Snowy: Why "Woah!" and not "Woof!"...?

I was down in Oxford the other week. My brother is studying there, and we'd just been to the Tintin at Sea exhibition in Greenwich.

He pointed something out to me about Snowy's speech, and then showed me an essay that a friend wrote about it for her English degree.

In English, Snowy should go "Woof woof!", the sounds dogs make in English, but he actually goes "Woah woah!", the sound dogs make in French.

Just wondering about other translations around the world whether they translate Snowy or not into the local equivalent of "Woof!"

Rik

Here in Sweden, they translate it into "Vov Vov". But, sometimes in the new translations, he goes "Vouah Vouah".

-Gustav

British comedian Eddie Izzard used to have, as part of his routine, a bit about Snowy going Woah Woah! in French. Can't remember which recording it was off.

I like Vov Vov!

They allow students reading English at Oxford to write essays about Snowy? But Hergé's not an English writer, how can that be?

Snowy isn't really a dog he's an anthropomorphosised ('good evening, hossifer') human companion in dog form and therefore his character also inhabits a space that can be claimed by neither human nor dog; perhaps MT&LLC decided that leaving his bark in French would be serendipitously estranging for an English reader and help to highlight the 'otherness' of Snowy. Such a decision could have been made sub-consciously, of course.

When I was at Cambridge we weren't allowed to study any writers in translation, or I would have chosen Hergé, and did propose him for a dissertation, but was refused.

I am quite annoyed at the laxity displayed towards your friend, and I shall be asking the university authorities to investigate.

I take it that Beowulf is still on the Oxford curriculum, or has it been replaced by the Beano?

:-)

It was an essay on Onomatopœia - words that are like the way they sound. Crash, bang, cockadoodledoo, etc.

And Snowy was cited as the example.

Rik

I have some of the American Golden Press editions from the late 50s/early 60s in which Snowy says "woof" and "bow-wow" - it's strange, you become so used to "woah" that anything else just sounds wrong. - it's almost like "Oh, Snowy's just a dog?"

Chris ;)

In one story, Tintin mistakes the cries of a baby (should have been "Waaah" in English) for Snowy's call - both are represented as "Wouah Wouah", or however it's spelt.

A dog's bark doesn't normally sound like a baby so how did Hergé get away with this scene?

In Dutch Snowy ('Bobbie') barks as follows: "Woehaa woehaa".

There is a mistake in the English version of "The Blue Lotus" that relates to this: Snowy says "Wouah! Wouah!" in frame a3 of page 7, so just this once the original French spelling has been retained. Perhaps it's not so much of a mistake, but an inconsistency in the translation.

In Hebrew, if I recall, Snowy says "Hav! Hav!" which is par for the course for, er, Hebrew-speaking dogs. :)