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La poule cependant semblait écouter guère; elle avait fait clouc, clouc, clouc, puis elle était partie, sans entendre les derniéres paroles.

This line is from "Patachou" by Tristan Derème.

I can't unde stand the meaning of "faire clouc" Is this a dialect of Basque?

I am glad if somebody kindly teach me.

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I think that in this case "clouc" just attempts to reproduce the sound that a poule makes - I know those animal sounds are entirely different in Japanese :-) I am not sure whether it is a dialect or not, I think it is just an onomatopoeia, like "tic tac" for a clock ... Another, more standard onomatopoeia in French would be "Cot-cot, Cot-cot-codêêêc".

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  • 2
    Interesting remark here (at clouque).
    – None
    Jan 22, 2017 at 10:54
  • @Laure I'll change my answer slightly to reflect that it might be from the Sud-Ouest de la France. "Cot-cot, Cot-cot-codêêêc" is maybe more standard.
    – Frank
    Jan 22, 2017 at 20:15
  • @Hiroshi Thank you so much for your answer. It is so helpful for me!!
    – Hiroshi Inagaki
    Jan 22, 2017 at 22:53
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In English, we say that hens cluck. It is a clucking sound.

The site below shows this means cluck.

"vu la saison il y a de fortes chances pour qu'elle couve, , si quand on le touche elle glousse de mécontentement, et gonfle les plumes, que quand elle sort elle fait "clouc clouc", c'est qu'elle couve."

http://www.poulesoieclub.com/t5887-faire-decouver-une-poule

La poule fait clouc. The hen clucks or is clucking.

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  • Considering my user name, I should probably know this, but is "hen" one of those words (kind of like "fish," I guess) that can be pluralized without an "s"? If so, never mind, but if not, did you mean "... we say that hens cluck" in the 1st sentence?
    – Papa Poule
    Jan 22, 2017 at 22:50
  • @Hiroshi Thank you so much for your information!
    – Hiroshi Inagaki
    Jan 22, 2017 at 22:55
  • Just out of curiosity, I would be curious to hear how many native French speakers were told "clouc" for the sound of the hen when they were kids, and how many were told "Cot-cot-codêêêc".
    – Frank
    Jan 23, 2017 at 1:46
  • @Papa Poule Comme je ne suis une personne humaine, la perfection m'échappe toujours.
    – Lambie
    Jan 23, 2017 at 16:19
  • @Frank I said: in English we say that a hen clucks. And that that French site shows this means cluck. I did not say anything about dictionaries or what native French speakers say, did I? How much more careful should I be?
    – Lambie
    Jan 23, 2017 at 16:20
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Clouc clouc is not known as is in French but is likely from Occitan and not Basque.

In Occitan, cloc pronounced \kluk\ = clouc is the name of the sound made by a cloca, a broody hen. This sound is transcribed as cot cot cot codet/codec in French.

Its root can also be found in Spanish where cloquear and gallina clueca are both related to a broody hen. In French, the equivalent would be cocotte.

While clouc is undoubtedly an onomatopoeia like its English counterparts "cluck" and "cackle". Clouc might also be given a Latin root: the verb glocare which gave the French glousser.

Wikipedia suggests an indo-European root, *klag, so that might be a very ancient onomatopoeia.

References: cloc cloca clueca cloquear glocare clangare

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