Subj : Cough
To   : alexander koryagin
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Wed Aug 30 2017 23:16:35

Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 ak>  A real situation took more time to be described.

                            [...]

 ak>  I wanted to write "A real situation would have taken
 ak>  more time to be explained."


          Ah, yes... "would have taken" makes the meaning more clear.



 ak>  So I tried to invent a more simple situation where I could
 ak>  ask my question. The question about the sound of coughing
 ak>  in a written story.


          That was what I thought at first, but then I wasn't sure....  :-)



 ak>  You told about "Ahem, Ahem!"


          In English it is a traditional way of writing about a throat-clearing 
sound or gentle cough, often (but not always) used to interrupt shop assistants 
reading books &/or restaurant employees chatting with their co-workers....  ;-)



 ak>  But suppose I describe a goose who had caught cold.
 ak>  Will you still use "Ahem, Ahem" describing his coughing?


          Beats me... I've never heard a goose coughing.  I have heard roosters 
crowing, and where I come from they don't say "cock-a-doodle-doo" like the ones 
in children's story books.  I have heard owls say "too-whit-too-whoo", like the 
ones in these books, but different types of owls make different sounds....  :-)



 ak>  In Russia we feel more free on this account. We can
 ak>  write: "Gkhe, Gkhe!", cried the sick goose.


          I don't know of an English equivalent, but I think I understand.

          In a brief episode of little importance I overheard myself doing that 
just yesterday when I had a "tickly cough".  I can't help wondering, though, if 
it's a conventional spelling (as in the above examples) or whether Alexander is 
reporting what he heard... or both.  I discovered, as a student of French, that 
one's perception of a sound may depend on what language one grew up with.  It's 
not just animal sounds which differ.  A cartoon fight in North American English 
often includes sound effects like "crash", "bam", "biff", "sock", and "pow".  I 
don't remember exactly what the French say, but that's not how they do it.

          Now, as to "Mr Woulf" and the sound of his cough... I assume he is in 
good health unless you tell us otherwise.  Whether an "ahem" is real or fake it 
suggests, at worst, a minor affliction.  If he had e.g. bronchitis or pneumonia 
or tuberculosis I'd expect his cough to sound very different.  If what he wants 
to do is get somebody else to notice his presence it might be counterproductive 
if s/he thinks s/he's in danger of catching some dread disease... so I wouldn't 
recommend he go on at length.  But these are your characters & your story.  The 
shop assistant might well be reading a cheap thriller or romance novel... OTOH, 
she might well be an impecunious student cramming for a test the next day.  :-Q




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

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