Grrrr ...

Put the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth and let it go sharply. Involve your teeth in the process if you can. What is the sound that emerges? Something like ‘tch’? Maybe ‘tsa’ or just a softened ‘ta’? Can you manage tsk? I’ve been trying really hard, and I cannot. Not without a vowel involved, in which case I can manage tisk or ts-ka.

The dictionary on ‘tsk’: A sucking noise made by suddenly releasing the tongue from the hard palate, used to express disappointment or sympathy.

I disagree. I don’t think the human mouth is designed to pronounce ‘tsk’, and it is not a word that springs spontaneously from the lips (or out of the hard palate) when in the throes of disappointment.

Then there is ‘pshaw’. Another thorn in my side. Pshaw is, apparently, imitative of a sound made when irritated, disgusted or impatient, made by (get this) “a sharp exhalation and sigh combined into one”. Where did the P come from, I’d like to know. I have exhaled and I have sighed but I can get no further than ‘phoo’ (or ‘pha’) on one hand and ‘shaw’ on the other. Besides, is the P silent or it intended to be pronounced? Why would we have a word imitative of a natural sound with a silent P?

My point is this (yes, I do have one - this wasn’t just a fun game, even if you’re having a good time exhaling sharply and smacking your tongue against your hard palate). Aren’t words like tsk intended to be onomatopoeic? I have no problem if they did not masquerade as natural sounds. Especially natural sounds that we spontaneously emit at times of heightened emotion. Who has the time to struggle with silent Ps when otherwise rendered speechless by extreme disgust? Give me a good old ‘bah’ any day. Or several other unprintables (but easily pronouncables).

And we have an armload of these masqueraders. Take harrumph. Not a problem to pronounce, this one – but only if you don’t know what you’re aiming for.

Harrumph; intr v . To make a show of clearing one’s throat.

I challenge you to clear your throat and produce a sound remotely resembling harrumph. I clear my throat and I get nnnkrrhhhnnn. I say harrumph and I get ha-rrumf. Or variations, if I play around with the vowels. Haa-rroomf. Hay-rrumf. Etc.

Is this a sign of evolution, do you suppose? Were these at one time actually the natural sounds people emitted when experiencing the said emotion, which over time we have lost the ability to emit? Or is it just a case of very poor dictionary writing?

I am, in any case, collecting these. It has become a personal passion. If you have any, do let me know.