Rural country cows learn farmer accents: linguists

U.K. dairy farmers are realizing that cows of different regions are adopting distinct accents, after listening to herds 'moo' at each other in England's countryside.

The farmers - who are part of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers group in Somerset, England - have witnessed cows that had the "Somerset drawl" when they moo, which sounds more like "moo-arr".

Not a 'moo' point
Phonetics specialists from the University of London say that these country accents may have been taken from their farmers.

As the bond between farmer and cow grows stronger, so does the accent, since cows are most affected by their immediate peer groups.

There is even a possibility of the cows passing the accent onto their offspring much like how we adopt our parent's basic language variety, the linguists claim.

The group of farmers have also noted distinct accents in cows from Midlands, Essex, Norfolk and Lancashire.

In previous studies, birds of the same species living in different locations were also known to have chirping accents that were distinguishable from each other.

Photography: Cow Sensation Germany

Source: Discovery Channel Reports, August 25 edition