“Many of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners still have some element of farm nostalgia in our family past, real or imagined: a secret longing for some connection to a life where a rooster crows in the yard.”
Barbara Kingsolver
European Cock-a-Doodle-Doo [*]
“Cocorico! Kikeriki! Cock-a-doodle-doo! Europeans are so multilingual that even their roosters speak several languages. There is much to be learned from a single animal actually. The rooster makes without doubt exactly the same sound across Europe when it crows. But surprisingly Europeans do not hear the same sound as they listen to him and do not translate it the same way in their onomatopoeias. This leads to this funny list of European cockcrows – completed with fun facts about the importance of roosters in all countries. If you want to hear the pronunciation of each one, just watch this video made by the European Parliament. It is hilarious!”
*Quotation above is taken directly from the website cited and is the property of that source. It is meant to inform the reader and to give credit where it is due.
“Maurice” the Rooster Makes Headlines Around the World [*]
“You may have heard of the feisty fellow. Maurice made headlines around the world this summer as he became the object of a dispute between neighbours on an island off the west coast of France, Île d’Oléron. Joined to the mainland by a bridge on the Atlantic, it’s an idyllic holiday spot.
Maurice was crowing too early in the day and with too much gusto as far as his city-slicker neighbours were concerned. Roosters can make a hell of a racket. And they don’t just crow when the sun comes up. They can be like watch dogs, setting off their vocal alarm at odd hours of the day or night. This upset the holiday people who had bought a second home in the country to enjoy some peace and quiet.
The problem is that the countryside is not by nature a quiet place. There are ducks and chickens and cows and church bells. The farmers are out from dawn to dusk and their machines also make noise. The court case between Maurice and the city people represented the great divide between urban and rural France. The city mice vs. the country mice.”
*Quotation above is taken directly from the website cited and is the property of that source. It is meant to inform the reader and to give credit where it is due.
