do cows say moo or meu?

Question

In English, cows say "moo", in French cows say "meu", cows can't be English or French so what do they really say and why do languages change what they say?

Answer 1

LOL, you'll love this!

CNN has an answer for this!
http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1202537772&pt=Y
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Farmers: Cows mooo with a twang

Wednesday, August 23, 2006; Posted: 1:36 p.m. EDT (17:36 GMT)

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Cows have regional accents, a group of British farmers claims, and phonetics experts say the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds. ...
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Answer 2

I speak English and I hear cows say "moo". Mabe French people hear them say "meu". That's the only reason I can think of for why different languages change what animals "say".

Answer 3

Good question, I have no idea why the actual sound we associate with cows is "moo" anyway. It sounds nothing like it... more like, "mmmyarrrr!" if you can imagine what that sounds like... anyway, it's mostly the same noises all around the world that cows make, and let's think... dogs don't make a "bark", cats don't make a "meow"... not a defined "me-ow" anyway. More of a yowling sound. Language has to change sounds into words, so I guess that is what has happened here. Happy questioning! =)

Answer 4

It not really a sound that people make very easily, so we approximate the sound. Also cow don't always "moo" so it speak, the same way every time. I have heard them make sounds that sound more like this, from time to time.... Maaaaaa, mooowww, and baaaahhh, then there always that sound that they make when they get mad, and I've really have never stuck around in an area long enough to decipher just how to attempt to spell out that sound.

Answer 5

you say po-tay-to, i say po-tah-to...

The word "moo" is transliterated from a sound into an approximate language form using pronunciation combinations of consonants and vowels.

What that means is, every letter in an alphabet represents one of the sounds that the human mouth + voice can create.

What you're not seeing is that while English and French share the same alphabet, we do not share the same pronunciation of each letter.

Onomatopoeia is fun. Words that are onomatopoeic do not have 'correct' spellings, they are approximations of trying to convert a sound you hear into an actual word.



EDIT: corrected some spelling and added some stuff for clarity.

Answer 6

the meaning is the same only the spelling changes because of the language. actually i don't think cows even say moo. it's more like a bleat. they don't have lips so how can they make the 'm' sound?

Answer 7

Cows don't aay moo or meu cows say oink oink

Answer 8

the sound a cow makes is closer to "moo" but it is really just a deep sound that really can't be spelled out.

Answer 9

they say "moo" this is a swahili word. In Kenya we use "Shika-moo" as a respectable greetin ie to greet ur elder. This word originally meant touch ur knees a gesture of respect. but since cows dont touch their knees they basically mean "on my knees - hellooo". This is their way of greeting with all respect.

Answer 10

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