Life in progress

Y is for … Yodeling and Other Strange Noises

40 Comments

I can pull off 50,000 words with no problem. Yeah, okay – it takes me a while. But out of those 50,000 or 5,000 or even … whatever … the words that I get the most stuck on are those pesky noises that come out of our mouths and noses that there are no words for. In fact, it makes steam whistle out of my ears.

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Image courtesy of pixabay.com

Some noises are much easier than others, admittedly. Onomatopoeia is a wonderful thing for sounds like banging, clanking and sneezing. The list goes on and on. But what about coughing? “Khe, khe, khe!” How about a sound of derision? “Pff!” Yeah, that’s easy. So many of them are so hard though!

I was quite proud of myself when I came up with the sound for blowing a raspberry. But then people didn’t understand what I was trying to say.

So I’m making it official. And feel free to use it any time. This, “Pthththththth” denotes blowing a raspberry.

As for yodeling? Pthththth. I’m not even going to try.

 

Will Jupiter say yes? If you haven’t read all the chapters, you should before you read this one: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/y-is-for-youre-going-to-leave-me-dangling/

Unknown's avatar

Author: Linda G. Hill

There's a writer in here, clawing her way out.

40 thoughts on “Y is for … Yodeling and Other Strange Noises

  1. Claire Gillian's avatar

    Hi, Linda! Had to see a fellow yodeler post. 😉 What bugs me is I’ve an editor correct my spelling of a sound word. Like your raspberry sound of “Pthththththth”…the editor would strike it and rewrite “Pth”. Oy! I had to cite the urban dictionary to use “rawr”, which was an edit I made to save “raaaarrrrr”. **shakes head** Just let us have these words and spell them how we hear them. Yes.

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  2. Winifred M. Reilly's avatar

    I have spent countless minutes trying to write some of these sorts of “words.” Argh vs Agggh or ugh or aach.
    I end up shouting Ahhhh! (or is it AHHHH)

    Like

  3. Pingback: Z is for Zephyr | Alex Hurst

  4. susan's avatar

    ssecond time I saw Yodel today

    check this out – her series was hysterical

    http://www.clairegillian.com/2014/04/29/blogging-from-a-to-z-april-challenge-y/

    Like

  5. mewhoami's avatar

    The good thing about those sounds, is that no one knows how to spell them either, so go for it! You can’t be wrong if no one else is right.

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  6. suzjones's avatar

    My most common noise these days is ‘aaarrrggghh’ when I get up out of a chair and my back goes on me lol

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  7. LAMarcom's avatar

    Now…how do you spell that again???

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  8. joey's avatar

    Pthbbbbt! LOL
    I think these noises are so important, because we use them all the time, and they’re completely integrated into our speech! Pffft, yodeling, just don’t write characters who yodel! Ahahahaha!

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    • Linda G. Hill's avatar

      I’m thinking about it, just for the challenge. 😛 I hate what my imagination does to me sometimes.

      I agree – they are important noises we make! Hell, I can have an entire conversation using them! Just stand back. 😉

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  9. Debi O'Neille, writing against the wind's avatar

    I’m glad to see someone else used yodel for today besides me. Your post is great. It made me laugh. Was that the desired effect? Because I think the noise was just right. 🙂
    Deb@ http://debioneille.blogspot.com

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    • Linda G. Hill's avatar

      I actually saw you did yodeling today! I scanned your post to make sure we weren’t writing the same thing. haha
      I’ll come over and read yours in detail. 🙂
      Thanks very much, Deb. 😀

      Like

  10. Susan Irene Fox's avatar

    This is so funny – Reminds me of the old Odd Couple tv series when Felix used to clear his sinuses. I actually used to picture the sound he made typed in my head, with instructions to exhale heavily: Fneh-Fneh-Fneh! That’s a writer for you! 😀

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  11. Paul Davis's avatar

    Heh. Heh. The sound for blowing. It can be so hard to make the right noise for the situation to keep things up. Knowing what utterances will turn your readers on to turning that next page.

    Ahem…but in seriousness, I usually just say “He coughed, blew a raspberry, etc.” I don’t waste the time on sounds I can’t figure out. The reader will do it for me.

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    • Linda G. Hill's avatar

      Don’t you find that sometimes you really need to illustrate the sound though? I do.

      “Just put your lips together and blow,” doesn’t always cut it. In fact, sometimes it just plain sucks. *coughs*

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      • Paul Davis's avatar

        I feel you’re taking too rigid a stance. 😉 So…when reading “literature”…. I’ve seen people write “Nnn, gah, nghhh.” And you know what? It was frustrating. It didn’t have the desired effect. Because I was spending too much time figuring out what it would sound like. But you know…if you want to illustrate the sounds some time, just let me know 😛

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        • Linda G. Hill's avatar

          With sounds like that I can see it must have been hard indeed. I have to wonder what you were reading… doesn’t sound much like literature. 😉

          I can do a pretty mean diner scene from “When Harry Met Sally.” But I wouldn’t even begin to know how to write it. Hey! Maybe I should give up writing novels and go into screenwriting!

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  12. Private's avatar

    “Yodel-ay-he-hooooooooo!” That was easy. Pthththth

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  13. markbialczak's avatar

    I so relate, Linda.

    Just now: Somebody commented that I looked like Cat Stevens in an old yearbook cover photo I posted today. So I had to comment back with lyrics to ‘Wild World.’

    First word of the line is not Oh. It is … Ew. I hate it, but that’s what I went with.

    By the way, who is that in the portrait photo that surfs behind the appearance of your blog for a nano-second?

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