OK, maybe this is not THE most important cultural observation I’ve made in Taiwan, but I’ve always wondered why books published in Taiwan have dogs saying wong, wong, instead of woof, woof. Then today I saw a Taiwanese lady imitating a dog for her toddler and she did it orally: wong, wong, wong. I realize all dogs bark differently, but to my ears woof, woof seems to be a fairly accurate approximation of most dog barks, whereas I don’t believe I have ever heard a dog say wong wong.
Has anyone else ever wondered about that? Why do Taiwanese people think that dogs say wong, wong, when they clearly don’t? Is woof a sound that is hard for Chinese speakers to hear or make? I wonder if Cantonese speakers also say wong, wong and if speakers of other languages besides English also translate woof woof differently.
Yes, maybe I do think too much, but I’m still curious about the above. :scooby:
I think it’s also important to mention that even if a dog is barking, it doesn’t mean it’s aggressive. in Taiwan, two wongs don’t make a bite. :p[/quote]
Why should onomatopoeic words be the same in every language? To me, this whole question is just about as stupid as asking “Why do Taiwanese people say Ni Hao instead of Hello?”
Onomatopoeic words shouldn’t be the same in every language, of course there should be some latitude, but they should somewhat resemble the sound they are meant to capture. For example, I feel that moooo is a great transcription of cow talk. If people somewhere claim that cows say moooh or muuuuw I could understand that, but if they claimed that cows say plickity plickity plack I’d suggest they get their hearing checked.
For dogs, auh auh and ar ar seem perfectly reasonable and as legitimate as woof woof, but I don’t understand why anyone would think a dog says wong wong. To me they might as well claim dogs say zippity zing – they don’t.