Translating the Language of Birds William Young Arlington, Virginia
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® THE LANGUAGE QUARTERLY Vol. XXVIII, No. 1 Winter 2003 VERBATIM Editor: Erin McKean Founding Editor: Laurence Urdang Translating the Language of Birds William Young Arlington, Virginia any hobbyists who look for wild birds call izations and use songs or calls to create colloquial Mthemselves birders rather than birdwatchers. names. The willet, which was named for its song, also In addition to being able to identify species by is known by the colloquial names bill-willie, pill-wil- plumage, skilled birders tend to be familiar with let, pill-will-willet, and will-willet. In Australia, a col- bird songs and calls. Vocalizations sometimes pro- loquial name for the magpie-lark is peewit. vide the only reliable information for identifying a Many bird names describe a vocalization rather species in the field. than represent the actual sound. Examples include Birders who are not musically gifted (including the laughing gull, whistling kite, piping plover, me) face the difficult task of learning and remember- whooping crane, chipping sparrow, plaintive cuck- ing vocalizations for hundreds of species. The chal- oo, melodious blackbird, musician wren, snoring lenge is daunting because a particular species may rail, and dark chanting goshawk. Cisticolas, which utter multiple territorial songs, contact calls and are small, brownish songbirds found mostly in regional dialects. An effective learning technique is to Africa, are accomplished vocalists. The adjectives translate the vocalizations of a species into familiar used in their species names include bubbling, chat- words or phrases. Just as many people cannot tering, chirping, churring, croaking, piping, rat- remember lyrics to popular songs without singing the tling, siffling, singing, tinkling, tink-tink, trilling, melody, many birders cannot remember bird songs wailing, whistling, and zitting. and calls without thinking of mnemonic phrases. The Northern mockingbird mocks and mimics Because of the difficulty of translating sounds into the songs of other species, as reflected in its scien- words, birdsong mnemonics can feature vastly differ- tific name, Mimus polyglottos. Babblers are named ent (and creative) interpretations of the same song. for their babbling, trillers for their trilling, whistlers Some birds are named for their vocalizations. for their whistling, screamers for their screaming One of the most familiar is the cock, named after the and chats for their chattering. The mourning dove first syllable of its song. The common cuckoo of is named for its mournful cooing, but the mourning Eurasia and Africa is named for the song used in warbler is named for its funereal plumage. The countless clocks. (The song of the roadrunner, one of song of the Eastern whipbird resembles a America’s indigenous cuckoos, is a similar coo coo coo whipcrack. Bellbirds and the bell miner sound like coo coo coo, not meep meep as in the cartoons). ringing bells. The trumpeter swan trumpets. The Among the many species named for their vocaliza- cicadabird sounds like a cicada. The saw-whet owl tions are the boobook owl, chachalaca, chickadee, sounds like a saw being sharpened. The call of the chiffchaff, chowchilla, curlew, dickcissel, hoopoe, gray catbird in America sounds like a mewing cat, kiskadee, pauraque, pipit, towhee, veery, whip-poor- while the unrelated catbirds in Australia sound like will, willet, and wompoo pigeon. alley cats in heat. Some nouns of assemblage are Ornithologists classify birds and decide on sci- based on bird vocalizations, such as a chattering of entific names for species, while ornithology organi- choughs and a murmuration of starlings. zations decide on accepted common names. Non- Not all bird names based on vocalizations accu- ornithologists often get to know species from vocal- rately reflect how the birds sound. Warblers in Page 2 VERBATIM VOL. XXVIII, NO. 1 Contents Vol. XXVIII, No. 1 Winter 2003 Articles Translating the Language of Birds William Young p. 1 War Is Hell, Naming Them Ain’t Too Easy Either Kathleen E. Miller p. 5 Everything You Always Wanted To Know about Pig Latin But Were Afraid To Ask Melanie Falcon p. 9 Say It With Words Martin Gani p. 10 Getting Hitched or Shacking Up and Other Domestic Arrangements Devorah Stone p. 12 What’s So T about a T-Shirt? Keith J. Hall p. 18 Prewarned is Prearmed Orin Hargraves p. 25 I Before E? Pat Sheil p. 27 The Verbal Ape August Rubrecht p. 28 Columns Horribile Dictu Mat Coward p. 13 Classical Blather: Hellenic Damnation and Other Afterlives Nick Humez p. 14 Bibliographia Two New Kids on the Block Enid Pearsons p. 22 Miscellaneous Bibliographia Erin McKean p. 31 plus a crossword puzzle, some SICS! and EPISTOLAE Contributions: VERBATIM will publish articles, anecdotes, squibs, letters, and other materials at the discretion of the Editor. If at all possible, please send your