviam-nos perguntas que, à primeira vista, parecem muito simples. But when we start peeling them apart, we find so many different layers. Aber wenn wir anfangen, sie auseinander zu schälen, finden wir so viele verschiedene Schichten. But when we start peeling them apart, we find so many different layers. Mas quando começamos a descascá-los, encontramos muitas camadas diferentes. Here's an example:

**Jacob** 00:42

My name is Jacob, and I'm four years old, and I live in Quebec, Canada. My question is, why do pigs do this [pig sound]? Bye bye!

**Jane** 00:55

Why do pigs make that noise? There are several ways we can tackle that question. There are several ways we can tackle that question. Há várias formas de abordar esta questão. One would be to try to figure out what a pig means when it says [pig noise]. Eine wäre, herauszufinden, was ein Schwein bedeutet, wenn es [Schweinelärm] sagt. Another would be to examine why we translate that pig sound as oink oink when we write or talk about it. Eine andere wäre zu untersuchen, warum wir diesen Schweinelaut als oink oink übersetzen, wenn wir darüber schreiben oder sprechen. Another would be to examine why we translate that pig sound as oink oink when we write or talk about it. Jacob actually made the sound, as you heard. 正如你所听到的,雅各布实际上发出了声音。 But often, when we talk about what pigs say, we just say "oink, oink." You probably learned that when you were really really young. Das hast du wahrscheinlich gelernt, als du noch sehr, sehr jung warst. 你可能在很小的时候就知道了这一点。 Like, as soon as we start to talk, our parents love to ask us what animals say, don't they? Zum Beispiel, sobald wir anfangen zu reden, fragen uns unsere Eltern gerne, was Tiere sagen, nicht wahr? 就像,一旦我们开始说话,我们的父母就喜欢问我们动物会说什么,不是吗? Dogs say ruff, cats say meow, cows say moo. But I bet your parents didn't teach you what a camel says--at least not if you live in the United States--or a fox. 但我敢打赌,你的父母没有教过你骆驼的语言(至少如果你生活在美国的话)或狐狸的语言。 So why do we give words to the sounds of certain animals and not others? Warum geben wir also den Geräuschen bestimmter Tiere Worte und anderen nicht? Почему же мы наделяем словами звуки одних животных, а не других? 那么为什么我们要对某些动物的声音而不是其他动物的声音进行描述呢? And why do we have different words for the same animal noise depending on what language we're speaking? 为什么我们对同一种动物噪音有不同的词,这取决于我们所说的语言? Today, we're going to take Jacob's question and examine it from both of those angles. Heute werden wir Jacobs Frage nehmen und sie aus beiden Blickwinkeln untersuchen. 今天,我们将从这两个角度来回答雅各布的问题。

**Jane** 01:59

And on that question of what we say animals say, we actually asked for your help. И в этом вопросе о том, что мы говорим животным, мы, собственно, и попросили вас помочь. 关于我们所说的动物所说的问题,我们实际上请求您的帮助。 Lots of you sent us recordings of what animals say in all kinds of languages other than English, and we're going to hear what you told us throughout today's episode. Многие из вас прислали нам записи того, как говорят животные на разных языках, кроме английского, и мы услышим, что вы рассказали нам в сегодняшнем выпуске. 你们中的很多人给我们发送了动物用除英语以外的各种语言所说的话的录音,我们将在今天的节目中听到你们告诉我们的内容。 Let's start with cats. In English, we often say that a cat says meow. Here's what you told us cats say in the other languages you speak. これがあなたが話す他の言語で猫が言うことを私たちに言ったことです。

**Various Kids** 02:24

CAT SOUNDS IN OTHER LANGUAGES 其他语言的猫叫声

**Jane** 02:27

was Yanne, Maisyn and Theodore. war Yanne, Maisyn und Theodore. How about dogs?

**Various Kids** 02:31

DOG SOUNDS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

**Jane** 02:50

Those dog sounds came from these kids: Esos sonidos de perros vinieron de estos niños:

**Various Kids** 02:52

My name is Mae and I am five years old. My name is Daniel. My name is Shira. My name is Meera. Hannah. My name is Reva. My name is Riya. Sofia. And my name is Devin. Rehan Hi, my name is Brian. Asher. Everett. I'm Marcus and I am three. Clea. Adhi. And my name is Citlali and I'm nine years old.

