Searching for a book giving animal names in multiple languages

July 26, 2007 11:12 AM

This is a little esoteric (or silly), but does anyone know of a book that gives the words for various animals in multiple languages?

I came across a Romanian encyclopedia recently and really enjoyed the illustrated plates showing different families of animals and their names. I was wondering if there was a book that had something similar for more than one language. I've tried searching for language books aimed at kids, but haven't had luck finding one with lots of languages. Has anyone seen something like this?

posted by leesh to writing & language (8 comments total)

How's this? Looks like it covers a number of different languages.
posted by sephira at 11:37 AM on July 26, 2007

Okay no, this looks more like what you're looking for.
posted by sephira at 11:38 AM on July 26, 2007

I don't have a book recommendation, but you might find bzzzpeek interesting.
posted by jrossi4r at 11:39 AM on July 26, 2007

Those are all really cool, but I'm looking for the names of the animals (i.e., how do you say "pig" in various languages?), not the different noises they make. Still, it's a start, so thank you!
posted by leesh at 11:44 AM on July 26, 2007

I use wikipedia for just this purpose. It's not exactly kid-friendly, but it does have a large number of animals (and other things, of course) in many languages, all conveniently linked from the "in other languages" box in the bottom left of the page.
posted by beerbajay at 12:40 PM on July 26, 2007

23 species in French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish: Where's the Bear?
posted by Wolfdog at 12:40 PM on July 26, 2007

I never thought to use wikipedia! Now I know that in Polish, a raccoon is a Szop. Thanks, beerbajay!

And thanks for the book suggestion, Wolfdog--that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for.
posted by leesh at 12:55 PM on July 26, 2007

Animal names in various languages.

Not many animals, but fun.

Also: Bird names.
posted by languagehat at 3:34 PM on July 26, 2007