Philosophers have long pondered whether a tree makes any sound if it falls and there is no one around to hear it. A more appropriate question might be what sound it would make if it fell in a different country. More accurately, what would it sound like to those who speak different languages? If English is your native tongue, you interpret the sound of a falling tree as a “crash.” For Lithuanians, the same event is a “bumpt.” The French hear a “bing,” and an Afrikaans speaker perceives a “kadoef.”

As detailed in this article, the sound a dog makes to communicate varies greatly depending on what language is being used to convey the sound. To the English speaker, a dog’s primary sound is a “bark.” To the Ukrainian ear, the same sound is a “dzyau.”

When a word that describes a sound is an approximation of the sound itself, it is known as an onomatopoeia. No one is entirely sure why language should make any difference in the way we try to articulate these sounds, but it definitely is a factor. Something as powerful as the sound of a cannon, for example, is conveyed in English as “Boom!” Mandarin Chinese, however, describes it as “ping” (乒).

Thanks to Derek Abbott at the University of Adelaide, we can see how the sounds made by animals are interpreted in various languages. Here are a few. For the full list, follow this link.