How Do You Spell Dog

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The history of describing (and transcribing) dog words into English.

If your canis familiaris is annihilation similar my dog, you've been privy to some wild, far-out noises that aren't quite covered past the words "bow-wow," "woof," "arf," and "bark." Whether he's happy, sad, bored, playful, edgy, or excited, my rat terrier Monkey makes indescribable, untranslatable sounds that just a recording could capture: Any attempt to put Doglish into English is doomed from the outset.Impossible chore or not, people take been trying to draw (or transcribe) dog sounds as long as people have loved (and had to listen to) dogs. It's no hugger-mugger that other languages have their ain interpretations: for example, domestic dog barks are expressed as "vov-vov," "chau-chau," "kian-kian," "hev-hev," and "guf-guf," in Danish, Russian, Japanese, Turkish, and Spanish respectively.It's non-and so-well-known that there's been but as much variation within English when it comes to reporting the yip-yaps and bow-wows of our pooches and pals. What follows are some facts from the Oxford English language Dictionary-the Bible of the English language language, though with fewer lepers and smitings-on the history of our attempts to speak for and about dogs.The Oxford English Dictionary'south latest update included a long overdue entry for "arf," which is first recorded in a 1918 cartoon caption: "I'll be leader for a game of foller [sic] the leader... Tweet, tweet... Eek, eek... Arf, arf, arf!" Since the early thirties, "arf arf" has done double duty, every bit it also imperfectly represents laughter. In a notation on the OED update, Managing Editor Michael Proffitt noted a cartoony common denominator: "... both senses of arf were popularized by their associations with irrepressible icons of American comic strips: Little Orphan Annie and Popeye the Sailor. Sandy, Lilliputian Orphan Annie's 'canine companion', wasn't the start cartoon dog to utter an arf, just his was the bark heard effectually the world (or at to the lowest degree read beyond America, in Harold Gray's widely syndicated cartoon).""Arf" is not far sound-wise from a bunch of terms meaning canine growling and/or snarling, such as the onomatopoeic "grrrr" and the now-obscure "yar" (1300s), "hurr" (1636), "harr" (1387), "narr" (1509), "gnar" (1496), and the piratical "arr" (1483). Another grrr-y word is "girn": a variation of "smiling" that too means "To evidence the teeth in rage, pain, disappointment, etc.; to snarl every bit a dog; to mutter persistently; to be fretful or peevish." Appropriately enough, "r" is known equally the "dog's letter," a term anticipated by this quote from Romeo and Juliet: "Doth not Rosemarie and Romeo begin both with a letter?.. Both with an R... A mocker! that'south the dogs name."If "r" is the dog's letter, "f" must exist the runner-up. "Blaff," "baff," "vitrify," "nyaff," "yaff," "yaffle," and even "waffle" accept all been used to describe barks, non to mention "woof"-the valedictorian of domestic dog words (except for perchance "bow-wow," get-go institute in the 1500s and sometimes spelled "bowgh-wawgh," "bough-wough," and "baw-waw"). Woof (around since 1804) has close relatives that include "wuff," "ouff," "owff," "wowff," and "waff." This 1894 citation semi-helpfully explains: "A canis familiaris 'woughs', but a puppy waffs." Maybe because it'southward and so fun to say, "woof" has taken on plenty of non-dog meanings over the years. Since 1934, it'due south been African-American slang for talking "in an ostentatious or aggressive way," and since 1943, it's been used to mean "consume ravenously." To illustrate all three meanings, this morning I woofed down a full stack of Swedish pancakes with lingonberries, then I woofed about it to my dog, who woofed in response.Another article could accept been written on howling, that specialty of dogs, wolves, and werewolves. "Howl" itself has been used since 1390, and there have been plenty of regional, colloquial, technical, and dialectical synonyms, including "blart," "gowl," "gurl," "exululate," "waul," "whewl," "woul," "ululate," "wowl," "yarm," "yerr," "yoll," and "yowt." Though it mainly describes homo-ish howling, I love the Irish English discussion "pillaloo," which is used in a sad yet mannerly judgement here: "Nanny sitting in the chimney corner whillilew-ing and pillillew-ing, crying the very eyes out of her head" (1899). My dog is besides fond of whillilew-ing and pillillew-ing as he impatiently waits for the elevator to carry him to a playdate with his buddy Jed.Nigh of these words are near-extinct or totally deceased, merely like a decease in the commencement twenty minutes of a zombie movie, things tin can change. Some could be sleeping beauties, like "unfriend" and "truthiness," ready to outburst into popular use later on centuries of sack time. Could you be the Stephen Colbert of 1 of these words? I doubt it, simply you never know: If "yaffle," "girn," or "ouff" audio right to you, use them next time you write a web log entry, brusque story, or New Yorker drawing submission nearly your dog. Your humble author and the not-then-humble, ginormous OED will back you up.Plus, as this metric dogload of lost words indicates, there's always room for more than. If your ears and alphabet tell you lot that your canis familiaris goes "frolf," "googa-boo," or "rrrr-hrrrr-mrrrrr," don't be afraid to say then. Peradventure you'll even effigy out which words best stand for "back off, buddy" and "let'southward play, dude!" to dogs. Human spelling will ever lag behind dog barking-so you should pillaloo and yawp and gnar as you see fit.Photo courtesy of Snickers.