There is a little-known phenomenon of interpreting the sounds of birds, insects, animals, and inanimate objects as intelligible yet onomatopoeic human words. Common examples include the Yellowhammer's song being rendered as, 'A little bit of bread and no cheese, please' and the Bushcricket saying, 'Katy did, Katy didn't'. Despite being apparently widespread across languages and cultures, little has written about it. It is not generally known by any specific term, although interpretations of birds are often referred to by North American birders as 'birdsong mnemonics'. Where it has been discussed it has been limited to the sounds of birds, often in relation to bird names or onomatopoeia. However, collecting and analysing over 1500 examples which span 62 languages has allowed Helen Mae Innes to offer fresh insights into this phenomenon. In this book she describes the method used to create the collection; brings together the sound imitations of birds, insects, animals, and objects for the first time; examines what these imitations have in common; and argues for the use of new terminology and classification of these examples.
