Really Lost In The Translation

Here are the covers of the English edition and German translation of Thud!, a Terry Prachett Discworld novel.

While thud is one of those fairly uncommon English worlds that sounds like what it means (as in, like onomatopoeia, man), klonk is one of those all too common German words that sound nothing like what it means, at least to an Anglo's ears. As in thud being the sound of getting being hit in the head (or helmet) with a wooden cudgel and klonk being the sound of connecting with an aluminum baseball bat.

There are a variety of explanations for this disparity provided by the unusually brainer commenters at Crooked Timber, some of them quite clever and amusing.