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ONOMATOPOEIA is "The formation or
use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects
or actions to which they refer." We are not going to discuss
that 12-letter behemoth, but its numerous examples found in
Scrabble.
Among the two-letter words we can find
interjections like AW (I think we can dispense with the
definitions for this segment), UM and ER. There is also HM, MM,
SH, more the topic at hand. These words are really handy as
hooks to connect onto the side of another word, or to use when
you have no vowels.
Now let's look at some threes: there's HMM
and SHH, also BRR and BRRR. PSST, how about PFFT, PST, and PFUI?
Now try AARGH, AARRGH and AARRGHH on for size. Got a kitty?
There's MEOW, MEOU, MIAOU and MIAOW.
Sit down under a shady tree with your
friendly word list. You can spend many idle moments hunting down
your favorite sound effects, like SPLAT, HARRUMPH or BOING,
CRASH, BUZZ or WHAM. Just be careful, you can become mesmerized
by the seductive lilt of these words. You may try to challenge
DOING off the board, not realizing until too late that is, in
fact, pronounced DO-ING
Although the following are not scrabble words, other
languages also have examples of
ONOMATOPOEIA. A Japanese example is doki doki
is used to indicate the (speeding up of the) beating of a heart
(and thus excitement). In Dutch,
kukeleku indicates the characteristic sound of rooster's
crow. In Turkish, hapurmak is the verb for to sneeze,
based on the sound "hapshoo" made by a person who sneezes.
This link is for an 8 minute long video. It is all
about one woman's obsession with Scrabble...it is VERY FUNNY.
Craziest
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