**Jane** 03:17

And check out all the languages they were speaking: Dutch, Farsi, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Marathi, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Spanish and Telugu. Y mira todos los idiomas que hablaban: holandés, farsi, hebreo, hindi, indonesio, marathi, punjabi, turco, urdu, vietnamita, mandarín, español y telugu. 并查看他们说的所有语言:荷兰语、波斯语、希伯来语、印地语、印度尼西亚语、马拉地语、旁遮普语、土耳其语、乌尔都语、越南语、普通话、西班牙语和泰卢固语。

**Jane** 03:32

Okay, let's do another. Bon, faisons un autre. What about frog? ¿Qué pasa con la rana? In English we might say a frog says croak or ribbit. En inglés podríamos decir que una rana dice croak o ribbit. But here are some other options: Pero aquí hay algunas otras opciones: Mais voici d'autres options :

**Various Kids** 03:42

[Kids explain how to make frog noises in other languages.]

**Jane** 04:20

Those frog noises came from: Ces bruits de grenouille provenaient de :

**Various Kids** 04:22

My name is Ellie. Hello, my name's Gael. Felippe. My name is Emma. My name is Iris. This is my five year old sister Tanan. Say hi, Tanan. Hi!

**Jane** 04:34

All right, we got to do one more, one more animal.

**Kavan** 04:36

My name is Kavan. And in Gujarati goat says bey bey.

**Jane** 04:43

And in English we would say a goat says "mehhh." Why do we have all those different ways of explaining animal noises? ¿Por qué tenemos todas esas formas diferentes de explicar los ruidos de los animales? It actually says more about our languages and cultures than about the animals. En realidad, dice más sobre nuestros idiomas y culturas que sobre los animales. Na verdade, diz mais sobre as nossas línguas e culturas do que sobre os animais. After all, they don't speak our languages. Después de todo, no hablan nuestros idiomas. We wanted to know a little bit more. Queríamos saber un poco más. So we reached out to someone who actually studies this kind of thing. Entonces contactamos a alguien que realmente estudia este tipo de cosas.

**Arika Okrent** 05:04

My name is Arika Okrent and I'm a linguist and I write about various subjects in language in a way that I hope more people can understand. Mi nombre es Arika Okrent, soy lingüista y escribo sobre varios temas en lenguaje de una manera que espero que más personas puedan entender.

**Jane** 05:05

Erica, what is a linguist?

**Arika Okrent** 05:18

A linguist studies language by looking at what people actually do, not what people should be doing or how they should be talking, what's correct or incorrect. Un lingüista estudia el lenguaje observando lo que la gente realmente hace, no lo que la gente debería hacer o cómo debería hablar, lo que es correcto o incorrecto. They look at people in the world using language and try to determine what they do and what that says about how humans work and how our minds work. Miran a las personas en el mundo usando el lenguaje y tratan de determinar qué hacen y qué dice eso sobre cómo funcionan los humanos y cómo funcionan nuestras mentes.

**Jane** 05:41

So you're not like a Spanish teacher, or Hindu teacher. Así que no eres como un profesor de español, o un profesor hindú. You're not going to teach me a language. No me vas a enseñar un idioma. And you're not a speech therapist who's helping me make sure I can say my words correctly. Y no eres un terapeuta del habla que me está ayudando a asegurarme de que puedo decir mis palabras correctamente. You're somebody who studies language and how we use it and why we use it the way we do, kind of. Eres alguien que estudia el lenguaje y cómo lo usamos y por qué lo usamos de la manera que lo hacemos, más o menos. Вы - человек, который изучает язык, то, как мы его используем и почему мы используем его так, как мы это делаем.