submission as an email attachment. Unless accepted for publication, unsolicit- ed submissions will be neither returned nor acknowledged unless return postage is provided by the sender. Queries by email are STRONGLY recommended. Send queries or articles to the Chicago address below. Editor: Erin McKean Founding Editor: Laurence Urdang Editorial Consultant: Paul Heacock UK Representative: Hazel Hall Copy Editor: Lorraine Alexson Crosswords Editor: Pamela Wylder Board Members: Joan Houston Hall and Michael Adams ©VERBATIM®, The Language Quarterly, ©2002, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, Winter 2003 (ISSN 0162–0932). VERBATIM is a trademark reg. U.S. Pat. Off. VERBATIM (ISSN 0162–0932) is published quarterly for US$25 per year by Word, Inc., 4907 N. Washtenaw Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to VERBATIM, 4907 N. Washtenaw Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625. VERBATIM is printed in Canada on recycled paper. Business and editorial offices are located at 4907 N. Washtenaw Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625. email: [email protected] web page: http://www.verbatimmag.com For subscriptions in U.K., Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East (UK£18), please write to VERBATIM, P.O. Box 156, Chearsley, Aylesbury, Bucks HP18 0DQ, or email: [email protected]. For subscriptions in North America (US$25) or anywhere else not covered above (US$30), please write VERBATIM, 4907 N. Washtenaw Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625 (800–897–3006), or email: [email protected]. VERBATIM VOL. XXVIII, NO. 1 Page 3 America generally do not warble. They were named check quick. For the nonalcohol crowd, there are for their physical similarity to unrelated European the Eastern towhee, who tells us Drink your tea; warblers that warble. Some birds are named for a the Carolina wren, who loudly sings teakettle, vocalization of a species in the same genus or fam- teakettle, teakettle; and the song sparrow, whose ily, even though they themselves do not make such complex song Richard Walton describes as Maids vocalizations. Not all cuckoos say coo-coo, just as maids maids pick up the tea kettle kettle kettle. The not all birds called kingfishers hunt for fish. A fly- flight call of the American goldfinch sometimes is catcher called the Eastern wood-pewee says pee-a- portrayed as potato chip. The barred owl hoots wee. But in Central America, the closely related Madame, who cooks for you? One guide to North greater pewee sings Jo-se Ma-RI-a. The Eastern American birds describes the song of the Acadian phoebe, another flycatcher, spits out its phoe-be flycatcher as “an explosive peet-suh” (perhaps song. But the song of the closely related black topped with hearts of napalm). phoebe sounds more like pee-wee. In Australia, the In Southern Queensland, naturalist Glen olive-backed oriole sings or-i-ole, but this is a coin- Threlfo helped me to learn the songs of three com- cidence that has nothing to do with the bird’s name. mon Australian “walking” birds in the rainforest. The translation of a song into words may be He said the brown pigeon asks Didja walk? Didja influenced by the location and culture of those lis- walk? The Wonga pigeon says walk walk walk walk tening. The white-throated sparrow is common in walk. And the loud but elusive noisy pitta screams many parts of North America. A familiar interpre- walk to work. Richard Walton uses a similar teach- tation of its song is Old Sam Peabody Peabody ing technique to Threlfo’s; he groups similar vocal- Peabody. In Canada, the interpretation is more izations and explains the differences. The American likely to be Oh Sweet Canada Canada Canada. The robin has the clear pleasant song cheerily, cheer-up, song of the short-billed pigeon, found in Central cheerily. Walton describes the scarlet tanager as and South America, sounds like who-COOKS-for- sounding like “a robin with a sore throat.” The tan- YOU to people speaking English and dos TON-tos ager’s song has a similar length and rhythm to the SON (‘they are two fools’) to Spanish speakers. Dos robin’s but sounds burry. tontos son is the Spanish name for the species. A familiar characterization of birdsong is tweet, The use of familiar words or phrases in some as reflected in the cartoon character Tweety Pie mnemonics involves a sacrifice of accuracy so that and the lyrics to the song “When My Sugar Walks birders can more easily remember the songs. David Down the Street.” Few little birdies actually say Sibley’s North American Bird Guide portrays one of tweet tweet tweet. One that does is the prothono- the songs of the black-throated green warbler as tary warbler, which became a topic of controversy zoooo zeee zo zo zeet. Richard Walton’s recordings during the Alger Hiss trial in the 1950s. Its song of North American birdsongs describe it as trees, sounds like tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet. The yel- trees, murmuring trees.