# Unspellable words **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584 "2022-06-02T17:05:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/41 "2022-06-03T14:59:34Z")
I first heard the word on the original _Queer Eye for the Straight Guy_ and Carson Kressley spelled it [tszuj](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YSavhMgMPY). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/42 "2022-06-03T15:16:16Z")
That … is a very unintuitive spelling of the word. That’s not really like how you might spell it in imagined Polish. (_Tszuj_ would sound something like “Chooy” in Polish, but you’d never spell it that way). And the host says that’s kind of like Yiddish because of “tschochke”? I mean, it starts with a “ts” but that’s about it. And it’s more like “t” + “sch”. But wait. Isn’t it “tchochke?” _Looks it up_ Yeah, it’s normally transliterated "tchochke."And that “j” at the end? Does Yiddish even use a “j” when transliterated? The charts I find seem to suggest they don’t. That’s just a mess of orthography. I know, I know, the guy’s not a linguist or language scholar, but, man, how unintuitive can you make it? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/43 "2022-06-03T15:25:38Z")
What does the word have to do with Polish or Yiddish, though? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/44 "2022-06-03T15:26:45Z")
Did you watch the clip? I mention the host bringing up Yiddish, and Kressley explains that he was kind of going for Eastern European/Polish with his spelling. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/45 "2022-06-03T16:17:55Z")
I’ve always taken “zhuzh” as dimestore _faux français_. For some reason, I associate the term with hairdressers, but have heard it in other contexts as well. Anyway, if “zhuzh” were an actual French word, it could be rendered in French orthography as something like _jeuge_. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/46 "2022-06-03T19:57:28Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > A common misconception (and genuine accent in Hebrew, i.e. some Hebrew speakers pronounce them the same); there are two letters for two different fricatives, only one of which is guttural; the other is uvular. You’re talking about ח and כ, right? In theory, ח is supposed to be “harder”, from deeper in the throat, and כ is supposed to be closer to the mouth, but the vast majority - at least 95% - of Israeli Hebrew speakers pronounce them exactly the same. It’s the same with א and ע. Most Israelis _can_ pronounce the letters “properly”, but don’t bother to. The only ones who do are old-school newscasters and first-generation immigrants from Yemen and Iraq. > [@DPRK](#): > > You mean غ? Note the dot, which makes not correspond to a Hebrew letter, though I suppose you could write it as an “ayin” plus an apostrophe. According to Wikipedia, they do usually try to spell it as “g” or “gh” (e.g. Gaza) Israelis just write it as Ayin (ע) - in Gaza’s case, that was the city’s name long before the Arabs came along anyway. For “European” consonants, we write J as G’ (‘ג), Zh as Z’ (‘ז), and Ch as Tz’ ('צ). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/47 "2022-06-03T21:22:57Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I’ve always taken “zhuzh” as dimestore _faux français_ . It’s more likely [Polari](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari) The word also occurred in [Gayle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayle_language) here, probably coming from Polari. It has since been mainstreamed, but more as an adjective, and is usually spelled zhoosh. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/48 "2022-06-04T01:59:13Z")
Want some weirdo consonants? Just listen to any spoken passage played backward, and see how many consonants (vowels too for that matter) you can even recognize, let alone pronounce, let alone figure out how to spell. Vocal music played backwards is sometimes fun too. Here’s a catchy one: [Listen to this and try to transcribe it if you can.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc1vudd1ksw) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/49 "2022-06-04T02:15:25Z")
Oddly enough, it sounds vaguely Slavic to me (and I speak a Slavic language.) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/50 "2022-06-04T02:17:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Oddly enough, it sounds vaguely Slavic to me . . . Spoken English, played backward like that, always sounds like that. Note the prevalence of consonant sounds that seem to have a “y” sound following them. To English speakers, that always sounds like Russian. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/51 "2022-06-04T02:18:17Z")
This sort of thing comes up a lot in subtitling. For the abbreviated form of the usual, I’d go for “the uzhe,” or maybe uzh, and I’m fairly sure I’ve actually used (heh) that before when subtitling the Kardashians. Checking Urban Dictionary does help. And you have to bear in mind your audience - like for the Kardashians, the viewers are more likely to be familiar than the general population with the sorts of words that tend to be listed on Urban Dictionary. And it’ll be used in a context where the meaning is more obvious than reading the word uzhe in isolation. So it does have a spelling. Cazh is also short for casual. I’ve also seen caj, and uje for uzhe, and I think they get the idea across in context. It’s not an easy one, though, because it’s not widespread enough to have an accepted spelling, the sound is uncommon in English to begin with, and it’s represented one different ways in different words. Using IPA special symbols isn’t really relevant for anything except talking about pronunciation - I’m surprised by how many people didn’t get what you were asking about. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/52 "2022-06-04T03:08:42Z")
Yeah, it’s that “y” sound and the fricatives that make it sound Slavic/Russian to me. Oddly enough, Dutch to me sounds like what I imagine English to sound backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Feurmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@Feurmann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feurmann)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/53 "2022-06-04T05:50:34Z")
The example that springs to mind is one an old friend pointed out to me, that the phrases “tsk, tsk” and “tisk, tisk” don’t really describe the sound people make when they click their tongues disapprovingly. In these cases a word has been invented which attempts to describe a voiced sound which of course is not spelt out, because it is not a word. (Of course, neither of these features in the Shorter Oxford.) “Hmm”, indicating “I’m not sure about that”, would be another one. (Of course, a structuralist might say “I’m not Saussure about that”.) ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/54 "2022-06-04T10:04:22Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > This sort of thing comes up a lot in subtitling. Very cool. Is this what you do for a living? > [@Feurmann](#): > > “tsk, tsk” and “tisk, tisk” don’t really describe the sound people make when they click their tongues disapprovingly. Do you mean the “tsch” sound when someone is disappointed? What’s funny is that “tsk” pronounced “tisk” is also said by people, in a sort of reversal. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584/55 "2022-06-04T11:16:14Z")
A _sound_ not a _word_, but I’ve never seen a convincing spelling of the raspberry/Bronx cheer. _Pbbbt_ just doesn’t cut the cheese mustard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unspellable-words/965584.md?page=2)