In honor of National Dog Day on August 26th, a question: do you know any dog barks in different languages? The question might surprise you – dogs don’t speak any language, right?
Of course, dogs cannot speak English nor Spanish or Afrikaans. However, we know that any language is based on a phonetic system that determines what sounds are used and how they are paired together. Onomatopoeias are influenced by a language’s phonemes even as the word tries to encapsulate a sound. Furthermore, an onomatopoeia created to represent an animal’s sound is still considered a word that obeys the rules of that language. More on this in our previous blog post here.
So, while dogs generally make the same sounds around the world, not everyone is hearing the word ‘woof’ when a dog barks. For example, a Hebrew dog says “hav-hav”, a Japanese dog says “wan-wan” and a Kurdish dog says “hau-hau”.
Take a look below at many dog barks in different languages!
- English – woof, woof; ruff, ruff; arf, arf; bow, wow; yap, yap; yip, yip (small dogs)
- Afrikaans – blaf, blaf; woef, woef; keff, keff (small dogs)
- Albanian – ham, ham
- Arabic – hau, hau; how how (هو ,هو)
- Armenian -haf, haf
- Basque – au, au; txau, txau (small dogs); zaunk, zaunk (large dogs); jau, jau (old dogs)
- Balinese – kong, kong
- Bengali – gheu, gheu; bhao, bhao
- Bulgarian – bau-bau (бау-бау); jaff, jaff (джаф-джаф)
- Brazilian Portuguese – au au
- Burmese – woke, woke
- Catalan – bau, bau; bub, bub
- Chinese, Cantonese – wow, wow (汪汪)
- Chinese, Mandarin – wang, wang
- Croatian – vau, vau
- Czech – haf, haf; štěk (the bark itself)
- Danish – vov, vuf
- Dutch – waf, waf; woef, woef
- Esperanto – boj, boj
- Estonian – auh, auh
- Finnish – hau, hau; vuh, vuh; rauf, rauf
- French – waouh, waouh; ouahn, ouahn; vaf, vaf; wouf, wouf; wouaf, wouaf; jappe jappe
- German – wuff, wuff; wau, wau; rawrau, rawrau
- Greek – ghav, ghav (γαβ, γαβ)
- Hebrew – hav, hav; hau, hau
- Hindi – bow, bow
- Hungarian – vau, vau
- Indonesian – guk, guk
- Irish – amh, amh
- Italian – bau, bau
- Japanese – wan-wan (ワンワン); kyan-kyan (キャンキャン)
- Korean – meong, meong (멍멍, pronounced [mʌŋmʌŋ])
- Latvian – vau, vau
- Lithuanian – au, au
- Malay – gong, gong (“menggonggong” means barking)
- Marathi – bhu, bhu; bho, bho
- Norwegian – voff, voff or boff
- Persian – vogh, vogh
- Polish – hau, hau
- Portuguese – au, au; ão-ão (nasal diphthong); béu-béu (toddler language); cain-cain (whining)
- Romanian – ham, ham; hau, hau
- Russian – gav, gav (гав-гав); tyav, tyav (тяв-тяв, small dogs)
- Serbian – av, av
- Sinhala – සිංහල – buh, buh
- Slovak – haf, haf; hau, hau
- Slovene – hov, hov
- Spanish – guau-guau; gua, gua; jau, jau
- Swedish – voff, voff; vov, vov; bjäbb, bjäbb
- Tagalog – aw, aw; baw, baw
- Tamil – wal wal
- Thai – โฮ่ง โฮ่ง (pronounced [hôŋhôŋ]); บ๊อก บ๊อก (pronounced [bɔ́kbɔ́k])
- Turkish – hev hev; hav, hav
- Ukrainian – гав, гав (hau, hau); дзяв, дзяв (dzyau, dzyau)
- Urdu – bow bow
- Vietnamese – gâu gâu; ẳng ẳng
- Welsh – wff, wff
