Last night my 13-year-old daughter and I were figuring out all the ways we know how to say the word “dog” in different languages. We came up with eight, not including English: Italian, German, Greek, Russian, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Latin. We realized that we know how to say “dog” in more languages than we know how to say anything else. Then we decided we wanted to be more fluent in “dog,” since dogs are kind of a universal language, like music or math. I found this great list of ways to say “dog” in different languages on the website Dog Breed Info and thought that since Dogsters are always interested in broadening their knowledge of things canine, you would enjoy it.

Should the next Wordy Wednesday be “A Woof By Any Other Name”? I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know all the ways dogs “speak” around the world.

“Dog” in different languages:

Ainu = seta

Afrikaans = hond

Akkadian = kalbum

Albanian = qen

Amharic = wshsha

Anglo-Saxon = docga, hund

Apache = gshe

Arabic = calb

Aramaic = oblkd

Armenian = shun

Assamese = kukur

Assyrian = kalbu

Basque = zakur, txakur

Belarusian = sabaka

Bemba = imbwa

Bengali = kutro

Bugotu = aku, iuiu

Bulgarian = kuche

Burmese = hkway:

Cantonese = gu, ku

Catalan = gos

Chechen = zh9ala

Cherokee = gi li, gi-tli

Chinese = gau

Cornish = ky

Czech = pes

Danish = hund

Dholuo = guok

Dutch = hond

Ecuadorian Quechua = allcu

Egyptian (ancient) = auau, uahr, uher

Eskimo = kringmerk

Esperanto = hundo

Estonian = koer

Faeroese = hundur

Fijian = kolii

Finnish = koira

French = chien

Gagauz = kpek

Galician = can

Georgian = dzahhli

German = hund

Grebo = gbe

Greek = skylos

Gujarati = kutto

Haitian Creole = chen

Hawaiian = ilio, ‘iilio

Hebrew = kelev

Hindi = kuttA or shvAna

Hungarian = kutya

Icelandic = hond

Igbo = nkita

Indonesian = mengikuti

Interlingua = can

Inuktitut = qimmiq

Irish = madra

Italian = cane

Japanese = Inu

Kobon = kain

Komi-Permyak = pon

Kongo = mbwa

Korean = gae

Kurdish = seg, fendo, kelb, kik

Kyrgyz = it

Ladan = lanemid

Latin = canis

Latvian = suns

Lingala = mbwa

Lithuanian = sunis

Loglan = kangu

Lojban = gerku

Macedonian = kuche, pes

Malayalam = pa tti

Maltese = kelb

Malay = anjing

Mandinka = wulo

Manx = moddey

Mohawk = erhar

Moldavian = kyne

Mongolian = noqai, nohoj

Navajo = lha-cha-eh

Nepali = kukur

Nivkh = qan

Norwegian = hund

Ojibwe = animosh

Pahlavi = en

Papago-Pima = gogs

Pashto = spay

Persian, Farsi = sag

Pidgin = dok

Pilipino = aso

Polish = pies

Portuguese = co

Pulaar = rawaandu

Pushtu = spay

Romanian = cine

Romany = rikono

Roviana = siki

Ruanda = inbwa

Russian = sobaka (cobaka)

Samoan = maile

Sanskrit = sarameyah

Sardinian = cane

Scottish = c

Sepedi = mpaa

Serbian = pas

Shona = imbwa

Sicilian = cani

Slovak = pes

Slovene = pes

Somali = eey

Sorbian, Wendish, Upper Lusatian = pos, psyk

Sotho, Southern; Sesotho, Sesuto = ntja

Spanish = perro

Swahili = mbwa

Swedish = hund

Tagalog = so

Taiwanese = kao and kaw ar

Tatar = et

Tiano = ao n

Thai = , mah, soonahk

Tibetan = khyi

Tocharian = ku

Turkish = kpek

Twi, Akan = okeraman

Ukrainian = sobaka, pes

Urdu = kutta

Uzbek = it

Vietnamese = ch

Welsh = ci

Wolof = hatch, xaj

Yakut = yt

Yiddish = kelef or hunt

Yoeme = chuu’u

Yoruba = aja

Yucatec = pek

Yup’ik = qimugta

Zarma = hansi

Zulu = inja

Photo: Exotic/Mundane