The Great Athenian Frog Invasion?
I wasn't going to mention this, but since pestiside has brought to the fore the cultural differences in animal noises, I thought it was a good opportunity to ask for your help. I need your help, because for over 15 years I've known there was really something odd about the noise that Hungarian frogs make, and I have yet to find an explanation. The one explanation I did come to was that sometime in the past there must have been an unrecorded invasion of Athenian frogs into modern day Hungary. Rationally, I know that this invasion didn't happen, but how then did Hungarian frogs develop their unique 'croak'? Well, that's the point, because the noise that Hungarian frogs make isn't unique. Hungarian frogs don't 'ribbet' - oh no. They don't 'croak' either. Hungarian frogs 'brekk-brekk', 'brékekek' and 'brekekex'. Yes, that's right they 'brekekex'. Get it? No?! Tsh. Here goes then... Sometime before 405 B.C.E Athenian morale and self respect was in decline. Putting it blunty the people of Athens were depressed. So, naturally, to cheer themselves up they did what any nation would do - they organised a playwriting competition (the tax payers must have been delighted). So up steps Aristophanes and milking a good thing he had going on the theme of animals - The Wasps (422 B.C.E), The Birds (414 B.C.E) - he penned The Frogs (405 B.C.E), well 'Ranae'. Of course, 'The Frogs' beat the competition. One of the things that the judges partcularly liked was the use of a frog chorus (nothing to do with this). In particular, the frog chorus used the unique sound of Athenian frogs. Which was...? Yes, you got it 'Brekekekex' Unique? Every Hungarian child would recognise an Athenian frog's croak as if it was their very own home spawned variety. What child doesn't know Weöres Sándor's poem 'Békák' (Frogs), that begins:
Brekekex????????? You see, there are still learn-ed papers being written on how uniquely untranslatable this part of the play is:
Brekekex
Brekekex
dialectic of empty names.. an extension to all the linguistic contextualism of the Aristophanic "brekekek...".source'Linguistic contextualism' my segg. And so, my one explanation for how such uniquely Athenian sounding frogs came to Hungary is the historically unrecorded invasion. Before the Romans took over from the celts, before Attila came looking for a new home, before the Turks threatened to overthrow Christendom or Big Brother arrived to destroy the culture of a generation, long long before all of that they made their attack. Successful they lay (squatted) there croaking away contentedly on their lillypads - unnoticed, undetected. Well, undetected until I turned up pale faced and blinking into the Hungarian midsummer sun. The only lead I have on solving this problem is given here:
[In his edition of the work] (Oxford 1993), 219, K. J. Dover provides information on the likely species. sourceSo, if any of you have that edition (what a bargain at only $55!) I would be grateful to know what conclusions Mr. Dover comes to and what if any link there is to Hungarian frogs. And while we're at it, the other thing you can solve for me is how did the buttercup get the Latin name ranunculus? Surely that translates as 'small frog'. Is there some way of detecting someone's preference for butter by holding a young frog under their chin? Or is the ranunculus similar to human's homunculus, the origin and explanation for a frog's sense of consciousness? I can see your eyes clouding over...
