Bees and Dogs from bzzzpeek website
Agathe Jacquillat (French, born 1975)
and Tomi Vollauschek (Austrian,
born 1973)
of FL@33 (UK, est. 2001)
2002
HTML and Flash software
Bzzzpeek is a playful online catalog
of onomatopoeia, composed of audio clips
of native speakers vocalizing animal and
vehicle sounds in their own languages.
Visitors to the site choose an animal
and then click on various flags to hear
renditions of a cat, a lion, a rooster, and
26 other animals in 22
languages. Anyone can submit a recording,
and most of the recordings are of
children’s voices. The site is entertaining
as well as informative, drawing attention
to both the commonalities and idiosyncrasies
of languages and language groups.
A cat’s meow sounds the most similar
across languages; South Koreans,
followed closely by Hungarians, most
consistently deviate from the standard
interpretations of sounds.
Category: Double Entendre
Tags: Communications / Mutants and Fairy Tales / Networks
