Onomatopeia is a fancy way to describe words that sound like what they mean. For instance, in English, bees "buzz" and cats "meow". Words for animal sounds are almost always built on how the animals actually sound to listeners. But that can be different in different languages. Since each language has its own set of sounds to work with, they hear animals based on those sounds.
For example, a rooster's crow is translated as:
- "Cockadoodle doo!" in English;
- "Kikiriki!" in Spanish; and
- "Kok-e-kok-ko!" in Japanese.
This video shows people from all over the world saying animal sounds in their language. How would you write the sounds the animals make in your language?
Bow Wow Meow - Animal Sounds in Different Languages from Ke Nguyen on Vimeo.
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onomatopoeia /on-uh-mat-uh-PEE-uh/ [noun, uncountable]—words made up of sounds that are similar to the sounds the words refer to.
Here is a good video with actual animal sounds. It could be used in the lesson or as homework.
Learning another language's onomatopoeia helps decode the sounds of that language. What consonant sounds are available? Vowels? Intonation and stress? Practicing animal sounds can actually promote better pronunciation!