What do animals say in classical Latin?

Question

It is well known that the way animals "speak" is amusingly different in different languages. (See lion below.) This makes it hard to guess what kinds of words the Romans would have put in the mouths of various animals. Are there attested animal sounds in classical Latin literature?

I am interested in all animals, but if you think this is too broad (if numerous animal sounds are known and scattered all over the extant literature), I can narrow it down.

Notice that I am not looking for verbs corresponding to animal sounds (barking, hissing, roaring and so on), but for "direct quotes from animals". A collection of relevant verbs can be found here, and online dictionaries can probably be used to compile more thorough ones.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, the verbs have survived much better in writing than the actual onomatopoeia. A few of these are fairly clearly based on the sound: baubor "bark", hinnio "whinny", ululo "howl" (and ulula "owl"), mugio "moo", crocio "croak". See Suetonius, De Naturis Animantium for a long list of these.

As far as directly transcribing animal sounds, only a few examples are listed in the dictionaries I've found:

• cocococo — rooster crowing
• bee — sheep bleating
• hinni — horse whinnying (also listed here) debatable

A few more for Greek are listed in the LSJ:

• βαά/baá — dog barking
• βῆ/bẽ — sheep bleating (as bee above)
• γρῦ/grũ — pig grunting (compare Latin grunnio, "grunt")
• ἀρρα/arra — dog growling
• μῦ/mũ — cow mooing
• υ/hu — owl hooting

These were likely similar between Latin and Greek, but I can't find solid evidence of them being used in Latin.

There is also the famous brekekekèx koàx koáx from Aristophanes' Frogs (translations), which is still occasionally used in English nowadays. But I've only heard it as a reference to the Frogs, not because it sounds much like an actual frog.

Answer 2

Three examples I have just now come across (edit make that four examples - see "owl" below):

Donkey

Lucius, having been turned into a donkey tries to draw attention to his plight, by calling upon the name of Caesar:

Et “O” quidem tantum disertum ac validum clamitavi, reliquum autem Caesaris nomen enuntiare non potui.

And indeed I shouted “O” by itself eloquently and vigorously, but I could not pronounce the rest of Caesar’s name.

Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 3.29

Later (7.3), wanting to clear his name for some crime committed while still a human, he tries to call out again:

... volui dicere: “Non feci.” Et verbum quidem praecedens semel ac saepius immodice clamitavi, sequens vero nullo pacto disserere potui, sed in prima remansi voce et identidem boavi “Non non” ...

I wanted to say: "I didn't do it." And although I shouted the first word over and over again, without restraint, I simply could not pronounce the second word, but I was stuck on that first word and brayed again and again, “Non . . . non . . ."

Which I can't help pronouncing the French, nasally way, to imitate what I (an English speaker) think a donkey sounds like.

Dog

... cum dicit - ‘r’; non multum est hoc cacosyntheton atque canina si lingua dico; nihil ad me; nomen enim illi est.

... when he says - "r"; it does not make much difference if I speak this in an incorrect connection of words and in dog-language; it's nothing to me; because that's its name.

Lucilius, Satires, 9:389–9

To be honest, I'm not sure what this is about but clearly "rrrrr" sounds like a dog to the writer (an angry one, I imagine!).

Owl

Varro gives the following onomatopoeic etymology for the "night owl", noctua:

quod noctu canit et vigilat

because it sings 'noctu' ('at night') and stays up overnight

On the Latin Language, 5.11.76