SOUNDS GALORE

When sounds turn into words: 10 onomatopoeias explained

Image: THOR, CC BY 2.0

Onomatopoeias truly take the music of language to the next level, since the sole function of these words is to imitate or suggest the sound they are describing. Think about the big flashy letters popular in comic books, the "Boom!" and "Kapow!" that appear whenever your favorite superhero fights the bad guys: In our opinion, those images are the perfect description of what an onomatopeia is. As you’d expect, the different sounds of each particular language result in different sounding onomatopoeias: The "bang" we Americans associate with a cowboy showdown would be represented in Spanish by pum! or in Czech by prásk! Bearing that in mind, we have selected ten very different onomatopoeias from around the world that describe the exact same sound. Enjoy!

Image: Akbar Nemati

We’ll start this article in the same way that millions of farmers start their day: With the sound of a rooster singing. English has the classic onomatopoeia "cock a doodle doo", but several languages have come up with different ways to describe this very specific sound.

For instance, Spanish speakers know this sound as kikiriki, while Japanese people call it kokekokkō and German kikeriki. Interestingly, the Irish language’s version of this onomatopoeia is cuc-adiú-dil-ú, which seems to share a root with the English "cock a doodle doo".

Image: Robert Gramner

Not unlike a child’s Speak ‘N Say, you’ll quickly notice that several of the entries in this article describe animal sounds. This time, we’ll focus on humankind’s best friend. Do you sometimes feel your dog is talking to you whenever he wants an extra pat behind his ears? You are not alone: Dogs have inspired a plethora of different onomatopoeias, all seeking to describe all the wonderful sounds our canine friends make.

In that sense, the English language has it easy: The onomatopoeia "bark" is exactly the same as the verb used to describe this action. However, other languages have different takes: Spanish has guau guau, while Mandarin has wāng wāng. Russian has two different onomatopoeias depending on the size of the dog, using gav gav for big dogs and tyaf tyaf for smaller ones.

Image: Denis Chick

Have you ever realized that the sound of the train we imitate to entertain a small child is actually comprised of two different onomatopoeias? Think about it: The "chugga chugga" part describes the train wheels running over the tracks, only interrupted by the occasional "choo choo" of the whistle. Regardless, this sound is mimicked by millions of parents approaching a spoonful of baby food to the mouth of a reluctant child, so it stands to reason it varies according to each language.

The Korean language has chik chik pok pok to describe this sound, while Italian uses tu tuu ciuf ciuf. On the other hand, several countries have onomatopoeias similar to the English "choo", including the Spanish chu chu, the French tchou tchou or the Slovenian ču ču.

Image: Jordan Whitt

Catching some Zs doesn’t mean sleeping in other languages, so if you want to be able to snore accordingly when visiting, you’ll have to learn the different onomatopoeias that describe heavy sleeping. Now, if you need a frame of reference that combines all these different sounds, think of whenever cartoon characters are shown deeply asleep, complete with white nightgowns and sleeping hats: That image perfectly represents all the onomatopoeias we’ll see next.

While "zzz" is now the universal symbol of sleeping, the words that describe the act of sleeping vary. For instance, the Swedish language has snark, while Indonesian has grookkk. Other examples include the Catalan rau-rau, the Turkish hor and the Korean deureureong.

Image: Kenneth Schipper Vera

And after a short detour, we are back to animal sounds! And who better to welcome us back to this rich vein of onomatopoeias than this farmyard favorite? Pig sounds are a childhood favorite, probably due to the odd manner on which they are produced. In that sense, the raspy intake of air we use to imitate this sound is definitively difficult to translate into words, so it seems only natural that so many different onomatopoeias exist for it.

The traditional English "oink oink" is the equivalent of very dissimilar words like the Albanian hunk-hunk, the Basque kurrin-kurrin and the Norwegian nøff nøff. However, you might be surprised to learn that other languages like Spanish, Italian and German use the same oink oink we do.

Image: Tim Mossholder

From cowboys to knights, horses are the perfect companions for daring adventurers: They are fast, brave, and, above all, loyal. In that sense, scores of words depicting the various sounds that horses make have sprawled virtually in every language. We could feature any of them in this article (for instance, the difference between the English "neigh" and other onomatopoeias like the French hiii hiii), but we decided to focus on the sound horses make while trotting, described in English by the word "clip-clop".

