Warblish: Happy Thought for 26 November 2021

November 26, 2021

Have a Happy Thought:

You get to learn a new word today – Warblish.

Have you ever been listening to a bird singing, and wanted to know what bird that is?

Well, you’re not alone.

For example, I typed in “bird song mnemonics” into google, and I’d like to share the third result in particular with you:

(the answer was apparently a Black-Capped Chickadee, by the way, which is a North American bird. I learned their song as chick-a-dee-dee-dee though, so I strongly disagree with the wee woo wee woo description…)

A very smart person recently thought about the fact that most people assume this is a type of onomatopoeia (yes I had to use spell-check on that), which is “the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. … sizzle)” (Definitions from Oxford Languages).

Birders recognize that what they’re doing in ‘translating’ the bird sounds into words is… slightly different from that, because they’re not creating new words, they’re associating words they already know with this bird’s trilling, warbling, tweeting, calling, singing, whatever.

So this smart person coined a new word for when you use words to mimic a bird’s song:

Warblish.

Defined as “the imitation of avian vocalizations using existing words in human language”

Here’s a few examples (there are audio files in the linked pages for each bird, so you can listen for yourself):

The White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), who says ‘Oh sweet Canada, Canada, Canada’

Editor’s note: the first two notes are the first two notes of the Canadian National Anthem, so it’s really startling when the bird does NOT continue on to sing the whole song

Image © Keenan Yakola

The Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), mentioned earlier, says chick-a-dee-dee-dee, but also “hey sweetie”, and sometimes just “peep”

Editor’s note: ok, so ‘hey sweetie’ is really the only one of these that is warblish, the other two are onomatopoeia (yes I had to spell-check this word every time).

Image © Scott Martin

The Chiming Wedgebill (Psophodes occidentalis) says, ‘Why did you get drunk?’ (Australia)

Editor’s note: this is very Australian.

Image © Leslie George

The Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) says, ‘不如归去 / 不如歸去’ [You should go home] (China)

Editor’s note: yeah, cuckoo – go to your own home!

Image © Biju BP

The Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) says, ‘If I sees you, I will seize you, and I’ll squeeze you, till you squirt’ (USA)

Editor’s note: it really does!!

Image: © Dan Danko

The Fantailed Cuckoo (Sbaw, Cacomantis flabelliformis) says, ‘Tap sy ñban – ohoy!’ [You are eating stolen food, shame on you!] (PNG)

Editor’s note: there seems to be a (very deserved) theme when it comes to cuckoos…

The Ruru (Morepork, Tasmanian Spotted Owl, Ninox novaeseelandiae) who to English-speakers famously says its own name, ‘More, Pork!’

Editor’s note: the first time I saw one of these in real life, I was walking my in-laws’ dog, a bichon friese, when we saw a family of 2 adult, 3 juvenile ruru. The ruru were sizing up the bichon friese to see if it looked like a good snack. The juveniles were maybe half the size of the dog (and probably 1/10^th or less the weight). We all just stared at each other for a while. Humans in awe, ruru hungry, dog completely oblivious (something smelled really interesting on the ground right there, ok?).

Note to Editor’s note: Everyone made it home ok.