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COWS moo with their own regional accents, according to a group of dairy farmers. in the UK.
The phenomenon was noticed by members of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers Group, who found their cows had a distinctive local twang.
Farmer Lloyd Green, from Glastonbury, said: “I spend a lot of time with my ones and they definitely moo with a Somerset drawl.
“I’ve spoken to the other farmers in the West Country group and they have noticed a similar development in their own herds.
“I think it works the same as with dogs - the closer a farmer’s bond is with his animals, the easier it is for them to pick up his accent."
Cows in the Midlands, Essex, Norfolk and Lancashire were also found to have their own style of moo.
John Wells, Professor of Phonetics at the University of London, said: “This phenomena is well attested in birds. You find distinct chirping accents in the same species around the country.
“This could also be true of cows. In small populations such as herds you would encounter identifiable dialectical variations which are most affected by the immediate peer group."
Dr Jeanine Treffers-Daller, a reader in linguistics at the University of the West of England in Bristol, said the cows probably picked up the accents in the same way humans learn from their relatives.
She said: “When we are learning to speak, we adopt a local variety of
language spoken by our parents, so the same could be said about the variation in the West Country cow moo.”