The unmistakable sound of hooves striking against the ground has been represented by several words throughout the years. For example, the Spanish language uses the onomatopoeia tucutun tucutun, while Portuguese has pocotó pocotó. Other entries include the Italian cloppete clappete, the Japanese gara-gara and the Danish gadagung gadagung.

Image: Stéphane Juban

Is there anything better than sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold winter day? We can’t truly think of anything more relaxing than the crackle of a soothing fire filling a cozy room. Add a cup of tea and a good book to the mix, and you got yourself a perfect winter plan! In any case, these delightful sounds have inspired some equally delightful onomatopoeias.

The English "crackle crackle" can be translated to knister knister in German, rip-rop in Hungarian or trzask in Polish. Curiously, the Japanese pachi pachi is also used to describe several other small sounds, like popping bubblewrap.

Image: Henley Design Studio

This onomatopoeia doesn’t just describe eating: Chomping involves eating with gusto, to eagerly enjoy a meal or to devour something after an extended fasting. Bearing that in mind, these next words also perfectly describe the sounds of this frenzied intake, however different they might sound to the English "chomp".

Some of these words obviously share a root. For instance, the Spanish ñam ñam, the German mampf and the French miam sound remarkably similar. The Japanese word for chomping, however, is exceptionally noteworthy, as it has inspired one of the most recognizable icons in video-game history: The name Pac-man comes from the Japanese words paku paku, which means chomping down food.

Image: Vincent van Zalinge

Of all the entries in this list, "quack" is probably the one closest to a universal onomatopoeia. After all, it seems to perfectly describe duck calling: You can almost feel the letters that compose this word forming whenever you hear a duck in the distance. Nevertheless, there are a few different terms for the sounds our favorite waterfowl makes.

As we said, several languages use variations of "quack quack", like German (quak quak), Greek (kuak kuak) or Polish (kwa kwa). However, other countries use very different onomatopoeias, like the Danish rap rap, the French coin coin, or the Icelandic bra bra.

Image: Dave Hoefler

We’ll end with what many consider the quintessential onomatopoeia. "Crash" sometimes feels interchangeable with other words that denote hitting like "wham" or "pow". However, there’s something about this onomatopoeia that makes it stand out against the rest: It feels like the definitive comic book exclamation, the one that leaves a heavier impact. Having said that, have you ever wondered how it fared against similar expressions from other languages?

For starters, this word is used all around the world: Some languages like German employ the similarly spelled krach to describe this sound, while others like Portuguese or Spanish directly use crash. What’s rather interesting is that the sound made from hitting something has inspired one of the oldest onomatopoeias we know: The Latin play Persa, written by Titus Maccius Plautus, employs the words tux tax to represent these sounds.

Creative repurposing

From trash to burnt toast: 12 works of art made with bizarre materials

Image: Maryam Tello

They say that creativity is all about finding opportunities where others don’t. The artists on this list must have taken that definition very literally because they all use highly unconventional media to create their work. From Post-it notes and stamps to fruit and trash, these 12 artistic visionaries are game for any kind of everyday material. Keep reading to learn more about them!

Image: Ali Bakhtiari

Is "Post Pop Art" a thing? This artist from Staffordshire, England, seems to think so! Pete Mason combines pop art and graphic design to create portraits of famous people out of recycled postage stamps. He sorts the stamps by design, color, and pattern and then applies them to a previously sketched canvas. Each of Mason’s pieces, which include portraits of Princess Diana and Martin Luther King, takes up to 20,000 stamps.

Image: CordMediaDigitalServices

Don't throw away that burnt slice of toast; you can make art with it! Or at least that's what New Zealand artist Maurice Bennett did. Using thousands of pieces of toasted bread, burnt to varying degrees, he created billboard-sized mosaic portraits of well-known personalities, from Elvis Presley to the Mona Lisa. Bennett preferred to use white bread, but sometimes experimented with multi-grain to achieve different shades. Clever, huh?

