Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bursts say more than we realize
You’ve heard the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sounds convey a great deal, too, if not a thousand words worth, then maybe several.
I hope I’m not alone on this one. Once I turned 50, I found that when I stood up from the couch, I would groan in not the most attractive fashion. That simple groan would mean: “When did someone replace my bones with those of a 90-year-old? How did I used to jump up with ease only a short time ago? Did someone sneak some super glue into my joints?”
Recently, I had to take medicine with a horrid aftertaste. After I swallowed a pill, I’d make a sound to tell myself just how horrible that tasted. I’m not even sure how to spell it.
A kissing sound, in the nonaffectionate mode, is made when a person is telling a story and makes a kissing sound to indicate something close to “so then it was done.”
A tongue-clicking sound could mean, “That’s not what I wanted to happen.” The dictionary spells this “tsk,” though I’m not sure I say the “k.” If you click once, you’re disappointed in something. If you tsk a few times in succession, it might mean roughly, “Is this the way I raised you? You have truly let me down.” But, of course, you don’t want to actually say those words. The sound says it all.
Tim Wharton, a University of Brighton (England) linguist who has studied these nonwords, sums it up this way.
“Words are only one element of a whole set of tools humans use to communicate meanings. Sometimes, we don’t want to describe how we’re feeling. We want to express it more directly.’’
I like that these are often called “vocal bursts.”
Many of these are difficult to spell. But probably if I describe the emotion, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Someone tells you the football team you hate definitely has the best quarterback in the league. “Pff,” you say, in half-disgust and half-cynicism. Another sound that works here is a snort.
Many of these sounds can be involuntary. If you’re alone in the kitchen and you bang your funny bone, you likely will say “Ow!” It was spontaneous and won’t tell anyone else anything. But, there, you said it. After you read an interesting article, you might get to the end and utter a “huh” or a “hmm” without even planning to.
If you’re watching a series finale, and something you just can’t believe has happened, you gasp. When you’re driving your mom in the car and she gasps, she is absolutely sure you’re a millisecond from smashing into the truck in front of you.
If you see something particularly repulsive, you shudder and emit a sort of “uhhhh” sound. A shudder and a shiver are a little more fun because your upper body moves at the same time that sound comes out.
A grunt might mean a person doesn’t want to speak before morning coffee but must acknowledge someone’s presence in the kitchen. A sniff, often accompanied by a certain type of frown could be a subtle way to say the garbage needs to be taken out. A sigh — usually a prolonged one — says you are tired of something and so depleted of patience.
An abrupt “ah” means someone has placed a filled glass too close to the end of the table and you just know it will tip over. An “ahh” means the waitress has seated you at a table for dinner, you’ve put your hand on the table’s surface and it’s sticky. An “aaahh” is when you’ve just gotten into a hot tub or you’ve taken off your shoes after a long day.
A throat-clearing sound could simply mean you have a tickle in your throat. Or it could mean you’d like someone’s attention right now.
You might use an “awwww” either when you see an adorable baby or when you think something is sweet, or if you sympathize with someone. I guess the length of this is more up to the noisemaker and less up to spontaneity.
An exhaled hissing, a “sssss,” is a sound that might mean you dislike an actor on the screen. The inhaled “ssssss” might mean the blood technician is having a little too much trouble finding a vein in your arm to draw some blood.
I don’t need to get into the list of curse words or obscene words that people utter when bad things happen. But these are learned words. These are naturally occurring in a different way.
Those are the vocal bursts I can think of. If you can think of one, email it to me with your definition.