Of course, all humans laugh, cough and sneeze in the same way! But writing these sounds is a different matter:
English: haha, hehe, heehee, ha, lol, rotfl
Arabic, Persian: هه، ها ها، خخ (haha, hA hA, khakha)
Chinese: 哈哈 (haha)，呵呵 (hehe)，嘻嘻 (shee shee)
French: hahaha, héhéhé, hihihi, hohoho, MDR
Greek: xaxaxa, xoxoxo
Indonesian: wkwkwkwk
Japanese: ふふふ (huhuhu), www
Korean: kkkk, kekekeke, zzzzzz
Norwegian: hæhæhæ, høhøhø
Portuguese: huehuehue, kkkkk, rárárá, rsrsrsrs
Russian: хахаха (hahaha), бгггггг (bgggg), гггггг (gggggg), олололо (olololo)
Spanish: jajaja
Thai: 55555
Vietnamese: hihihi
- Can you think of any other ways to write "haha"?
- Do you think the different "haha's" in your language have different meanings? (eg. in English "heehee" is a naughty laugh, used for example when teasing someone)
- Do you prefer to use <em>sound-words</em>** like "haha"? Or do you prefer <em>acronyms</em> like "lol" (=laugh[ing] out loud), "MDR" (=mort de rire (laughing to death)), "www" (=warau warau warau (laugh laugh laugh)), etc.
- Do any of these laughing sounds mean something different in your language? <em>(eg. "xoxoxo" in English means "hugs and kisses", not "hahaha"!)</em>
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* source: https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/hls2q/how_do_other_languages_indicate_laughter_on_the/
** the correct word is "onomatopoeia", other examples in English are "ring ring", "woof woof", "miaow", etc.
Indonesian --> wkwkwkw, jiakakakaka, brakakaka, bwahahahahah, bwakakakaak, jiahahahaah, wagagagagagag, and there are many others. We tend to create our own written laughters wokwowkwow <----right now, I am using this) wowkowkwkw
In Arabic it's ههههههههههههه (hahaha)
and if someone laughed as خخخخخ (Khakha) that's actually considered as inappropriate.
In Brazil it's this way:
rsrsrs = it was a little funny
huehuehue = sarcastic laugh
kkkk = most common one, can be used in almost all situations
rarara = I've never seen this one
Hahaha and hehehe are also common.
Interesting! In Japanese, I think ははは(hahaha) is most common. We also use ふふふ(fufufu), おほほ(ohoho, for noble women), わっはっは(wah-hah-ha, good loud laugh), げらげら(geragera, guffaw) etc.
We also use へへ(hehe) like in English, but this sounds just valgar. And found "wkwk" in Indonesian looks like our "wktk"(waku waku teka teka, a mimetic word on the net expressing the feeling waiting something very amusing) :)