Image: Chris Blonk

Who would have thought that junk mail could be turned into something beautiful? Well, a New York-born artist decided it was time to take action. A pioneer of the Green Fine Art movement, Sandhi Schimmel creates mosaic pictures out of all kinds of unusual materials, from junk mail to catalogs and old greeting cards. She was first inspired by a process called "upcycling," which she discovered while in Venice, Italy. Most of her artworks are portraits, like a piece featuring Madonna called "All American Blonde" and a re-creation of the famous The Birth of Venus.

Image: Era Saputera

Franz Spohn is a multifaceted artist based in Pennsylvania. He’s a sculptor, illustrator, art professor, and even TV host! For the past 25 years, he has created over 200 mosaic murals made from plastic tubes filled with hundreds of colorful gumballs. His pieces usually portray popular icons like Barack Obama and Rosa Parks. Spohn’s masterpieces have been exhibited in several museums around the world. Talk about eye candy!

Image: Arnór Ingi Júlíusson

Who said you had to be good at drawing to be an artist? A 20-year-old art student from Leavenworth, Washington, created a 25-foot-high portrait of Jimi Hendrix made from more than 8500 Bicycle playing cards. With the help of a computer program, David Alvarez mapped and divided a picture of the great American musician into parts. After deciding where each colored playing card would go, he meticulously placed them on a styrofoam board. He completed his masterpiece in just 21 hours!

Image: Sahand Babali

Did the world need another Mona Lisa? Probably not, but this version is noteworthy because of the materials used to create it. In 2006, a group of computer engineers presented a re-creation of da Vinci's masterpiece made out of random computer parts at an art exhibition in Beijing, China. To make this collage, they used computer chips, circuits, and old motherboards. This piece of "geek art," titled "Technology Smiling," fascinated audiences. What do you think the Italian Renaissance artist would think of it?

Image: Georg Eiermann

Those sticker labels that come on fruits and vegetables are sometimes so cute that you feel bad throwing them away. Barry Snyder of Erie, Colorado, probably wanted to prevent these design gems from going to waste when he came up with the idea of creating his amazing mosaic artworks. He uses around 4,000 labels for each of his four-square-foot creations. People even send him stickers from all over the world, so he doesn’t run out. His pieces are so popular that they can sell for up to $10,000. Who would have thought that something destined to become trash could be so lucrative?

Image: Claudio Schwarz

British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster use different objects and materials, mostly trash, to create people and animal shadows. They arrange the objects in such a way that, when light is projected onto them, a recognizable silhouette can be seen on the wall. They have even managed to create identifiable portraits! For their contributions to British contemporary art, Noble and Webster received an honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University in 2009.

Image: Kampus Production

Inspired by the Y2K computer scare in 2000, American artist Scott Blake began creating artworks out of bar codes. He started with circles and squares and soon switched to designing digital portraits of icons such as Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol, and Marilyn Monroe in Photoshop. Many of his pieces are interactive; if scanned with a cell phone, you can hear Blake’s subjects telling their stories.

Image: Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto

Since 1988, artist Helge Lundstrom and his daughter Emma Karp have been creating apple mosaics for the annual Kivik Apple Festival. Known for being an important fruit supplier in Sweden, this town celebrates the end of the harvest with these works of art as its centerpiece. Each piece is made from up to 75,000 apples of different varieties, from bright green Granny Smiths to duo-toned McIntoshes. What do you think of this juicy approach to art?

Image: Michael Maasen

This particular material is as bizarre as it is abstract. Yet, it still achieves impressive results. Iranian artist Hamid Naderi generates digital images from mathematical formulas. How does he do it? He finds the mathematical equation that corresponds to each color he wants to represent in a pixel. Through his work, Naderi proves that math doesn't have to be boring; it can be a vehicle for creating art and beauty.

Image: Kier in Sight Archives

The Eisenhower Junior High School in Taylorsville, Utah, holds several world records—probably more than any other school in the country! Many of their record-breaking attempts were even featured in the Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. One of its most incredible feats so far was creating the world’s largest Post-it note mosaic. In 2009, 151 students created a 60-by-40-foot work of art using 38,400 colorful sticky notes. The construction took three hours, and after the event, the Post-it notes were recycled.