Cross-linguistic onomatopoeias


Because of the nature of onomatopoeia, there are many words which show a similar pronunciation in the languages of the world. The following is a list of some conventional examples:

Human sounds

Consuming food or drink

Bodily functions and involuntary sounds

Cries of distress

Interrupted speech

Expressions of positive emotions

Animal sounds

Bird sounds

Domestic birds

Wild birds

Mammal sounds

Cats and dogs

Equine sounds

Animals with cloven hoofs

Other mammals

Other animals

Collisions, bursts, and strikes

Balloon or bubble bursting

Dull strike

Camera shutter

Electric flowing (buzzing)

Jingling

Chinese words

Croatian words

Danish words

English words

French words

German words

Greek words

Hebrew words

Italian words

Japanese words

Marathi words

Portuguese words

Spanish words

Ukrainian words

Urdu words