h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

yes, and if you wring their necks they're supposed to say joooo-gurt, according to a bad german joke
At the moment, there's one of these tiny rat-like dogs in front of my window, and he's audibly going "yipp yipp".
Oh, yes - rats and mice are making a "pieps"-sound (spoken like peeps ).
This is fun!

Ah, Looneytunes... I'm glad to see the Americanization of animal noises hasn't yet reached New Zealand.

It seems to me that English frogs used to say, "Croak" too. Maybe American GI's were a more pervasive influence in southern counties than in the Midlands. But "Ribbet" was new to me when I came to Canada in '71.

Frogs have obviously been overlooked in all the talk of warbrides.

JTG

Frogs have had a bad name in NZ ever since the French blew up the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour in the late 1980s.

That coupled with testing their bombs in the South Pacific means NZ frogs tend to keep to themselves these days.

The NZ tuatara, the worlds oldest reptile, is defiantly mute, but if you are patient with them they can be taught how to paint.

Intriguing! That has to be the subject of a Guide Entry.

I hope the teaching process doesn't involve being dried, pulverised, and mixed with linseed oil.

The Rainbow Warrior incident and the French Nuclear policy are shameful!

JTG

JTG, first you spill a tin of paint in the tuatara's path. You then wait for them to walk through the paint on to a sheet of paper.

My ambition is to sell one to the Louvre in Paris as modern art

That fits perfectly with my ambition to someday own the Louvre and turn it into a retirement home for ventriloquists.

(Between you and me, I'm mainly interested in the pyramidal greenhouse at the front... the rests a bit drab).

JTG

Which brings us nicely to Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile

I can report it is caused by bruxism. "An unconscious habit of grinding the teeth during sleep or periods of mental stress, like when you have to sit through a noted artist's tedious invitations to view his "etchings".

The animalistic noise created could be called "le gnash".

It would be an interesting experiment to edit out the signs of stress from a photogragh, to see if the result is a comparably enigmatic smile.

It would be fun to start an h2g2 gallery.



JTG

I can't remember what le chien used to dit (mainly because, as my last French report says, when it comes to French zis guy is "not as bon as il should etre."

I can however remember that French police cars go "pin pon" instead of "bee baa." Is this any use?

And in French "Ah" is used a lot.

Don't dogs also go "Ouaf ouaf" in French?

Erm... Almost.. They go Bud! Wiz! er!

Which is rather surprising, since the lizards do a lot more talking and they didn't get the jobs.. Erm.. on second thought, it's not so surprising.

Hello,

Assuming you are still interested, here goes...

I live in Japan, and have a two year old son who was born here. As you can guess, he is at the stage where learning animal noises is fun. (This seems to cross all cultures.) You are indeed correct in assuming that animals make different sounds in different languages. Here are a few examples from Japan:
Dog: Wan wan (short "a" like the a in all)
Cow: Mow mow (prononuced like "mow the lawn")
Pig: Boo boo
Cat: Nyah nyah
Rooster: Cock kay koe koe (One of my favorites)
Sheep: Maa maa
Frog: Kerroe Kerroe (the "e" is like the e in kettle... so's the k for that matter)

There's more, but I'm not sure if you are still interested.

Ja ne
(Japanese for seeya)

sorry to barge in like this but ermmmm.....TokyoR, your page is empty so i had to hunt you down to say hello and sneak a christmas kiss under the mistletoe
monsy

TokyoR, h2g2 forums (fora) don't die, they just have a wee rest occasionly.

It is always good to see an old one pop up again on your page.

I greet them like old friends. "Oh look, it's forum 197384 come back to see me". "How jolly"