Ask any three year old in the US what sound a frog makes, and pretty much nine kids out of ten will tell you “ribbit, ribbit”. Ask the same question in Britain and you would probably get fifty percent in the ribbit camp, and the other fifty believing that croak, croak is the correct answer.
The truth is that a frog’s call is very specific to its own particular species, each different genus has its own particular song - from meep meep, through keywa, keywa, all the way down to bowrp.
The Pacific Treefrog is found throughout western USA, including California. When the early sound engineers of Hollywood needed some atmospheric frog song to add to a movie they simply set off to the local pond with a tape recorder in hand. There they would record the Pacific tree frogs distinctive call - Ribbit, ribbit; slap a label on the tape reading “Frogs” and the job was a good’un. In this way, the American public soon began to automatically associate a ribbit with a frog, regardless of species.
Conversely over in jolly old England the most prevalent frog is the European Common Frog, whose call is more of a croak. Therefore explaining our tendency to assign that particular noise with all frogs. The prevalence of American films and programs in our media has ensured that the ribbit has a place in our consciousness too.
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