Um, er, ah, oh! oh? Puhleeeze!

June 12, 2007 7:29 PM

Where can I find a list of words -- dictionary -- for writing the sounds people make during dialog or conversation?

I am hoping to either generate or find an existing list of words, with their definition for all the little noises or expressions that people use during conversations. And typically, I've noticed that many of these words or expression are limited to writing only and not found too much in verbal dialog. This is what I have so far:

duh - criticism that something is not known that tends to be obvious

Oh! - surprise

Oh? - interest or intrigue

ah - agreement

um - hesitation, shyness

er - error

eh - what do you think; do you agree

posted by chase to society & culture (6 comments total)

I think looking under the topics of conversational analysis or discourse analysis might be useful to you. These Wikipedian links do not have these lists but websites discussing these topics might.
posted by b33j at 7:47 PM on June 12, 2007

These are called vocal segregates, which may help your search.
posted by maya at 7:47 PM on June 12, 2007

This is a transcriber's guide. It lists quite a few plus how to write them and other sounds people make in conversation.
posted by rcavett at 8:09 PM on June 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

These sounds do appear in speech as well as written dialogue. You may want to look through some ESL books for a list; I have taught lessons on this topic before, because these sounds are not the same in every language, and ESL students need to know the difference between "uh huh" (affirmation) and "uh uh" (negation). These two sounds can sound very similar to a non-English speaker but have completely opposite meanings.

In the lesson plan I used, these sounds were called "paralanguage," although I believe that the term "vocal segregates" as maya suggested, is more specific to these sounds. "Paralanguage" seems to be a larger category referring to non-verbal elements of communication and includes intonation and pitch.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:21 PM on June 12, 2007

Aargh!

"vocal segregates,"

/anal retentive
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:26 PM on June 12, 2007

You may want to check this out. It goes into some detail wrt "phonetic components in non-lexical conversational sounds in American English" (as well as their associated meanings). Tables 6 and 7 (bottom of page) are probably your bag.
posted by YamwotIam at 9:30 PM on June 12, 2007