# Is shhh an international word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059 "2010-04-14T13:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/1 "2010-04-14T13:43:01Z")
Is it a word even? What I mean is, is it a culturally universal sentiment? What other ways are there of telling people “Quiet!”? Is the finger held over lips culturally universal? ---
**Author:** ![footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9f8e36/32.png) [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/footballisplayedwithyourfeet)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/2 "2010-04-14T14:55:27Z")
I know we use it in dutch… ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/3 "2010-04-14T15:00:22Z")
It works just the same in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/4 "2010-04-14T15:07:03Z")
I believe the answer is ‘yes’. In parenting class, we were taught that making the “shhh” sound is one of the universal techniques for calming a newborn (together with such things as “swaddling” and “swinging”), so it appears to be hard-wired into humans and not culturally dependant. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/5 "2010-04-14T15:28:51Z")
The ‘shh’ sound for babies apart, the _word_ for ‘hush’ in German is ‘psst’ (often pronounced psht). Confusingly it’s used for ‘be quiet’ as well as ‘look at me - I am going to whisper to you’. ---
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/6 "2010-04-14T15:31:18Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I believe the answer is ‘yes’. > > In parenting class, we were taught that making the “shhh” sound is one of the universal techniques for calming a newborn (together with such things as “swaddling” and “swinging”), so it appears to be hard-wired into humans and not culturally dependant. It’s supposed to replicate the sounds that the baby was used to hearing in the womb and so is familiar and calming to them. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/7 "2010-04-14T15:31:38Z")
I doubt it’s universal because the sound it represents, /ʃ/, does not exist in many languages. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/8 "2010-04-14T22:02:03Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I doubt it’s universal because the sound it represents, /ʃ/, does not exist in many languages. Yes, but, as far as I know, others use similar sounds, like maybe /ʂ/ or even /ts/. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/9 "2010-04-15T00:04:43Z")
> [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](#): > > I know we use it in dutch… > [@psychonaut](#): > > I doubt it’s universal because the sound it represents, /ʃ/, does not exist in many languages. indeed, and that is why in Dutch we mostly say ‘ssssst’, not ‘ʃʃʃʃʃʃʃt’ - although clearly if you went ‘ʃʃʃʃʃʃt’ in a movie theatre people would understand what you wanted. And proceed to throw popcorn at you - because if they’re rude enough to talk during a movie, there not going to gently reply to your reasonable request to STFU. So it’s a bit of both - we’ll say sssst but understand sssssht - and probably use it on occasion too (although I don’t think I do) even though it is not a sound that comes entirely naturally to us. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/10 "2010-04-15T01:14:23Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I doubt it’s universal because the sound it represents, /ʃ/, does not exist in many languages. Interestingly, although Spanish doesn’t have a “sh” sound, we do use “sh” to shush people. Some people also use “ss” and it is also understood all around, but I have heard “sh” a whole lot more often than “ss” even if the sound doesn’t exist in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/11 "2010-04-15T01:19:09Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I believe the answer is ‘yes’. > > In parenting class, we were taught that making the “shhh” sound is one of the universal techniques for calming a newborn (together with such things as “swaddling” and “swinging”), so it appears to be hard-wired into humans and not culturally dependant. Do you have a cite for that? ---
**Author:** ![Peaton\_of\_peat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@Peaton\_of\_peat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peaton_of_peat)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/12 "2010-04-15T02:38:18Z")
What about languages that have neither /ʃ/ nor /s/, like Hawaiian? From what I know, the closest consonant is /k/, which doesn’t seem like it would be very soothing. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shhh-an-international-word/536059/13 "2010-04-15T12:58:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Do you have a cite for that? Sure. “Sushing” is one of the “five S’s” of baby soothing, according to this fellow (and the class I was taught): [http://www.babyslumber.com/happiestbaby.html](http://www.babyslumber.com/happiestbaby.html) > [@](#): > > Shushing Sounds - These sounds imitate the continual whooshing sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb. This white noise can be in the form of a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, a fan and so on. The good news is that you can easily save the motors on your household appliances and get a white noise CD which can be played over and over again with no worries. Note that it isn’t a particular word, simply any noise that sounds approximately like “shhhhh”. We were taught that “shhh” was a good approximation. The linguistic speculation is all my own. The notion (and I have no cite for it, it is pure speculation) is that if babies are soothed by sounds like “shhhh”, pretty well every language will use something analogous to it to mean “quiet, hush”. They may not of course represent that sound with the same consonants, but it will be recognizably _similar_.