Translation for French Victory exclamation? Sounds like "Uga Uga!"

[ivanatpr]

Sometimes immediately after a victory in Napoleon total war, when the campaign map loads after the end of a battle, you can hear a french victory exclamation of a single word being repeated triumphantly. Sounds somewhat like "Uga Uga!". Anybody know what the word actually is and what it means?

[Lord of Lent]

I think it is "hourra", which is French for "hurray"

[rotorgun]

It could also be "Victoir!", pronounced veectwah!, or something like it.

[Didz]

Funnily enough I've recently been scouring the internet for an accurate recording of an Prussian battle cry to include in my video guidance to the ETW Prussian Campaign.

I had a rough idea what I was looking for because a couple of French soldiers of the period had described it in their memoires. So, I knew for example that the French used to mimic the shout the Prussia cavalry made just before charging by shouting back at them 'Au Rat! Au Rat! Au Rat!'.

After a lot of rummaging around I eventually discovered a video clip of an East German Army miitary parade, during which, the regiments commander made an impassioned speech, and to my delight the regiment responded with the attached cheer. Which I think is just about as close as anyone can get to mimicing the sound the French described.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uvxSQ_ImYM

As you can hear I fiddled with the tone and tempo of it in Audacity to provide some variation for my video's, but basically it does sound a bit like 'Au Rat! Au Rat! Au Rat!

Incidently, it's worth looking up the YouTube clips of the 'Rebel Yell' from the American Civil War. It's absolutely nothing like the modern version used by American's today, and much closer to a Native American war cry, from which it probably derived.

[frenchyvinnie]

I had a rough idea what I was looking for because a couple of French soldiers of the period had described it in their memoires. So, I knew for example that the French used to mimic the shout the Prussia cavalry made just before charging by shouting back at them 'Au Rat! Au Rat! Au Rat!'.

You have just made the day of a frenchman (whether it makes you happu or not, that's another problem:laugh4:).

[Didz]

You have just made the day of a frenchman (whether it makes you happu or not, that's another problem:laugh4:).
Glad to be of help. I have no problem making a Frenchman happy, as long as it's in a good cause. ;)

Oh! actually having made you happy I have a favour to ask, the answer to a question which I suspect only a Frenchman can answer.

Does 'Au Rat!' mean anything in French?

I've looked it up using a translator and it didn't come up with anything, but then translators might be too polite to mention what it means.

It's perfectly possible that the French soldiers were just minicing the noise the Germans were making, but sometimes certainly in England we make fun of foriegners by corrupting their accents into something rude or insulting in our own language. I'm just curious if that was the gist of the French joke.

[Jacob_Sterlov]

"Hurrah"
"Hourra!"
"Urrà!"
Etc.

They seem to have an unclear origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huzzah

I agree most with the Turkish origin, btw.

In French, Au rat means: "to the mouse / rat".

It may mean something like: "To the mouse [you go]!" But that's just my intuition.

Rat is also a familiar term to describe your beloved ones (e.g. mes rats = my pets = the mouths I must feed).

[Didz]

In French, Au rat means: "to the mouse / rat".

It may mean something like: "To the mouse [you go]!" But that's just my intuition.

Rat is also a familiar term to describe your beloved ones (e.g. mes rats = my pets = the mouths I must feed).
Thanks! That certainly makes it more interesting.

I had assumed that the French were just mimicking the sound that the Germans were making, and I got recordings of that sound which I took during a video of a parade by an East German Regiment.

But if it actually sounded like the French for 'to the mice' it must have been every more amusing for the French to shout it back at them.