Oink
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The word oink has more than one use:-
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Spelling of pig noise
"Oink" is the usual way that the grunting of a pig is represented in the English language. As with other examples of onomatopoeia or imitative sounds, other cultures "hear" the pig's grunts differently and represent them in their own ways. Some of the equivalents of "oink" in other European and Asian languages are as follows:
- Afrikaans - snork
- Albanian - hunk
- Bulgarian - gruh
- Cantonese Chinese - god
- Croatian - rok
- Czech - chro
- Danish - øf
- Dutch - knor
- Estonian - rui
- Finnish - röh
- French - groin
- German - grunz
- Hungarian - röf
- Japanese - buu
- Korean - kkool kkool
- Latvian - ruk
- Lithuanian - kryu
- Mandarin Chinese - hulu
- Min Nan - kōⁿ
- Norwegian - nøff
- Polish - chrum
- Romanian - groh, guiţ
- Russian - khryu
- Swedish - nöff
- Thai - ood
- Welsh - soch
Note the similarities between the renderings in related languages, such as röh, rui and röf in Finland, Estonia and Hungary respectively, or chrum and khryu in Poland and Russia. This reflects shared linguistic heritages – Finno-Ugric and Slavic respectively, for the examples quoted above – and suggests an old origin for many of the renderings. However, the English word "oink" is fairly recent, apparently dating only from the 1940s. Spanish uses much the same representation as English, rendering it as "¡oink!". This may be a borrowing from English.
As an acronym
During the 1980s, OINK was also used as an acronym for a person with "one income and no kids", characterising one type of yuppie worker.
A British comic
Oink! was also the title of a British comic for children which was published from 3 May 1986-22 October 1988. It set out to be deliberately anarchic, being "run" by a character called Uncle Pigg (compare 2000 AD's Tharg the Mighty). It proved somewhat controversial, with various conservative groups branding it offensive and unsuitable for children and succeeding in having it pulled from newsagents' shelves on several occasions. It was finally wound up after 68 issues, merging with Buster, after being sold to the newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell.
See also
External links
- Oink Comic (http://www.oinkcomic.co.uk/) - tribute to the comic Oink!
- Oink! Online (http://www.notbbc.co.uk/oink/) - many scans of Oink! issues