Is there a term for the sound word associated with a certain type of animal, that is considered the most frequent or usual representation?
e.g. Cat - meow; Duck - quack; Owl - whoo; Frog - ribbit; etc.
Generally, I guess these are all animal onomatopoeias. But wondering if there might be something more exact.
The word you want is cry.
From Wiktionary,
Noun
Cry (plural cries)
6. (transitive, intransitive, of an animal) A typical sound made by the species in question.
"Woof" is the cry of a dog, while "neigh" is the cry of a horse.
More support from Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com and Oxford Dictionaries.
It seems that the term is simply animal sounds. The study of animal sounds and their effects on living organisms is called bioacoustics.
