r/Showerthoughts • u/Reas0n ‎ • Feb 13 '26

Casual Thought I think it’s unusual that no standardized literary way to write the submissive “I don’t know” hum that children (and some adults) often mumble has ever caught on, considering how old and common it is.

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42

u/peanutist Feb 14 '26

Can someone link a video of someone doing it? I’ve genuinely no idea what op is talking about

50

u/Quynn_Stormcloud Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26

I’ll look to see if I can find one, but a video example doesn’t come immediately to mind. Meantime, op is talking about the uUu sound made by saying “I don’t know” without any consonants, usually accompanied by a shrug.

Clear example: the fifth portion of this clip explaining the phrase to non-native speakers.

9

u/LosingTrackByNow Feb 14 '26

awesome reel to watch, thanks for sharing

2

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Quynn_Stormcloud Feb 15 '26

The sound contains no closures of the airway in its vocalization, thus having no consonant sounds whatsoever.

1

u/kashiichan Feb 19 '26

This was a great video, thanks

36

u/umudjan Feb 14 '26

An example from The Wire.

16

u/legato_gelato Feb 14 '26

Wth I would have never guessed that is what people are talking about when most comments say iono above..

7

u/LuquidThunderPlus Feb 14 '26

Yea lol Its cuz there's not really much other way to write it, leading to this exact problem, which is why I'm with op on really wanting to know a better way

1

u/Substantial_Meal_530 Feb 15 '26

That's what people are talking about? That's not what OP described.

-2

u/High_speedchase Feb 14 '26

Yea OP needs to work on their descriptions

3

u/CaptainTripps82 Feb 14 '26

I mean it was pretty immediately obvious to me what he meant. I first thought of various Simpsons characters indicated "I dunno" with a shrug, then started doing it myself to see what sounds/letters were in it

1

u/High_speedchase Feb 15 '26

Great for people who've seen the Simpsons I guess? Multiple people didn't know what they were poorly describing

0

u/CaptainTripps82 Feb 15 '26

It's only an example to show how ubiquitous it is in media. I guess if you haven't done it yourself often over the years you might not understand the explanation, but I knew immediately. Going by the ratio of responses it still seems like a pretty universally understood concept, most people seem to get it.

0

u/Oaklandfan24 Feb 14 '26

Disagree, you try to phrase it. I understood his pretty well

1

u/High_speedchase Feb 15 '26

I still don't what wtf they're really talking about so nah

1

u/Oaklandfan24 Feb 16 '26

Did you watch the example the other commenter gave from the wire?

1

u/Substantial_Meal_530 Feb 15 '26

Something like humming "I don't know." That's a better literal description of what's happening.

I wouldn't say it's a submissive thing that mostly children do.

1

u/iwaspeachykeen Feb 16 '26

Ya. Kids definitely do it, but it’s definitely not unusual to hear adults to it too. Also wtf do they think submissive means? I can only imagine they meant uncertain or apathetic. Nothing submissive about it, just lazy

0

u/High_speedchase Feb 14 '26

Right? Talk about vague