Patrice and Rachel compare the verbal expressions of emotion and onomatopoeia from eleven different languages! It turns out that while there is a wide spectrum of variation, we seem to have an underlying core reaction when we experience different emotions. For sounds to express things we do, like eating, kissing, or crying, we have some noticeable differences. Who says “mampf” for eating? Or “smok” for the sound a kiss makes? Listen and find out! Thank you so much to our wonderful friends who participated by sending in recordings of themselves. We really can’t thank you enough! Also, we’d like to thank listener Leonard for submitting his funny “Lost in Translation” story about a youthful misstep while living abroad.

Here’s the order for our speakers.

1. Amelie: Korean (South Korea)
2. Yan: Mandarin (China)
3. Mohamed: Arabic (Egypt)
4. Sabatha: Zulu (South Africa)
5. Nausheen: Urdu (Pakistan)
6. Carlos: Spanish (Ecuador)
7. Anne: French (Belgium)
8. Tamara: Italian (Italy)
9. Elomar: Portuguese (Brazil)
10. Anna: German (Germany)
11. Mateusz: Polish (Poland)

And for the audio of all our friends without our commentary, plus a combined version of their sounds after everybody tells us their individual one:

And here are the articles we referenced in the show today:

How culture shapes emotions: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201803/how-culture-shapes-emotions

The word “hm!”: https://www.livescience.com/20861-origin-hmm-thinking.html

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