**Jane** 06:01

Yes, sort of in the way that a geologist looks at rock formations and says, you know, here's what they look like. Ja, ungefähr so, wie ein Geologe Felsformationen betrachtet und sagt, wissen Sie, so sehen sie aus. Sí, algo así como un geólogo mira las formaciones rocosas y dice, ya sabes, así es como se ven. Sim, da mesma forma que um geólogo olha para as formações rochosas e diz, sabe, é assim que elas são. And here's what that means about history. Y esto es lo que eso significa sobre la historia. And here's what that means about chemistry, just by looking at the thing in the world. Y esto es lo que eso significa sobre la química, con solo mirar la cosa en el mundo. So linguists are looking at language in the world and how people use it. Entonces, los lingüistas están analizando el lenguaje en el mundo y cómo lo usa la gente.

**Jane** 06:22

I asked Arika why we give different words to animal sounds in the first place. Le pregunté a Arika por qué le damos diferentes palabras a los sonidos de los animales en primer lugar. After all, a dog doesn't really go ruff ruff, or guau guau; it goes [dog sounds]. Schließlich macht ein Hund nicht wirklich "ruff ruff" oder "guau guau"; er macht [Hundegeräusche]. Después de todo, un perro no se pone realmente ruff ruff o guau guau; va [sonidos de perro]. And a pig doesn't go oink oink. Und ein Schwein macht nicht "oink oink". Y un cerdo no hace oink oink. It makes us sound like [pig sound]. So why don't we just make those sounds? Entonces, ¿por qué no hacemos esos sonidos? Why do we instead give them words like ruff ruff or oink oink? ¿Por qué, en cambio, les damos palabras como ruff ruff o oink oink? Porque é que, em vez disso, lhes damos palavras como "ruff ruff" ou "oink oink"?

06:46

We are giving a name for the sound, which is...it's a difficult concept because we understand that we have words for things out there in the world. Le estamos dando un nombre al sonido, que es... es un concepto difícil porque entendemos que tenemos palabras para las cosas que hay en el mundo. So you see something and you it has a word that's a house, or that's a picture or that's a bag, whatever it is. Así que ves algo y tienes una palabra que es una casa, una imagen o una bolsa, lo que sea. We realise that the word itself doesn't look like the thing we're talking about. Nos damos cuenta de que la palabra en sí no se parece a lo que estamos hablando. But when it comes to sounds, when we name a sound, we have the expectation that it should sound like the sound. Pero cuando se trata de sonidos, cuando nombramos un sonido, tenemos la expectativa de que debería sonar como el sonido. And in some ways that does--we have a word "beep". Y de alguna manera eso lo hace, tenemos una palabra "bip". And that kind of sounds like a beep. Y eso suena como un pitido. E isso soa como um sinal sonoro. But it's not exactly the same. Pero no es exactamente lo mismo. It's not [horn sound] or whatever an actual beep sounds like because we've given it a name. And when we do that, when we give a sound a name, we're restricted to what our language can do, and what it is allowed to do. And there's a million sounds that the human voice can make. But languages only use a subset of those. Aber Sprachen verwenden nur eine Teilmenge davon. Mas as línguas apenas utilizam um subconjunto destas. And different languages use different subsets of those. So English has these sounds, and French has those sounds and different languages take advantage of different human sounds. And that's what we have to use when we give a name to a sound. E é isso que temos de usar quando damos um nome a um som. So they're going to be different in different languages. Sie werden also in den verschiedenen Sprachen unterschiedlich sein.

**Jane** 08:17

So like in English, you might say a bird says tweet tweet. Assim, como em inglês, podemos dizer que um pássaro diz tweet tweet. And in Spanish, you might say it says pio pio. E em espanhol, pode dizer-se que diz pio pio. And you can hear, even in the way I'm using my voice and raising it up high, I'm kind of making the sound of a bird but it's different from those two languages. E podem ouvir, mesmo na forma como estou a usar a minha voz e a elevá-la bem alto, estou a fazer o som de um pássaro, mas é diferente dessas duas línguas. In a case like that, is it mostly just that's what people kind of chose and copied each other? Ist es in einem solchen Fall meistens nur das, was die Leute so gewählt und sich gegenseitig kopiert haben? Num caso como este, é sobretudo isso que as pessoas escolhem e copiam umas às outras? Or is that about what our languages tell us we can do as well? Oder sagen uns unsere Sprachen, dass wir das auch können? Ou será que é isso que as nossas línguas nos dizem que também podemos fazer?

