When did Japanese dogs start barking “wan”? Their Heian-period cries were utterly adorable!
//Summary - Level-B2//
This text explores how Japanese onomatopoeia for dog sounds changed over time and what this reveals about culture. Before the Edo period, dogs were heard as barking “biyo” or “byō,” not “wan.” Historical texts show that “wan” appeared only in early Edo works. The two sounds coexisted for a while, with “biyo” describing distant or feral dogs and “wan” ordinary barks. As dogs became domesticated and kept on leashes, their voices changed, and “wan” became dominant. This linguistic shift reflects changing human–animal relationships in Japanese history.
11)
Following this line of thought and tracing the dog's bark through the ages, though it takes us much further, I found an example in which the dog's voice was unmistakably transcribed as the voiced sound “biyo”.
It's from the early Edo period kyōgen script ‘Kaki Yamabushi’. ‘Kaki Yamabushi’ is this story: Seeing a persimmon tree laden with fruit, a hungry mountain ascetic climbs it to steal and eat the persimmons.
But unfortunately, he's spotted by the owner of the tree. The owner, angry that his persimmons have been stolen, torments the ascetic. In that scene, it goes like this:
12)
Persimmon Owner: ‘If only I were a dog!’
Mountain Ascetic: ‘Ah, well, I suppose I must bark. Biyo-biyo.’ (Kyōgenki, Volume 3)
The mountain ascetic, hoping to avoid detection by the persimmon owner, imitates a dog's bark. This confirms that the dog's voice was ‘biyo’.
13)
From ‘biyo’ to ‘wan’
The reason for the change in the dog's bark
Until the mid-Edo period, this ‘biyo’ (sometimes ‘byō’) dog sound frequently appears. This suggests that from the early to mid-Edo period, two types of dog sounds existed. Please see Figure 6.
14)
We can see that the older ‘biyo’-type word and the newly emerged ‘wan’ coexisted from the early to mid-Edo period. Language values efficiency; when one word suffices, it will do. The existence of two types of dog sounds, “biyo” and ‘wan’, indicates a case of semantic differentiation.
15)
Research indicates that during this period, the distant howl of a dog was represented as ‘biyo (byō)’, while the ordinary bark was heard as ‘wan’, thus distinguishing between the two. After this period of coexistence between the two types of dog sounds, “wan” eventually gained dominance. When referring to a dog's sound, the term ‘wan’ emerged, a usage that continues to this day.
But why did the dog's bark change from ‘biyo’ to ‘wan’?
16)
It seems likely that a change occurred in the dogs' barking itself, making ‘wan’ a more appropriate transcription than ‘biyo’.
This is because zoologists have reported that when wolves, the ancestors of dogs, are captured and kept as pets, they become domesticated and develop a bark that sounds like ‘wan’. This suggests that a dog's voice can vary with its environment.
17)
So how did the dog's environment change?
Research indicates that, before the Edo period, dogs were kept free-roaming. It was cats that were kept on leashes. Free-roaming dogs quickly became wild.
The “Konjaku Monogatari Shū” (Tales of Times Past), from the late Heian period, contains accounts of women and children being killed and eaten by wild dogs at night.
Furthermore, the Nine Phases of Death Emaki scroll, created during the Kamakura period, depicts wild dogs and crows feeding on a woman's corpse. One imagines the voices of such feral dogs were combative, muffled, and deep-throated barks. The kind of bark that seems appropriately transcribed with the voiced consonant “biyo”.
18)
In English, the sound of a dog is rendered as ‘bow-wow’, using the “b” sound. Therefore, it is not surprising that, in Japan, the sound of feral dogs is often heard as “biyo” or “byō,” using the “b” sound.
19)
Interpreting Changes in Animal Sounds
Japan's Cultural History and Its Relationship with Animals
Dogs, which began to be kept on leashes from the Edo period, had stable territories and barked with a high-pitched voice. It is considered most appropriate to transcribe this as ‘wan’. The shift in the word used to transcribe their cry from “biyo” to ‘wan’ reflected a change in the cry itself, brought about by the dog's changing environment.
20)
Thus, tracing the history of the dog's cry reveals the relationship between dogs and humans. It shows the shift from an environment in which dogs roamed freely to one in which they were kept as domesticated pets on leashes. In other words, it illuminates Japanese cultural history.
Beyond dogs, animals whose vocalisations reveal
changes in their distance from humans
By meticulously tracing the history of words used to describe various animal sounds, a cultural history reflecting the relationship between humans and animals becomes apparent. Take the owl's call, for instance. While we modern people transcribe the owl's call as ‘Hoo-hoo’, in the Edo period, it was heard as a weather forecast.
21)
If it sounded like ‘Hoo-hoo norisioroke’, they believed tomorrow would be sunny; if it sounded like ‘Hoo-hoo noritorioroke’, they believed tomorrow would be rainy. In the Edo period, people wore kimonos so that they would perform “arai-hari” (washing and starching the kimono by unstitching it, washing it, applying starch, and stretching it on a board to dry).
Hearing ‘Hoo-hoo, prepare the starch paste’ meant tomorrow would be sunny, perfect for washing. Hearing ‘Hoo-hoo, remove the starch paste’ signalled rain. This reveals how closely owls and humans coexisted. In other words, cultural history emerges!
When did Japanese dogs start barking “wan”? Their Heian-period cries were utterly adorable!
https://diamond.jp/articles/-/379933
