Why is sleep represented with “zzz” in comics?

(/)

QUESTION Ana Paula Guimarães de Arantes, Dracena, SP

In English and Portuguese, the “zzz” is the written version of the sound made by someone sleeping. In other languages, however, the noise sounds (and is spelled) differently. “Like all onomatopoeia, the ‘zzz’ is an approximation. But there are variations because we represent sounds respecting the limitations of our language and our culture”, explains Waldomiro Vergueiro, from USP’s Comics Observatory.

This makes many onomatopoeias unique in each place. In Brazil, for example, a baby’s cry would never be «ouin, ouin», as in France. The “zzz” is an exception: it was popularized by North Americans and caught on in several languages.

Comic books play an important role in this export of onomatopoeia. Since the first publications, at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, this language resource was already used as a “sound effect”.

Check out some of the variations around the world in the illustrations:

– ()

– ()

– ()

– ()

CONSULTANCY Waldomiro Vergueiro, from the Comics Observatory offrom ECA-USP; Elisabetta Santoro (Italian), Lica Hashimoto (Japanese), Paola Baccin (Italian), Selma Meireles (German), Yun Jung Im (Korean) and Fabiana Buitor Carelli, from FFLCH-USP; Anna Almeida (Czech), from the University of Lisbon; translators: Alexandre Rodrigues (Chinese), Beatriz Villas Bôas (English), Shanshan Fei (Chinese), Therezinha van der Geest (Dutch); and Paulo Gustavo Pereira, a journalist specializing in comics