What is a word? Some definitions start with sound but others say sound and letters right from the start. I don't know if there are any words used in English that have never been written down but I imagine many words in other languages have never made it into the English alphabet.
When I accidentally mistyped "poof" as "poff", I got interested in sound words. What letters should I use to depict a trumpet in writing? A drum roll? A clarinet? We used to ask our three year old daughter, "What do cows say?" and she would answer "Moo!" We never asked her about porcupine sounds or giraffe sounds. My moment of research showed that cats tend to say very much the same thing in most languages but not dogs. Dogs vary more by language.
I think it was on the Garrison Keillor show that I first heard what I thought was the "sound man" called the "foley" man. According to Wikipedia, when sound was first added to movies, there was a need for somebody to figure out ways to approximate sounds. One of the first people to work on sound production was Jack Foley, in about 1927. I was just a kid then and I don't remember any of that.
I heard once that fistfight sounds can include somebody punching the thawed body of a turkey to simulate such blows. So, the foley man working in the foley studio works out ways to make a sound that will simulate something in a show. I once had a sound set, maybe in the 4th grade, that included a piece of sheet metal that could be wiggled for thunder.
I guess movie houses often had a piano player supplying sound during the old silent movies to help get the audience excited during battle scenes and mooney during lovey scenes. I completely detest the current fashion of supplying a music track right during conversation in important scenes. When this blog is made into a movie, I will only sign a contract if it contains blocks to such an irritating practice.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
