Animal Instincts

Even professional interpreters know very few translations for onomatopeias. They may tell you that a rooster “goes “ку-ка-ре-ку” (cock-a-doodle-doo) and that the respective verb is кукарекать (“to crow”). And the better ones may know that, in some cases of bird-related content, they would not translate “Петя” as “Peter,” but as “rooster.” Our inventive language has turned “петух” into “Петя” (or even the more tender “Петя-петушок”), since the noun and first name are so similar.

Perhaps some interpreters know that meowing in Russian is мяукать, so the sound reads as мяу-мяу. But that will be probably all that most would be able to come up with off the top of their head. OK, maybe some other verbs like мычать (to moo: му-у-у) or каркать (“to caw”) are also known, but not the actual exact sound produced by the crow—as adopted in literature/fiction books as such. For when you read “кар-кар” (“caw, caw”) in a Russian book, is it a sound made by a ворона (crow), and not a dog or cat?

So, why not learn some other basic animal sounds? What does a horse do, eh? The verb designating the sound a Russian horse makes is “ржать” (“to neigh”) and the sound is и-го-го. The horse’s toes  цокают (infinitive is цокать—“clatter”) and the sound is цок-цок.

What does a dog do to discourage someone from entering the house? Right: he лает (barks). But the “literary” sound for woof-woof is “гав-гав.”

Hens, as we know, cackle (кудахтать): кудах-тах-тах. Remember that phrase from the famous fairy tale about how a hen laid a golden egg? Дед плачет, бабка плачет—а курочка кудахчет: “Не плачь дед, не плачь бабка, я снесу Вам другое яичко—не простое, а золотое.” (“The grandfather cries, the grandmother cries, but the hen cackles: ‘Don’t cry grandfather and grandmother, I will lay you another egg, not a ordinary egg, but a golden one.’”)

Other examples (verbs followed by actual sounds made) from the animal kingdom are:

Duck (утка) крякать (quack): кря-кря.

Chicken (цыплёнок) цып-цып-цып.

Goat (коза) блеять (bleat): м-е-е.

Pig (свинья) хрюкать (grunt): хрю-хрю.

Snake (змея) шипеть (hiss): ш-ш-ш.

Sparrow (воробей) чирикать (chirp) чик-чирик, чик-чирик.

With time, some of these animal verbs and sounds have acquired additional, indirect meanings. For example, when someone tells you: “не каркай” (“don’t caw”), it means “don’t jynx it.” When a husband says to his wife, “раскудахталась!”  (“There you go cackling again!”), it means he thinks the wife is panicking without reason.

When someone wants to shut someone up rather abruptly and rudely, he can say: “Сиди—не кукарекай!” (“Just sit and don’t cock-a-doodle-do!”).

And, as we know (see Mikhail Butov’s fiction in Russian Life, Jan/Feb 2002), the verb лаять, if used in the reflexive form, can be colloquial for quarelling. Note the difference: to literally bark at someone is “лаять на кого-то,” whereas “лаяться с кем-то” means “quarelling.”

Nor should we forget about another bird, the кукушка (cuckoo), which goes “ку-ку.” In Russian folklore, the cuckoo has a special meaning. According to legend, one can stop in a forest when hearing the sound of a cuckoo and ask the bird: ”Cuckoo, how much longer will I live?” (“Кукушка-кукушка, сколько мне жить?”) The number of “cuckoos” that follow will be the answer.

In a related joke, a Russian guy asks a cuckoo:

“Кукушка-кукушка, сколько мне жить?”

“Ку—” (says the cuckoo instead of at least one typical “Ку-ку”)

“А почему так ма–?” (answers the guy, his мало—“little”—cut off by his death).

The lesson is clearly not to tempt fate by asking stupid questions of a cuckoo. Who knows—maybe the cuckoo will накаркать something way too short? Personally, I would prefer to gauge my life expectancy by the song of the trusty sparrow, which goes “чик-чирик” non-stop, thus instilling more “уверенность в завтрашнем дне” (“confidence in tomorrow”), to use a tried and true Soviet cliché.