Random thoughts on one-syllable animal names

Raindrop

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Hi, I'm not sure if this the right sub-forum for this rather random post, but let's give it a go!

I was just thinking yesterday about world-building. Specifically, if I had to create an animal, one that is very common, what would the laypeople of my world call it? I thought a good place to start would be to have a look at the names of really basic, really common animals in the real world.

I jotted down the first ones I could think of.

cat, dog, wolf, cow, horse, bear, boar, goat, pig, bird, fish, deer, fly, sheep, fox, bees, owl, moth, bugs, hawk, rat, mouse
Exception: mosquito

That's a lot of one-syllable words. Granted, this isn't a full list of common animals in the UK; and as soon as you delve deeper into the taxonomy, you quickly get to three-syllable words (kingfisher). Also, the English language is quite enamoured with short words.

So, for fun, I translated them into French, a language that eyes short words with suspicion:
chat, chien, loup, vache, cheval, ours, sanglier, chevre, cochon, oiseau, poisson, daim, mouche, mouton, renard, abeilles, chouette, mite, bestioles, faucon, rat, souris
That's... a lot of short words. Not quite as short as English, but still.


The other lovely thing is, some of the words sound like the animal they describe: wolf, bees -- a singular bee isn't a real bee, owl, fox (have you heard them bark?), even hawk
Exception: mosquito; seeing as bees is already taken, we should totally call them "Splat!", because that's the sound you hear just after someone's been stung.


I'd love to hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about (unlike me), but I'm thinking that, maybe, these are very, very old worlds. The essential ones that humans have needed since we decided that rambling about nothing and everything was a good idea. Calling them by their sounds makes a lot of sense. Short words, too: I'd rather yell: "Bear!" rather than "That growling, furry creature that stands on his hind legs is pissed off at me because I stole all the honey made by those buzzing, crowd-loving flying insects in striped uniforms."

I don't know, I just... like those words. It's interesting. And I know when I next have to "create" a common animal, I'll try to find a short name for it.
 
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Tazlima

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I'm a huge fan of animal names (and other words) derived from onomatopoea. You see a particularly large number of them in bird names, where the name sounds like the bird's call. Bobwhite, peewit, whippoorwill, etc.

It's also fun to listen to bird sounds and interpret them yourself. (When pigeons are breeding, the males will stand in front of the females and turn in circles, bobbing up and down to show off and making a call that I swear sounds like they're saying "Lookit the birrrd, lookit the birrrd." It cracks me up every time).

In fictional worlds, Pokemon has implemented this pattern (in reverse, assigning the names and then giving the pokemon dialogue consisting only of that word) to an absurd extent, and it's served them well.
 
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Raindrop

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Ah ah, I'll have to listen to those pigeons!

You're absolutely right about the birds. I just thought of the chiffchaff (also called "ZipZahl" where I'm from, as if they were counting money), and obviously the crow, although you can never be quite sure what this master of imitation will sound like. At a stretch: geese (who manage to sound very nasal without using the "n"... or without a proper nose, really), swan (a bit uppity)...

Oh, and whale!

Another derived word I quite like is "brush". I know, not an animal, but listen to yourself brushing your hair... It's so appropriate. If I could travel back in time, I'd really like to meet the people who created languages. They must have been very observant, very clever people.

I like squirrel too, by the way -- looking at your avatar. It's also an onomatopoeia of itself. Even the shape works (S for the tail). It's actually one of my very favourite words.

My, I love words!
 
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