![]() That is no coincidence! The term coucou was taken from the German cuckoo clocks! Some of you who are a bit familiar with French may realize that is also the French word for “hello.” It is also their version of the game peek-a-boo. Now, there is also a traditional Persian egg dish called kuku, and the French have an entirely different way to spell the cuckoo clock- all adding to the spelling confusion. The correct French spelling of cuckoo clock is coucou. Interesting note, in an actual cuckoo clock, the sounds are made with each their own bellow and emit from the back of the clock. This shows pretty clearly why some people spell it kuku or kuko.” “The correct German spelling is Kuckucksuhr. The German spelling (and one could argue, the correct spelling because these clocks originate from Germany) is a bit different. This is due to the fact that the musical cuckoo call is nearly a major third musical interval. So, when English speakers form the sound coo coo the first sound of the “cukoo” is a higher pitched and shorter than the second sound. The English spelling is a cuckoo clock, although may opt for the more phonetic version of coo-coo clocks. The sound that bird makes seems like it would be spelled “ coo-coo ” to most English speakers. It’s understandable, especially to non-native German speakers. One of the most common questions about cuckoo clocks, is just how do you spell ‘cuckoo’.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |