I posted the following query to Linguist List (March 29, 1999):
In English (at least in Ireland and I think America) kids who hurt themselves say /aU/. As I recall, in Germany it was /'aU.wa/. My 3-year old tells me the Swiss-Italian kids in playschool say /'ai.ja/. Clearly there is no universal (though it would hardly be surprising if initial stress/accent on bisyllabic forms were universal). Can you provide me with more regional variants? Is there dialectal variation within a language?
Idle curiosity, rather than pressing professional motives, prompted the question. Below are the responses I received, reproduced (almost) verbatim. To those who responded, a hearty thank you. My curiosity is not yet slaked. If you have anything to add, email me.
There used to be another "Ouch" page, but it unfortunately seems to have dissapeared. Let me know if you run into one.
Perhaps relatedly, you might choose to visit the Linguistic Iconism Association.
For ordinary Danish children the exclamation is likely to be followed by a number of curses for which they will receive no punishment if the pain is judged as genuine.
The duration of the back vowel depends on the degree of pain or shock and the intended impression on the individuals within hearing distance.
The glide may also be prolonged. This typically does not occur as children's reaction to physical pain, but rather as emotionally sensitive or attitudinising adults' immediate reaction to conceived emotional, financial, or intellectual loss, for example falling stock rates, theft, divorces, and unsuccessful sport games.
The final glottal stop (or contraction) is in standard Danish the phonotactically determined marker of a particular syllable type. However, if the glide is prolonged, the phonotactical precondition for the stop may be cancelled. In such cases the stop is not produced.
In connection with this, i remember a story my parents heard at the time and repeated frequently about a child, like myself, who was Anglophone by heritage but living rather fully immersed in a Francophone environment, and who was having trouble with the diphthong [aU] in English -- `she couldn't say "house" or "mouse", though she could say "mice"' is the way the story runs. On one occasion her mother (or some other older relative, i can't remember for sure) asks her, `what do you say if i do this?', and pinches her. The child's immediate response is (a very French) `[ai]!'
The anglophones in the class agreed that [aUtS] is reserved for small sharp pains like paper cuts, whereas [aU] is used for other kinds of pain.
- when you go to southern France (where Occitan is the main substrate) the prononciation can become ["aj@] according to the general tendency of restituing the written -e, but you also can hear the Occitan [a"i]. To insist [ajjajjajjajja"i]. The later is also Occitan.
1. There could be a class distinction of which I'm not aware, but also, "iteeh" is simply a more casual/masculine form of "itai"....(this pattern is apparent in other words as well)
2. When something burns, or is very hot to the touch, usually "atsui!" ("hot!") is used, or it's more casual form, "atchi!" (or "atch!") instead of "itai" or "iteeh".
Portuguese native speakers say both Ai! or Au!
Thanks to the following contributors
Acknowledgements
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