Tintin Forums

Does anyone know what onomatopoeic words are used in foreign language Tintin books? For example a gun being fired in the English version is 'BANG', but in the French it is 'PAN'. I would like to know from people who read Tintin in other languages what words are used to describe noises.

OK, in the English version it goes "Cheeep Cheeep Cheeep", but it's "Quiek Quiek Quiek" in the German edition. The Swedish book has it as "Knirrr Knirrr Knirrr", the Welsh book "Tw-ît Tw-ît Tw-ît" but it's "Tchiip Tchiip Tchiip" in the original French. The Captain says it sounds like a bird.

Any guesses as to what it is?

Is that the noise of diving system air pump in Red Rackham's Treasure, heard by Tintin and Haddock in the dead of night as it's kept turning by the Thom[p]sons in the absense of any direct order to stop?

That's it! The squeaky wheel on the pump. Ah, I felt so sorry for the Thom(p)sons getting a tongue-lash from the Captain for their efforts, bless 'em!

Hi !

Excuse me from posting quite lately...
The subject you're focusing on is quite intersting ! As I have the English, French and Spanish versions of "Tintin and the Picaros", I had fun comparing the onomatopoeias in some pages... That's quite funny. Let's see :
- Page 1, Haddock spits his whisky. In French, it's "Pfouah", in English "Pfouagh", in spanish "Puaf" !
- Page 3, the phone rings : "Drrring" in French, "Rrrring" in English, "Riiing" in Spanish. Well, here it's a culture matter I think.
- Page 7, Haddock spits him whisky, again. It sounds like "Bêêk!" in French, "Eurk!" in English, "Puaf!" in Spanish (note that Spanish is the only one to keep the same onomatopoeia as in page 1)
- Page 13, the San Theodoros siren can be heard with a "Piou piou piou!" in French, a "Whowowowowowow!" in English and a quite classic "Uuuuuuuuuuuuu!" in Spanish.
- Page 17, Manolo breaks the window-pane. The result : "Dzing!" in French, "Zzing!" in English and "Cling!" in Spanish.
- Page 26 : gun shots. As tintrix noticed it, it's "Pan!" in French and "Bang!" in English. Just for precision, in Spanish it's "Pam!".