help with pronunciation of a sound

[Edlam]

Hi,
<woo-ee or uu-ee>
I need help with the pronunciation of a sound, something similar to "wahoo".
Similar to "wahoo"  woo-ee,  or uu-ee (the w is soft in this case) is an interjection used to express exuberance or enthusiasm or to attract attention, sometimes used to express relief.  How would this sound be spelled? 

Thanks very much!
Edlam

[Daniel]

What language? What orthography? We could only guess, and probably would be wrong.

[freknu]

Do you perhaps mean "phew-wee" [ˈɧuːˌwiː]?

(EDIT)

I'm not even sure how to transcribe onomatopoeia, should that be /phonemic/ or [phonetic]? I don't recall [ɧ] being a phoneme in English, and it's probably not the same sound as in Swedish, despite being the same symbol.

[Daniel]

Do you perhaps mean "phew-wee" [ˈɧuːˌwiː]?

Hmm... I think of that as just an [f], though it may be slightly palatalized before the [ju].

I'm not even sure how to transcribe onomatopoeia, should that be /phonemic/ or [phonetic]?

Either way, I think. Onomatopoeia would be transcribed just like other words, either narrowly with phonetic detail (best if you want to really capture the "sound effect" quality) or as regular phonemes. In the case that there's something with non-English phonemes, I suppose it would be strange to write it as a broad transcription. So the sound we make for a horse is a click, like several other sounds such as the "tsk tsk" of disapproval, and for those I don't know that I'd write them as if they're phonemes.

[Edlam]

Thank you very much for your reply. 

The language is English, and I'm trying to transcribe the sound in English.

I don't hear an "h" sound when listening to the recording. 

It sounds like the "eu" in "eureka" (possibly written woo), and "e" as in "evil" (possibly written whee). 

Could I write this sound as "UUEE"?

Thanks,
Edlam
*I am not a linguist, obviously

Do you perhaps mean "phew-wee" [ˈɧuːˌwiː]?

(EDIT)

I'm not even sure how to transcribe onomatopoeia, should that be /phonemic/ or [phonetic]? I don't recall [ɧ] being a phoneme in English, and it's probably not the same sound as in Swedish, despite being the same symbol.

[Daniel]

What is this sound though? I still don't know what you're referring to. Could you give an example of a context where you would hear it?

[freknu]

Do you perhaps mean "phew-wee" [ˈɧuːˌwiː]?

Hmm... I think of that as just an [f], though it may be slightly palatalized before the [ju].

That's interesting, I don't think I've ever heard it said [fjuː] (at least by a native speaker), rhyming with "few".

For me it kind of rhymes with Huey, but with post-alveolar/palatal frication (middle of the tongue near to the roof) of the initial /h/. I had a look at youtube, and apparently there's quite a bit of variation, there's also /pjuː/.

I'm not even sure how to transcribe onomatopoeia, should that be /phonemic/ or [phonetic]?

Either way, I think. Onomatopoeia would be transcribed just like other words, either narrowly with phonetic detail (best if you want to really capture the "sound effect" quality) or as regular phonemes. In the case that there's something with non-English phonemes, I suppose it would be strange to write it as a broad transcription. So the sound we make for a horse is a click, like several other sounds such as the "tsk tsk" of disapproval, and for those I don't know that I'd write them as if they're phonemes.

Phonemic where the word can be represented as phonemic, phonetic otherwise? E.g. the clicks that you mention would be phonetic (not phonemic in English), while "ow" would be /au/.

[Daniel]

Phonemic where the word can be represented as phonemic, phonetic otherwise? E.g. the clicks that you mention would be phonetic (not phonemic in English), while "ow" would be /au/.

Yeah, sounds fine to me.



The variation you mentioned is also interesting.

I think this could actually be a relevant area for research, especially when these peripheral 'words' end up containing sounds that native speakers are easily capable of producing yet do not use in normal speech. So they say something about adaptability to new phonemes, and certainly should help make learning a new language (with those sounds) easier.