08:46

Well, when you're saying it in a more colourful manner and you can say, tweet, tweet or cheep cheep and you can sound like the bird. Bem, quando o dizemos de uma forma mais colorida e podemos dizer, tweet, tweet ou cheep cheep e podemos soar como o pássaro. But I can also say, "Oh, that bird was tweeting all morning." Mas também posso dizer: "Oh, aquele pássaro esteve a piar toda a manhã". In which case, it doesn't sound at all like the actual sound. It's now just the label for that thing that birds do. Es ist jetzt nur noch die Bezeichnung für das, was Vögel tun. Agora é apenas o rótulo para aquela coisa que os pássaros fazem.

**Jane** 09:07

Speaking of birds, let's hear how you talk about birds in your languages. Apropos Vögel: Wie sprechen Sie in Ihren Sprachen über Vögel?

**Various Kids** 09:13

KIDS EXPLAIN HOW TO MAKE BIRD SOUNDS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

**Jane** 09:35

It's kind of interesting that crows get a specific noise. É interessante que os corvos tenham um ruído específico. When for lots of other birds, we lump their sounds together and just say they're tweeting. Quando se trata de muitas outras aves, juntamos os seus sons e dizemos apenas que estão a piar. I asked Arika, if we weren't writing things down, would we need to have words for these sounds? Ich fragte Arika, wenn wir die Dinge nicht aufschreiben würden, müssten wir dann Worte für diese Laute haben? Perguntei à Arika se, se não estivéssemos a escrever as coisas, precisaríamos de ter palavras para estes sons. Я спросила Арику, если бы мы не записывали, нужны ли были бы слова для этих звуков? Like if we were just speaking, I could say "The pig went [pig noise]. Als würden wir nur sprechen, könnte ich sagen: „Das Schwein ist gegangen [Schweingeräusch]. But I don't know how to write [pig noise].

09:57

Yeah, we would still have those words. Ja, wir würden immer noch diese Worte haben. Sim, ainda teríamos essas palavras. Languages that aren't written have names for sounds too. Because when I'm in a conversation with you, it takes a lot to sort of stop and go [pig noises]. Porque, quando estou a conversar contigo, é preciso muito para parar e andar [ruídos de porco]. Like that's not in the normal stream of speech and it takes a little extra effort. So ist das nicht im normalen Redefluss und es erfordert ein wenig zusätzlichen Aufwand. Como se isso não estivesse no fluxo normal do discurso e exigisse um pouco mais de esforço. And we want to be able to speak in the language we're using and stay in that zone while we're talking. E queremos ser capazes de falar na língua que estamos a utilizar e permanecer nessa zona enquanto falamos. So we, it's good to have words that let us do that from within the limitations of the language. Por isso, é bom ter palavras que nos permitam fazer isso dentro das limitações da língua.

**Jane** 10:28

Do you think there is a named sound for every animal, even animals that don't really make sounds? Glauben Sie, dass es für jedes Tier einen benannten Laut gibt, sogar für Tiere, die eigentlich keine Laute von sich geben? Achas que existe um som para cada animal, mesmo para os animais que não emitem sons?

10:36

No. If the animal doesn't really have cultural importance, then we don't really need a sound for the sound that it makes. So in Turkish, they don't have a pig sound. Auf Türkisch haben sie also keinen Schweinelaut. Because in the culture, the pig is not in, it's not in farms, and these sort of settings that children's books will be about or children's songs will be about, because it's just not an element of the culture. Denn in der Kultur ist das Schwein nicht drin, es ist nicht auf Bauernhöfen, und diese Art von Umgebungen, um die es in Kinderbüchern oder Kinderliedern geht, weil es einfach kein Element der Kultur ist. Porque na cultura, o porco não está, não está nas quintas, e este tipo de cenários que os livros infantis abordam ou as canções infantis abordam, porque simplesmente não é um elemento da cultura. And we don't have sounds for what sound does a sloth make, or I don't know, I don't know if they even make sounds. Und wir haben keine Geräusche dafür, welche Geräusche ein Faultier macht, oder ich weiß nicht, ich weiß nicht, ob sie überhaupt Geräusche machen. E não temos sons para saber que som é que uma preguiça faz, ou não sei, não sei se fazem sequer sons. But it's not something that's in the culture as going down to the farm and hear what all the animals say, or going into the woods and hearing what the animals say. Mas não é algo que esteja na cultura como ir à quinta e ouvir o que todos os animais dizem, ou ir ao bosque e ouvir o que os animais dizem. It has to have some place in the culture to be important enough to have a word to talk about that sound. Es muss einen Platz in der Kultur haben, um wichtig genug zu sein, um ein Wort zu haben, um über diesen Klang zu sprechen.

