Goofy, off-topic bleg
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Could anyone who speaks any foreign language, (except french, got that one...,) provide me with onomatopoetic words for the sound a bell makes? (and the language used?)
    You know, Flemish for "ting-a-ling" or Swahili for "ding-dong?" Urdu for "bong"?
    I used to have a book, by John Train, IIRC, that had various language words for sounds, and I thought to use them in a "bell" piece for children for Christmas, (competely non-liturgical) but can't put my hands on it.
    Any help greatly appreciated.

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    "Kling" in German, as in the children's Christmas song: "Kling, Gloekchen, kling-a ling-a-ling..."
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,204
    As "English" may be a foreign language to some (the Queen's English, that is), they call their two-toned clock tower chimes a "tin-tan". (Sounds more Asian than English, don't it!?!)
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Bumping.
    Thank you very much! , but no one else? No one knows a smidge of some exotic language? (Bell sounds seems to figure prominently in children's songs)
  • gregpgregp
    Posts: 632
    G, this is way out of left field, but in Boris Godounov, there is one point in Act 4 where the boys are teasing the simpleton, and they sing "Dzin, dzin , dzin!". I think they're hitting him on head and he's wearing a metal pot or something for a hat. My Russian has deteriorated to the point where I can't read the libretto and figure it out. Any Russian speakers of operaphiles?
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Don't forget the chorus in Act I of I Pagliacci, where the peasants sing "Don, din don, din don." There's a religious connection there, too -- it's the feast of "Mezz'Agosto" -- August 15. Apparently it was already a traditional holiday in Italy before the Pope declared it the real deal in 1870.

    This may explain why the people are willing to wait up until "venti-tre ore" (11:00 PM!) to go see some tired commedia dell'arte performance (though the plot twist must have been a breath of fresh air).
  • priorstf
    Posts: 460
    Just a couple from a quick web search:
    Try Kongur as the sound of a big bell in the Tuvan language of southern Siberian yak herders.
    Or go for ka--n ka--n for big bells and go--n go--n for smaller bells in Japanese.
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Fantastic, thank you all so much!

    "Kongur as the sound of a big bell in the Tuvan language"

    Now THAT is one the web searches of this technidiot did not reveal... (did come up with Tzotzil)

    Save the Liturgy, Save the World
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