Bark
Dogs
Bark
Barking is the one of the noises most commonly produced by
dogs.
Why dogs bark
Although dogs are a subspecies of the
wolf, Canis lupus, their
barking constitutes a significant difference from their parent species. Although
wolves do bark, they do so only in specific situations. According to Coppinger
and Feinstein, dogs bark in long, rhythmic stanzas but adult wolf barks tend to
be brief and isolated
[1]. Dogs, by contrast, bark frequently and in many different
situations.
It has been suggested that the reason for the difference lies in the dog's
domestication by humans. Dogs present a striking example of
neoteny, the retention of
juvenile characteristics in the adults. They are similar to young wolves in many
of their mannerisms and physical features, such as large heads, flat faces,
large eyes, submissiveness and vocalizing – all of which are exhibited in wolf
puppies.
It is thought that these characteristics were deliberately selected for by
early humans. There may have been a number of reasons for this. For instance, an
overgrown puppy would very likely have been seen as a more engaging companion
than a more mature but less amusing pet. More prosaically, an increased tendency
to bark could have been useful to humans to provide an early warning system.
Dogs may have been used to alert their owners that another unfamiliar band of
humans or a predatory animal was in the area.
Individual dogs bark for a variety of reasons – although despite what
frustrated humans might think, spite does not appear to be one of them. They may
bark to attract attention, to communicate a message, or out of excitement. Dog
barks do not constitute an information-rich message in the same fashion as human
speech, but they do nonetheless constitute more than mere noise. Statistical
analysis has revealed that barks can be divided into different subtypes based on
context and that individual dogs can be identified by their barks. Disturbance
barks tend to be harsh, low frequency, and unmodulated, whereas isolation and
play barks tend to be tonal, higher frequency, and modulated. Barks are often
accompanied by body movements as part of a broader package of
dog
communication.
Representation
Woof is the conventional representation in the
English
language of the barking of a dog.
As with other examples of
onomatopoeia or
imitative sounds, other cultures "hear" the dog's barks differently and
represent them in their own ways. Some of the equivalents of "woof" in other
European and Asian languages are as follows:
- English - woof, woof, ruff, ruff arf, arf (large
dogs and also the sound of sealions); yap, yap (small dogs),
"bow-wow"
- Albanian - ham, ham
- Arabic - haw, haw
- Armenian - haf, haf
-
Bulgarian - бау-бау (bau-bau), джаф-джаф (jaff,
jaff)
- Catalan - bup, bup
- Czech
- haf, haf
- Danish - vov, vov
- Dutch
- waf, waf, woef, woef (phonetically equivalent to woof
woof)
-
Esperanto - boj, boj
- Estonian - auh, auh
- Farsi
- vogh, vogh
- Finnish - hau, hau
- French - ouah, ouah or ouaf, ouaf
- German - wuff, wuff, wau, wau
- Greek
- gav, gav
- Hebrew - hav, hav
- Hindi
- bho, bho
-
Hungarian - vau, vau
-
Icelandic - voff, voff
-
Indonesian - guk, guk
- Italian - bau, bau
- Japanese - wan, wan (ワンワン)
- Korean - meong, meong (멍멍)
[mʌŋmʌŋ]
- Latvian - vau, vau
-
Lithuanian - au, au
- Mandarin Chinese - wang, wang
-
Norwegian - voff, voff
- Polish - hau, hau
-
Portuguese - au, au
- Romanian - ham, ham
- Russian - гав-гав (gav, gav)
- Serbian - av, av
- Spanish - guau, guau
- Swedish - voff, voff
- Thai
- hoang, hoang
References
-
^ Coppinger R, Feinstein M: 'Hark! Hark! The dogs do
bark. . .' and bark and hark. Smithsonian 21:119-128, 1991
External links
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