For a bit of fun, you might want to look at Cathy Ball's Sounds of the Worlds Animals. This is a fun site for the linguistically curious. You can read the animal sounds that humans make in all kinds of languages.
A much jazzier site dedicated to animal sounds can be found at bzzzpeek. Here you can actually listen to people pronounce the sounds they think animals make. Some sounds are almost universal, but there are some unique ones too. Listen to snake sounds to hear how different Japanese is from most other languages.
This is a far more graphically intense site which may take a moment or two to get used to. The "home" page has a cute picture of a kid, surrounded by the shapes of animals (and a few vehicles). Click any shape to hear the sounds people make in different countries. This site is set up in Europe and doesn't use much written language to tell about the site. How do you know which country makes which sound? The animals are colored like flags. This code tells you where the sound comes from. Don't know your flags? Click the "flags" link to see a list of flags and countries in a pop-up window.
I hope you enjoy these sites. Let us know if you find anything really interesting in them. Do you have a favorite sound from another language? Are any of the sounds puzzling?
If you would like to help Cathy Ball with here website, click here to add words to her lists.
