???

April 10, 2006 12:42 PM

Is there an accepted way to type the noise one makes when whistling? Fweet-fweet? I'm out of ideas.
posted by Krrrlson to religion & philosophy (29 comments total)

"He whistled."
posted by interrobang at 12:43 PM on April 10, 2006

I don't think there's a standard onomatapoiea for that. How about "[whistles]"?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:43 PM on April 10, 2006

/me whistles
posted by 29 at 12:44 PM on April 10, 2006

Someone who reads a lot of comic books should chime in.
posted by beth at 12:47 PM on April 10, 2006

All right, let's try this: what sound would you make when beckoning a dog? Cannot be a word.
posted by Krrrlson at 12:47 PM on April 10, 2006

Depends on the intention of the whistle. It's all about pitch variation that determines what it means, so I don't see an easy way here.
posted by attackthetaxi at 12:48 PM on April 10, 2006

Someone who reads a lot of comic books should chime in.

Well, I'm one of those, and most of the time, it's represented visually: cheeks puffed out, a musical note or two, or some lines representing a puff of air coming out.

I have seen "twee" or "tweet", and even "phwee" before, and it looks just as ridiculous in a comic book as it would in prose.
posted by interrobang at 12:53 PM on April 10, 2006

Beth - The comics representations of whistling I've seen are either a word ballon containing a note symbol, or else little lines indicating wind (blowing), also with a note symbol.
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:54 PM on April 10, 2006

Can you give us the context for what you're trying to do?
posted by occhiblu at 12:59 PM on April 10, 2006

Tweet.
posted by delmoi at 1:02 PM on April 10, 2006

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!11!!!
posted by pg at 1:04 PM on April 10, 2006

occhiblu: see my comment above re: beckoning a dog.
posted by Krrrlson at 1:04 PM on April 10, 2006

Phweet!
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:13 PM on April 10, 2006

Po-tee-weet?
posted by Espoo2 at 1:20 PM on April 10, 2006

_ ___
o/ o/ o/
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:49 PM on April 10, 2006

Yes, but I mean, where are you trying to write this? A dissertation? A cartoon? A newspaper article?
posted by occhiblu at 2:00 PM on April 10, 2006

Po-tee-weet?

Damn... Espoo2 stole my answer.
posted by Robot Johnny at 2:14 PM on April 10, 2006

wchwwwwwwhchhh
posted by JJ86 at 2:42 PM on April 10, 2006

Phh-uuuuu?

Trying out everyone else's suggestions made me laugh. Feel free to laugh at mine.
posted by moonshine at 2:53 PM on April 10, 2006

Depends on the kind of whistle. If it's the type of whistle construction workers make to pretty girls walking by, the proper term is [wolf whistle].
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:13 PM on April 10, 2006

♫ (if your browser supports Unicode)
posted by musicinmybrain at 5:10 PM on April 10, 2006

I've been walking around for an hour going "fweet! fweet!" - the cats are truly freaked.
posted by ersatzkat at 6:25 PM on April 10, 2006

You're beckoning a dog who likes to read? I'm confused.
posted by staggernation at 9:51 PM on April 10, 2006

I saw it written once as "Shreeee.."
posted by Nicholas West at 12:05 AM on April 11, 2006

To call a dog, I'd go with "Twee-oo-wheet"
posted by Iamtherealme at 12:30 AM on April 11, 2006

"Wolf-call whistle" ?
posted by SwingingJohnson1968 at 1:56 AM on April 11, 2006

weee-weee-weee!
[pigs come]
posted by pointilist at 10:47 AM on April 11, 2006

symbol of an eighth note with a jagged midsection is usually what I see for whistles, but one can't exactly type that.

<whistle length=20s volume=40db>C#</whistle>
posted by vanoakenfold at 12:30 PM on April 11, 2006

" Whit - whoo! "
posted by jamesonandwater at 6:19 PM on April 12, 2006