Logomacy
Between logomachy and logomancy . . .

Language Log: “Ho ho ho”, she laughed in a refined feminine way:

In Japanese manga, (according to the first link above), “masculine laughter” is “ha ha ha” or “ahahaha”, whereas “refined feminine laughter” is “ho ho ho”. This seems to be the opposite phonetic direction from English, where stereotypically feminine laughter is usually represented as something like “teeheehee”, and “ho ho ho” is what Santa Claus does. In manga, apparently “a strange laugh” is “hu hu hu” or “fu fu fu”. This would be strange in English as well, too strange to use, I think. The English convention for diabolical laughter is more like “bwahaha”.

It’s a convention, I think, but not just a manga convention. Liberman’s right that it seems to be a phonetic difference–the actual sounds are different and not just the representation. If you watch anime, for instance, the refined female characters really do laugh in a particular way, with a high-pitched /ou/ sound and a very light /h/ (they also typically cover their mouths with the back of one hand while doing this) and “hohoho” is probably how any American who heard it would transcribe it. Kodachi Kuno from Ranma 1/2 is famous for this, and I have at least one female friend who can do a quite passable imitation. I have no idea whether any Japanese women actually laugh spontaneously like this, or whether it’s a theatrical affectation like the English villanous mwa-ha-ha while rubbing the hands or twirling the ends of the moustache. The huhuhu laugh¹ is also a pretty straightforward way of writing the sound that is made. It’s diabolical laughter, but of a particular kind, generally indicating that the laugher is perverse or wicked. An Iago might laugh that way (or the mysterious priest Xellos, from Slayers) A mad scientist or other full-bore maniac would be more likely, I think, to use a mwa-ha-ha kind of laugh (spelled ba-ha-ha-ha, I would guess) while standing arms akimbo, but that may be the influence of English theatrical villain conventions.

At any rate, this seems to be quite different from, say, “cockadoodle-doo” versus “kikirikiki” where (presumably) the animal is making the same noise however the local language chooses to represent it. They really are quite different laughs, and not just different representations of the same laughs.

Read the rest of the post…there are some very interesting links.