Ribbit! (1965)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, ME "quek" became EModE "queck" and then "quack" - but OED has these as verbs only.

Curious.

JL

"Joanne M. Despres" <jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Joanne M. Despres"
Subject: Re: Ribbit! (1965)
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Regarding "quack": I believe a duck in Chaucer's Parlement of
Foules at one point intones a "quek." I'm not sure if the sound-
change laws would render that as "quack" in modern English, but it
sounds pretty close.

Joanne Despres
Merriam-Webster

On 9 Mar 2005, at 14:22, Tom Kysilko wrote:

> Quoting Jonathan Lighter :
>
> > The late appearance of "ribbit" may be compared with the
earlier, but still
> > surprisingly recent, appearance of "quack," "honk," and "oink."
>
> What interests me is that "ribbit" has attained this status as
*the* answer to
> the question "What does a frog say?" so recently. When I was a
child, I
> learned from my mother and Captain Kangaroo that froggies went
"garump".
> "Greedeep" (or some spelling thereof) has also had considerable
currency in my
> lifetime.
>
> It might be interesting to compare the various English
translations of the frog
> noise in Aristophanes, THE FROGS. I believe Dudley Fitts used
"Brekeke kesh"
> or something similar.
>
> --Tom Kysilko

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