Conference thebay::joyoflex

    re .0:
>    don't know if French cats say anything special when they "meulir",
    	French cats say "Miaou" and the verb is "miauler".
    Oua oua is usually spelled ouah ouah in French...;^)
    		Denis.

    I've been told that French cows "neuf, neuf"

    Re .2: Sorry, the French word is "Meuhhhh" (number of ending "h" left
    to the writer's fancy). The verb is "meugler".
    			Denis.

My son, Andrew, who's 16 months old, insists that dogs go "vou, vou" whereas 
the traditional Korean pronunciation is "mung, mung." Then again, Andrew 
insists that cats, tigers, bears, and most other furry creatures go "vou, 
vou." Go figure.

Btw, Korean pigs go "ggool, ggool" and the roosters there say "guk-goo-deh!"

Wook

Re .2, .3: maybe Bill's thinking of "naf naf", which is very French 
and very expressive, but unfortunately after 20-odd years in French 
language territory I still don't know what it means.  (Could ask, I 
suppose.)  But it's not an animal noise.

Re .4: all my kids at around Andrew's age used the same sound for all 
animals, I think.  In Hungarian, oddly enough, rabbits, monkeys and 
squirrels are all supposed to make the same sound, which is "mahk 
mahk" (pronounce the vowel very short), and this is the sound my kids 
attributed to all animals at the time.

    Re .5: To understand Naf-Naf in French, you'll need some context. You
    probably know the tale of the three little pigs and the wolf. It's a
    tale for children that's been around for quite a while (maybe a few
    centuries). It tells about the three little pigs, two of whom were very
    lazy and the third one very thorough about what he did. Each of them
    built a house. The first one a straw hut, the second a branch hut, and
    the third a brick house. When the wolf came, he blew away the straw hut
    and the branch hut, but couldn't enter the brick house. Now, in the
    traditional form of this tale, the little pigs have no names, they are
    known as the first, second and third little pigs. But Walt Disney did a
    remake of that story in Mickey Magazine and, in the French edition of
    Mickey Magazine, the three little pigs are known as Naf-Naf, Nif-Nif
    and Nouf-Nouf, Naf-Naf being the one who built the brick house. To add
    to the reason for the popularity of the name in French, Naf-Naf is also
    now (for about 15 years, I think) the name of a very popular French
    brand of clothes (sport type, mostly) for teenagers (and a bit older
    too). 
    			Denis.

and obviously that's where the English pejorative "naff" comes from!

	:-)

Denis, that's a great explanation.  Thanks.

There's just one thing missing.  What does "naf naf" mean?

    Re .8: Gabriel, that's were the problem lies. Naf Naf means nothing in
    French except for the proper names I mentionned in .6 (at least to my
    knowledge).
    			Denis.

    A portuguese cock goes cocoroco
    A hen goes cacaraca
    A chick goes quiquiriqui {note: exactly the same spoken consonant sound
    				as the grown-ups use}
    
    b

     Re: -1

    An Argentinian cock goes quiquiriqui
    A hen goes cocoroco
    A chick goes pio-pio

    Juan-Carlos

    And some Norwegian agriphonetics:
    
    Norwegian cows say: M��! (pronounced like "meu" in French). 
    	Corresponding verb: "raute"
    Norwegian sheep say: B��! (as in "Bad")
    	Corresponding verb: "breke"
    Norwegian pigs say: N�ff! (pronounced like French "neuf")
    	Corresponding verb: "grynte"
    Norwegian cocks say: Kykeliky!
    	Corresponding verb: "gale"
    Norwegian hens say: "klukk-klukk"
    	Corresponding verb: "kakle"
    
    Henrik