**Jane** 11:35

So in fact, when we talk about animal noises, and we know that word, that we know oink means a pig. Wenn wir also über Tiergeräusche sprechen und wir dieses Wort kennen, wissen wir, dass oink ein Schwein bedeutet. Assim, de facto, quando falamos de ruídos de animais, e conhecemos essa palavra, sabemos que oink significa um porco. And if you speak English, you probably know oink is in reference to a pig, that, in some ways, says a lot more about our culture than anything else. E se fala inglês, provavelmente sabe que oink se refere a um porco, o que, de certa forma, diz muito mais sobre a nossa cultura do que qualquer outra coisa. It's what we think is important to name that gets a name for the sound that it makes.

11:58

Yes. And it's something that's either in the stories that we tell, or in the things that we talk about with each other. Und es ist etwas, das entweder in den Geschichten steckt, die wir erzählen, oder in den Dingen, über die wir miteinander reden. E é algo que está ou nas histórias que contamos, ou nas coisas de que falamos uns com os outros. It's it's gotta have a reason to be given a word. And that's true, not just for animal sounds, but for everything. We have the words we have because they're a shorthand way of referring to the thing we want to talk about. And different languages have different words that that don't always match, that don't always directly translate from one to the other because it's not something you need this abbreviated way of referring to, and that's what a word is. Und verschiedene Sprachen haben unterschiedliche Wörter, die nicht immer übereinstimmen, die nicht immer direkt von einem ins andere übersetzt werden können, weil es nicht etwas ist, auf das Sie diese abgekürzte Art der Bezugnahme brauchen, und das ist, was ein Wort ist.

**Jane** 12:38

While we had Arika, we asked for her favorite animal noise in another language.

12:43

Well, I like the word and the thing that a horse does in Danish is vrinsk. It's I can't even say it. É que nem consigo dizê-lo. It's V-R-I- N-S-K, vrinsk. And that's very different from a neigh, or what I would think a horse would say. But I can, I can see, okay, a horse, yeah, that can match my idea of what an actual horse says. Mas eu posso, eu posso ver, ok, um cavalo, sim, isso pode corresponder à minha ideia do que um cavalo real diz. And it just shows that there's a lot of flexibility in how we can represent what an animal does, and it can use these strange combinations of sounds that English doesn't use.

**Jane** 13:19

Cool. Speaking of horses, here are a few other names for [horse sound].

**Various Kids** 13:32

[KIDS DESCRIBE HORSE NOISES IN OTHER LANGUAGES]

**Jane** 13:38

Coming up, we'll tackle the other way of answering that original question. A seguir, vamos abordar a outra forma de responder a essa pergunta original. We'll learn a little bit more about what animals might be saying when they make their various noises. Vamos aprender um pouco mais sobre o que os animais podem estar a dizer quando fazem os seus vários ruídos. Stay with us.

**Jane** 13:48

This is But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids. I'm Jane Lindholm. We're learning about the noises that animals make today. We just learned a little bit about why we use different words and sounds to describe what animals say, depending on what language we humans are speaking. Let's hear a few more examples of what you've told us about how you express animal sounds in the languages you speak. Vamos ouvir mais alguns exemplos do que nos contaram sobre a forma como expressam os sons dos animais nas línguas que falam. Now, in English when we think about hens, female chickens, we often say cluck, cluck. But in other languages hens sy: