Folium: Cows “Moo” With Different Accents via BBC News

Posted by LEAF Architect on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Folium: Cows “Moo” With Different Accents via BBC News

This isn’t the first time we’ve discussed the world of animal linguistics, and for reference we illustrated how different languages represent (in writing) the sounds that animals make.

However, this is a horse of a different color. Or, um, cow…

The BBC, in whom I often trust in matters of international politics and world events, reports that cows “moo” differently depending on region. That is to say that cows have regional accents and dialects.

My thoughts then turned to the bovine linguist involved in this study, and I’ll be the first to say, he’s legit. We’ve really got a case of heifer phonetics here!

“Farmer Lloyd Green, from Glastonbury, said: “I spend a lot of time with my ones and they definitely moo with a Somerset drawl. I’ve spoken to the other farmers in the West Country group and they have noticed a similar development in their own herds.” – BBCNews

It does make me think. How little we truly know about ourselves, and even less about the world around us. I’m sure that the phonetics professor involved had never really considered aviary or livestock speech when making his career choice, but here he is reporting to the world about the “twang” of local cows.

Just another testament to how the study of languages (human or otherwise) can creep into any profession! Perhaps more agricultural majors should think about a minor in linguistics!

Have you ever really paid attention to how your family pets sound in different situations?

Do the pets of other friends or family members sound different to you? Let us know in the comments!

Resources:

The LEAF Project

www.leaflanguages.org

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