We blogged recently on the fact that most languages have their own word for ‘butterfly’, even when they share most of the rest of their animal vocabulary with neighbours or a common source language.
A similar phenomenon adheres in the case of transliterations of the crowing of the rooster, or male chicken, which in English is rendered as ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’ (we seem to have hung on to the Gaelic ‘cuc-a-dudal-du’ rather than imported the latinate version). Other world languages all have their own, distinctive attempts to capture the phonetic essence of the cock’s crow. My personal favourite is definitely the Icelandic. Do share yours, or any examples we may have missed from the list…
• Africaans: koekelekoe
• Albanian: kikiriki
• Basque: kikirriki
• Belarusian: кукарэку (kukarekú)
• Bosnian: kukuriku
• Breton: kokaralur
• Bulgarian: кукурику (kukuriku)
• Catalan: kikkirikí, quiquiriquic
• Chinese:
◦ Cantonese: (gokogoko)
◦ Mandarin: (gou gou)
• Croatian: kukuriku
• Czech: kykyryký
• Danish: kykkeliky
• Dutch: kukeleku
• Estonian: kikerikii
• Esperanto: kokeriko
• Finnish: kukkokiekuu
• French: cocorico
• Gaelic: cuc-a-dudal-du
• German: kickeriki
• Greek: κουκουρίκου (koukouríkou)
• Hebrew: קוקוריקו (kukuriku)
• Hindi: (kukruukuu)
• Hungarian: kukuriku
• Icelandic: gaggala gaggala gú
• Indonesian: kukurukukin
• Italian: chicchirichí
• Japanese: こけこっこう (kokekokkō)
• Kashubian: kùkùk
• Korean: 꼬끼요 (kkokkiyo)
• Lithuanian: kakariekū
• Macedonian: кукурику (kukurikú)
• Norwegian: kykeliky
• Polish: kukuryku
• Portuguese: cucurucu
• Punjabi: (kukroku), (kukrukaru)
• Romanian: cucurigu
• Russian: кукареку (kukarekú)
• Serbian:
◦ Cyrillic: кукурику
◦ Latin: kukuriku
• Spanish: quiquiriquí
• Swedish: kuckeliku
• Tagalog: kukaok
• Thai: เอ้ก-อี-เอ้ก-เอ้ก (ake-e-ake-ake)
• Turkish: kukuriku
• Ukrainian: кукуріку (kukurikú)
