Re: USAGE: onomatopoeia and spelling alternates

On 19.4.2007 Mark J. Reed wrote:
> Second, /Vmf/ is universally -umph rather than -umf.
>
> "Helen paused.  With an audible `wumph,' Muffy's familiar yipping had
> ended..." (from a Far Side cartoon).
>
> "He left it dead / And with its head / He went gallumphing back."
>
> Are modern textual foley artists emulating Carroll, or was Carroll
> just an early example of the same tendency?
>
> I don't know what role the vowel plays in this phenomenon, but
> Nightcrawler's BAMF! is a good example of /mf/ not preceded by /V/.
>
> I imagine the use of PH may come from parallelism with the common
> sequence -ump.  /umf/ is usually <oomph>, too.  But without the -m-,
> <f> reappears: <whuff>, <oof>, etc.
Doesn't this _umph_ rather represent [m_0=], a syllabic
voiceless
bilabial nasal?  A snort is essentially just that, and whatever
sound _wumph_ represents it ain't [wVmf], but actually some dull
non-vocal sound.

/BP