au-au-au kee-kee-keh ee-aw nano-nano-nah ssst and more fun sounds

February 9, 2003 3:19 PM

bzzzpeek- a fun site with kids from around the world imitating animals and vehicles in an exercise of onomatopoeia. Similar to a post last year, this version adds sounds from native speakers and some cute visuals, making for a neat toy. MeFi moms & dads take note - submissions from kids age 2 to 7 are invited. flash and sound alert!
posted by madamjujujive (15 comments total)

Great find - thanks!
posted by UKnowForKids at 3:39 PM on February 9, 2003

That kid from Poland blows away the competition!
posted by shinybeast at 3:42 PM on February 9, 2003

Hey, this is great! When my kid gets back from snowboarding I'm going to show her this AND the Yellowtail thing which I finally got around to trying today.
posted by kozad at 3:45 PM on February 9, 2003

Fascinating and invigoratingly cross-cultural! At its best, you wonder whether different nationalities are actually listening to the same animals.

*swoons with admiration and gratitude for madamjujujive's ever excellent gifts*
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:40 PM on February 9, 2003

Nice one.
posted by Espoo2 at 4:46 PM on February 9, 2003

Superb. I've got to agree that there's a fine showing from the Poles but the "Arab League" has a stronger overall performance in my book.

Can someone explain what's going on with the German police car? It just doesn't sound siren-like to me.
posted by MUD at 6:15 PM on February 9, 2003

ok, here's the pig song, in 4/4

|| H . . . : . . . : . . . : . . . H . . . : . . . : . . . : . . .
|| H . . . : . . . : . . . : . . . GB GB . : . . . : . . . : . . .
|| GB . . . : J . . : SK . . : . . . GB . . . : J . . : SK . . : . . . (x2)
|| GB . . . : F . . : . . . : . . . GB . . . : F . . . : . . . : . . .
|| GB . . . : J . . : SK . . : . . . GB . . . : J . . : SK . . : . . . (x2)
|| GB . . . : F . . : . . . : . . . GB . . . : F . . . : . . . : . . .
|| GB . . . : F . . : . . . : . . . GB GB . : . . . : . . . : . . .

The key is to strike the Japanese and South Korean pigs a 1/16th before the upbeat, because of the delay in the sound file.

(http://www.geocities.com/eddydamascene/pigsong.wav - sorry, bandwidth is limited to about 5 listens an hour)
posted by eddydamascene at 9:02 PM on February 9, 2003

Reminds me of the great book Mouthsounds (by Fred Newman)... changed my life! Well, anyway, my niece sure keeps after me for tips on refining her elephant trumpet and lip trombone...
posted by Zurishaddai at 9:35 PM on February 9, 2003

I also have to say that I'm willing to believe that the Korean kid was, well, confused or perhaps unrepresentative. But man -- almost nothing labeled as Korean sounded remotely like its original subject.
posted by argybarg at 9:59 PM on February 9, 2003

I thought the same argybarg. What was that the Korean sample hears?

I can't remember what it was that was posted here, but I vaguely remember stavros writing something along the lines awhile back, on that the Korean tongue has a distinct difficulty with certain splosives etc. This obscurity of my memory actually popped into my mind while playing with this neat toy. (thanx mjjj!)

Therefore, I became more interested in clicking GB first and then going straight to the Korean icon. Which eventually caused me to wonder, is there perhaps some synchronicity with what sounds "the tongue" of a society can make and its effect on a developing brain that could possibly cause the ear to "learn" to focus on lower, less pronounced (to the non-Korean etc. ear) frequencies? Yet even onomatopoeically?
posted by crasspastor at 10:43 PM on February 9, 2003

If you want to see more of those differences then try Sounds of the world's animals which has (in written form) all the different sounds we think animals make.

Ukraine obviously wins the prize for the sissyest animal. Who on earth could be scared of a dog that goes Haf-Haf at you?
posted by ciderwoman at 3:48 AM on February 10, 2003

There are many differences across the world, but we all love M. Jujujive.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:16 AM on February 10, 2003

Did anyone else think that some of the sounds from Great Britain sounded like either a 40-year-old or a Speak 'n' spell?
Really, really fascinating site. thanks!
posted by chandy72 at 9:50 AM on February 10, 2003

I would agree chandy72 - seems like a few of these kids had a wee bit of help making sounds from mommy and daddy. Still fun though.

Eddydamascene, your efforts are impressive! Sounds like the musical backdrop for a rather surreal barnyard film.

crasspastor, interesting issues you pose - it would be good if we could get some input from stavros, languagehat or one of our language savvy members. I particularly notice some of the differences on the vehicle sounds, and very much so on the cowboy - everyone saying "giddyup." I also wonder how much the age limitation of the child comes into play. Ciderwoman's comment about dogs that go haf-haf is funny, but Mr. T could probably make that sound scary.

Pretty_Generic and Miguel, thanks! What goes around comes around.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:03 AM on February 10, 2003

Eddydamascene, your efforts are impressive! Sounds like the musical backdrop for a rather surreal barnyard film.

Thanks! A steady diet of noise does strange things to one's musical sensibilities (read: destroys them).
posted by eddydamascene at 11:36 PM on February 10, 2003