During the Saturday chat today, Richard was recalled a verse from his schooldays: a Latin version of the Mother Goose rhyme, "Baa, Baa Black Sheep." Here's the version I found online, which is different from the one he quoted. He used laniger, literally 'wool-bearing' for sheep, rather than ovis.

Ba-la ovis, est lanitum tibi?
Sic vir, sic vir, sunt tres sacci mihi.
Primum patrono, alterum matronae,
Tertium repono, puerulo villae.
Ba-la ovis, est lanitum tibi?
Sic vir, sic vir, sunt tres sacci mihi.

Commentary:

(1) I guess Roman sheep went ba-la, rather than baa baa.
(2) lanitum?, lanatus is an adjective meaning 'bearing wool'. The Roman form for "I have a book" / "the book is mine" is literally, there is a book to me. So, I guess this means "have you any wool", but it seems malformed to me.
(3) "yes, man, yes, man, there's three sacks to me."
(4) "the little boy who lives down the lane" has become "the little boy of the villa".

Oh, how delightful, jheem. I surely like "villa" better than "lane." It also sounds more Roman.

I have always wondered about animal words (is there a word for that?)? For example, a cat really doesn't say "meow" if you listen carefully. Or, a dog doesn't say "arf-arf." I haven't heard a sheep recently, but he probably really says "ba-la."

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
... a dog doesn't say "arf-arf."

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Well, not all dogs say "arf-arf." Some say "bow-wow" or "roof-roof." In Japan they say "wan-wan," but that's because they can't speak English.

Tinman

Here is a site with the sounds made by the world's animals, and how they are written in different languages.

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Animals make much the same sounds around the world, but each language expresses them differently. English and French cows sound the same, but not in English and French!

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Fabulous link, Arnie! Thanks! This is actually something I can find a use for at work! Kids love this kind of thing.

have always wondered about animal words (is there a word for that?)?

I've always heard it called onomatopoeia. There's a semi-serious theory of language genesis called the bow-wow theory that posits that language originated from onomatopoeia. I really don't buy it, but ...

Thanks, arnie: great site. My favorite has always been the Danish pig sound: øf which coincidentally is the French word for egg. (Spelled differently, of course.)

arnie, what a wonderful site! Interestingly, the cow sounds about the same in all languages cited. The cat is similar, but not as similar as the cow. But the dog! That sound was really different in some of the languages.

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Originally posted by jheem:

I've always heard it called _onomatopoeia_. There's a semi-serious theory of language genesis called the bow-wow theory that posits that language originated from onomatopoeia. I really don't buy it, but ...

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There is a great little audio tape called "How to Read Aloud to Children" that gives great basic information about . . . . well, you know. Anyway, there is one story on the tape that has always made me laugh. The actor who put the tape together had a voice coach that talked about the ability to make every word sound onomatopoeiaic. The actor's response was - isn't it all already onomatopoeiaic? Makes reading aloud more interesting to think about it that way.

The bow-wow theory interests me, though, especially because he is from here.