Brilliantly conceived Sound-Word Index for all your emotive digital language needs

The Sound Word Index might just be the best idea you’ll hear about all week, nay, month. It has been brilliantly realised by two Royal College of Art grads, Blanche de Lasa and Stina Gromark, in an easily navigable site with the familiar, communication-happy graphics of a trusty dictionary. But this is no Queen’s English, “aardvark” to “zyzzyva” affair. This is the ultimate reference for a new onomatopoeic and emotive vocabulary that infuses our digital messages with “an expressive and resonating language.”

I.e. “bOooOring” – “Really annoying or really boring FOR EXAMPLE ‘Stop looking at Facebook, it’s bOooOring’.” These sonic synonyms are understood by Rhythm (“in which the meaning is emphasised by the repetition of letters, syllables, words, or interjections”), Sound (in which the spelling directly translates the way the word would be said aloud. They can be interjections, written demonstrations of an accent, or a way of writing slang expressions"), and Volume (“in which their spelling characteristics convey the intensity of their sound through their typographical forms”). As well as the literal sound-word translations, there is a particularly emoticon index that sensitively scales the nuances of a smiley face from “big realisation” to “hesitating really a lot.”

To top it all, your own word might be submitted so each texter/emailer who holds their own unique emotional vernacular, might share their language with the wide (web) world. Bleeeeurgh.