Cockney, Geordie and Scouse ducks? What aboot Yorkshire?

[Guest]

Ducks 'quack in regional accents' - It may sound like a load of quackers but according to new research ducks have regional accents. (BBC News online)

"Cockney" ducks from London make a rougher sound, not unlike their human counterparts, so their fellow quackers can hear them above the city's hubbub. But their Cornish cousins communicate with a softer, more relaxed sound, the team from Middlesex University found. Ducks, like humans, are influenced by their environment, said Dr Victoria De Rijke, who has been nicknamed Dr Quack. Her research team discovered the difference after recording the quacks of ducks at two separate locations.

The birds at Spitalfields City Farm in the heart of the cockney east London, were found to be "much louder and vocally excitable" than the ducks recorded on Trerieve Farm in Downderry, Cornwall, said English language lecturer Dr De Rijke. "The Cornish ducks made longer and more relaxed sounds, much more chilled out. The cockney (London) quack is like a shout and a laugh, whereas the Cornish ducks sound more like they are giggling," she added. "London ducks have the stress of city life and a lot of noise to compete with, like sirens, horns, planes and trains."

The Cornish ducks' open and quiet surroundings made all the difference to the way they quacked, she said. "So it is like humans; cockneys have short open vowels whereas the Cornish have longer vowels and speak fairly slowly," Dr De Rijke concluded.

The study was designed to look at how language developed and Dr De Rijke now hopes to study the quacking sounds of Irish, Geordie and scouse ducks. Dr De Rijke said she chose ducks because they were sociable and had a good sense of humour like humans.

 

[English Lady]

Hee hee this is cool research You know, thinking about itthe ducks I hear over inthe local park here (near a busy road) seem louder than the ducks I visit when I go to my dads (in the middle of nowhere)

thanks Perdita!

 

[EnglishMuffin]

apparently, rats are capable of distinguishing human languages, like say, japanese from dutch. it was in the paper the other day.

 

[oggbashan]

Our local zoo has just acquired some baboons from a zoo near Paris. The baboons only understand commands such as 'Move' in French so the keepers have been issued with a list of the French Keepers' commands.

Next month the baboon colony will be augmented by more baboons, this time from Germany. The keepers hope to merge the two sets of baboons into one troop about the group size that would exist in the wild.

Will the new baboons only understand German? Will the combined troop respond to French, German or eventually to English? Can the baboons communicate with each other without problems? Watch this space.

Og

PS. The French baboons are used to Parisian French. They are not impressed with the Kentish keepers' version of French and show their displeasure as baboons do - with a display of ass.

 

[TheEarl]

Useless fact of the day:

A duck's quack is the only discovered sound in the entire world that never echoes. And scientists have no idea why.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

Watch this space.

Please keep us informed, Ogg. Perhaps the update could take the form of a 'Python' skit.

Perdita

 

[oggbashan]

Please keep us informed, Ogg. Perhaps the update could take the form of a 'Python' skit.

Perdita

You can watch the zoo yourself:

Howletts and Port Lympne

The new baboons are at Port Lympne.

Og

 

[cantdog]

Re: Useless fact of the day:

A duck's quack is the only discovered sound in the entire world that never echoes. And scientists have no idea why.

The Earl

I hunted in the fall in the woods, day-long walks in the cold, mostly. One could always "place" the ducks. (Maine ducks are muted and murmurous; Mass. ducks hang out around the docks and smoke cigars, by the way.)

That is, one could listen to the sounds and tellwhich pond and which end of the pond they were on. They did echo, actually, but the sounds were not confusing because of it, not as to placement in three-dimensional space. The studies I read about that quality, of being able to tell where a sound was being produced despite any echoing, concluded that bass notes do better than treble ones.

Migrating birds are supposed to guide by the bass notes of the two oceans slapping the beaches, from hundreds of miles of distance. Whales are also supposed to use bass roars like that to guide their movements, and beachings are occasionally found to hinge on a sub-woofing plant of some kind or a rumble from traffic.

But ducks do not seem to be producing ultra-bass notes. Just the same, they are always definitely placeable, if I may coin one.

 

[Liar]

Re: Useless fact of the day:

A duck's quack is the only discovered sound in the entire world that never echoes. And scientists have no idea why.

The Earl

Yes they know, actually. Read about it a while ago. A ducks's quack do echo, but the timbre (the profile of the sub-tones) of the quack matches the timbre of an echo (apparently some sub-tones are always missing from a generic echo), so you can't tell the two apart if they are close enough. And because of this, an echo from a duck is not very loud because the sound depend on those sub-frequencies that echoes filter out.

Or something like that.

#L, the audio nerd