hehehe

[GeneD]

What sound does 'e' convey in 'hehehe': 'ee' or 'e'?

 

[Tarheel]

I would say a short e. (As in bed or red or led.)

 

[jutfrank]

As Tarheel says, it's a short 'e' (/e/). You could also use heh heh for the same sound.

If you want to make a long 'ee' (/i:/), use hee hee.

 

[GeneD]

In what context do you wish to write 'hehehe'?

I'm not sure I wish to use it right now because I don't know when English speakers do it. Something tells me that we Russians make this sound similarly as you do and in similar situations. It's called chuckling, right?

 

[Tarheel]

Yep.

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
------
I don't think it's reasonable to try to transcribe the sound you make when you're laughing. Laughter is innate in humans, and it can be expressed in a wide variety of ways. I'd even argue there's an 'h' in it; it's just a series of repeatedly, abruptly stopped vowels, and pretty much any vowel can do depending on the nature of their laughter, or even the person themselves. I mean... look at this chap.

To me, "hehehe" (or "hahaha") is just a way of representing "this person is laughing".

 

[GeneD]

Glizdka, to me "hahaha", "hehehe" and the like serve the same purpose emojies do. Personally, I like to use emojies, and when there is no such an option on a forum or somewhere else on the internet, those words can be used instead.

Some people like "haha"-words, some not. De gustibus non est disputandum, as they say... I use "hahaha" sometimes, and would like to use other laughing options.

 

[Glizdka]

If by "the same purpose" you mean conveying emotion, then I only partially agree.
"Hehehe" means there's a sound of laughter. At least, that's its original purpose - a way of signifining "the person is laughing" in text. However, It doesn't stop people from texting "Hehehe" when they're not actually laghing (compare to 'lol'), so it does, kind of, convey emotion, too.

Emojis are used to make the interpretation of what youre saying easier, add that extra layer of "context", signal your intentions. Plain text doesn't include intonation, or any other means through which you could change the way your words are received. They can signify that it's just a joke, or that you're happy, or maybe that you'd rather the person you're talking to took it seriously. But again, much like with "Hehehe", it doesn't stop people from spamming emojis devoid of their function.

I remember my abusive ex used '' to convey sarcasm or even contempt, even though the emoticon is meant to convey positive emotions, and I'm sure there are more people who do that.

I believe this topic is much deeper and more interesting than it seems on the surface.

 

[Tarheel]

GeneD, I'm not up on my Latin. Please translate De gustibus non est disputandum for me.

 

[GeneD]

Tarheel, "In matters of taste, there can be no disputes".

 

[GeneD]

GeneD, I'm not up on my Latin.

I had to google 'be up on' to understand what you exactly meant. So now I can tell you that yeah, I'm not up on it either.

 

[probus]

De gustibus non disputandum est means there can be, or ought to be, no arguing about tastes.

P.S. Latin is so highly inflected that word order does not matter. I think mine is the authentic version, but moving est does not change the meaning.

Cross-posted.

 

[GeneD]

I thought a while and it seems I've found a way to explain to myself the difference in usage of "hahaha", "hehehe", "heehee" and even "hohoho". Here's how I see it:

Although we cannot absolutely precisely represent the sounds of laughter, as Glizdka said, nonetheless we can do it roughly. The difference between the four versions of laughter can be defined by the level of openness of the one who is laughing. The most open vowel a (in hahaha) we can hear when a person laughs openly, without trying to hide their true emotions. The least open vowel sound ee (in heehee), on the contrary, we can hear in situations when people (particularly children) are trying to hide the fact that they find something funny; the first example springs to mind is children in class secretly laughing at their teacher. The sounds e (in hehe) and o (in hohoho) are somewhere in the middle. Hehe seems to be closer to heehee, but a bit less secret; hoho is closer to haha, but a bit more secret.

The "theory" may be very clumsy and absolutely laughable, so feel free to express your emotions here. What do you think?

 

[jutfrank]

What do you think?

Interesting. I think you may be onto something.

People do of course have their own personal styles of laughing but I think there may be some generalisations that can be made. Here are my first thoughts on the subject:

hehehe represents a fairly casual laugh. You find something only mildly amusing.
heeheehee could certainly be a cheeky or repressed laugh, as in your example with children.
hohoho represents a belly laugh. Like how Father Christmas does it.
hahaha could represent a wide range of laughs. Perhaps this is the most generic of these four.

 

[Skrej]

hehehe represents a fairly casual laugh. You find something only mildly amusing.
heeheehee could certainly be a cheeky or repressed laugh, as in your example with children.
hohoho represents a belly laugh. Like how Father Christmas does it.
hahaha could represent a wide range of laughs. Perhaps this is the most generic of these four.

I've always though of 'hehe' as more of a higher pitched laughed, like a giggle, or maybe "evil villain/witch', depending on context. The exception in my mind being just a single syllable 'heh', which just indicates mild amusement - not really a full-fledged laugh, but acknowledging amusement. I agree that 'ho' is a deeper laugh, whereas 'ha' is a general laugh.

To me, the vowel sort of reflects the pitch or timbre of the laugh, while the number of iterations of that base syllable reflects the intensity or duration.

That's just my personal interpretation and usage.

 

[Glizdka]

I gave it some thought... what do you think about a laughing fit, when the sound is produced by inhaling rather than exhaling (see this beautiful example)?

I don't know of any language that produces vowels by inhaling. Do we even call that 'a vowel'?

 

[jutfrank]

Here are some verbs that describe different kinds of laughter:

cackle
chortle
chuckle
giggle
guffaw
snicker
titter

Other verbs that can describe the sound of laughter, but not exclusively:

bray
howl
roar
wheeze

I wonder if anyone can think of any more.

 

[GeneD]

Glizdka, the problem with conveying different kinds of laughter with letters is the same as conveying this way animal sounds. The English-speaking horse says "neigh" while the Russian-speaking one "igogo"; the English dog says "woof" and the Russian one says "gav", the English pig says "oink" while the Russian one "hryu" as if they really spoke different languages. I don't think we can ideally convey the sounds of laughter with letters but we can accept some combination of letters representing the actual sounds as in the examples with animals. Do you have any ideas of how to represent that inhaling laughter, Glizdka? You seem to be in a creative mood.

 

[Glizdka]

If I were to transcribe her laughter (the girl in the link I gave in post #17), I'd just go with "[laughing uncontrollably]". I still stand firmly by what I said in post #7 - it's not reasonable to try to transcribe laughter.

EDIT: I do think, however, that it's perfectly reasonable to give names to different kinds of laughter (see Jutfrank's post #18).

 

[GeneD]

After reading Frank's and Skrej's suggestions, I naturally got a bit confused about the different interpretations of "hehe" and decided to ask google. Here's an interesting article where the author is also confused about the "hehe":
The terms of e-laughter—“ha ha,” “ho ho,” “hee hee,” “heh”—are implicitly understood by just about everybody. But, in recent years, there’s been an increasingly popular newcomer: “hehe.” Not surprisingly, it’s being foisted upon us by youth. What does it mean?...
... I consider “hehe” to be the “woah” of laughter—an odd but common enough misspelling of a common term of social communication. I think it’s “hee hee,” our conspiratorial buddy, sweetly shortened to “haha” length in a slightly bizarre way.