A neigh () is the sound made by horses, horse hybrids such as the hinny, and other equines, such as the zebra. It consists of a succession of jerky sounds, initially high-pitched and gradually lower. Produced on exhalation by the larynx and modulated, it enables the animal to express its emotions (such as fear or satisfaction) and to inform other animals through the sound produced. The main function of neighing is to alert other equines to its presence in the absence of visual communication. Buffon established a classification of neighs into five categories, according to the emotion expressed by the horse, which has been widely used in subsequent works. In literary works, the horse neigh is often the means by which it makes itself known to its rider and communicates with them. In divination practices, examination of the sound produced and the horse's attitude has given rise to hippomancy. Horse neigh plays a particularly important role in Tibetan Buddhist beliefs.
Etymology and terminology In English and other Germanic languages, the Middle High German nēgen gave rise to the Old English hnǣgan and Middle English neyen, then the modern English verb 'to neigh'. As in French, its use is attested before the 11th century. In the Tibetan language, gsaṅs refers to voice in a general sense, and skad-gsaṅs to neigh, i.e., literally, "the horse's voice". Tibetan dictionaries distinguish between two types of neighing, the one that resounds and the other one that becomes faint. In English, a similar distinction exists between nickering, whinnying and neighing, which designate three types of neighing. This terminological distinction does not exist in French. In French, hennissement is a masculine noun that, according to the Trésor de la langue Française informatisé, was attested in the 13th century and it is in the Histoire de l'empereur Henri de Constantinopled by Henry of Valenciennes (a text dated around 1220). Hennissement is derived from the verb hennir, attested in 1100 for human beings, and 30 years later for the "cry of a horse", in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire. Moreover, hennir is a borrowing from the Latin hinnire which, as Quintilian notes in his Institutio Oratoria, is formed on an onomatopoeia of the "horse cry": the repetition of the vowel "i" evokes the sound of neighing. Other Romance verbs, such as the Italian nitrire, derive from it. An influence from Frankish kinni, meaning jaw, is also possible. The hinny neighs like a horse, while the mule bray like a donkey. In French, hennissement and hennir are also used for the zebra.
History In Western Europe, Buffon's study of horses, in which he follows Cardan, describes five types of neighs. This study has been an authority for centuries, and it is included in Encyclopédie, ou dicctionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et de métiers, among others. According to him, these five horse neighs are used to express joy, desire, anger, fear, and pain, respectively. The five types of neighs are as follows:
the neigh of joy, in which the voice is heard for quite a long time, rising and ending on higher notes. The horse kicks at the same time, but lightly, and does not try to strike; the neigh of desire, love, and affection, in which the horse doesn't kick. It is heard for a long time, and the voice ends with lower, faster sounds; the neigh of anger, during which the horse kicks and strikes dangerously, very short and high-pitched; the neigh of fear, during which he also kicks, is hardly longer than that of anger. The voice is low, hoarse and seems to come entirely from the nostrils. This neigh is quite similar to the lion's roar; and the neigh of pain, less a neigh than a whinny, which is low-pitched and follows breathing. This classification, very popular and widely used, is no longer valid today. According to some 19th-century encyclopedias, in some countries, particularly Hungary, it was customary to split the horse's nostrils to prevent neighing, particularly in times of war. This information is modified by the fact that neighing is modulated in the larynx. The splitting of a donkey's nostril to prevent braying is, however, well attested during the World War I.
Description
The neigh is a succession of jerky sounds, first high-pitched, then gradually lower, producing a sort of long "Hiiiihiiiihiii". Intensity and pitch can vary considerably. It can be so loud that it can be heard by the human ear from a distance of several kilometres (few miles), which means that horses, whose hearing is better developed, can hear it from an even greater distance. When a horse neighs, it opens its mouth, and its jaw and nostrils move. Neighing is more frequent in the entire horse than in the mare and gelding, and the timbre of their voices is not as strong. From birth, the male has a louder voice than the female. By the age of two or two-and-a-half, when puberty sets in, the voice of all horses becomes louder. The horse's vocalizations have complex sounds, a wide bandwidth and varied frequencies, making them richer than those of most domestic animals. Although the name "neigh" is generally applied to the horse's call, the hinny, a hybrid of stallion and donkey, readily neighs like a horse, while the mule, a hybrid of donkey and mare, is more likely to bray.
Mechanism The horse neighs by inhaling to fill its lungs and then expelling the air that passes through its larynx. Neighing occurs in the larynx during exhalation, which is why horses with an open esophagus are unable to neigh, as the air no longer passes through it. The other parts of the respiratory system contribute to neighing in a secondary way. The lungs expel air into the larynx via the trachea. The pharynx and nasal cavities add power to the vocalization and modify it. The air expelled from the lungs pushes the lips away from the glottis, until the vocal cords return on themselves and momentarily close the respiratory tract, only to spread apart again, producing vibratory movements fast enough to give rise to sounds, much as happens when you blow into the reed of an oboe. The horse's throat, mouth and lips modify the nature of the sound emitted, while the power of the neigh is determined by the force with which air is expelled from the lungs.
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