How to describe Homer Simpson's 'idunno' sound

In The Simpsons Homer makes a closed mouth sound made up of three rising and falling tones, resembling (and meaning the same as) 'idunno' said without opening the mouth. I hear it being used from time to time, and use it myself.

How would this be described in linguistic terms - is it a word? Do/should a dictionary contain it? How would it be written? Has it been studied at all?

Solution 1:

In linguistic terms, it's an interjection like iunno. It's one of many interjections in the English language.

Interjections may be real words, but in this case, it's not. I don't think anyone even knows how to spell it. But its similarity to other interjections (specifically iunno, but also uh-huh and others) validates it as an interjection.

Solution 2:

Wikipedia refers to it in under shrug as

In the English-speaking world it may be accompanied by a three syllable grunt or hummed mumble mimicking the intonation of "I dunno".

It's part of nonverbal communication, which is well-studied in animals and in man. Does it have a name? idunno.

Solution 3:

This is a very good question.

It is not a sound unique to Homer Simpson at all, but it may be associated with an older generation. My own father (currently aged 99) was a master of it. But I don't hear it so much nowadays.

It serves the same purpose as a shrug of the shoulders, which can accompany it.

In the Anglosphere the shrug is not what it is in France, where they have the most masterful way of shrugging the shoulders, whilst saying 'Alors là' - 'don't ask me'!

I think I would call the Homer sound an 'audible shrug'.

Solution 4:

When I make the sound myself, it sounds like three syllabic bilabial nasals, the first with a low tone, second with a high tone, and third with a low tone and breathy phonation. Pick up a text book on phonetics then you could study yourself making the sound, assuming you know how to imitate it.

Depending on who says it, the position of the tongue body may also adjust to that of the underlying vowels in "I don't know". This would have slight but (in theory) perceptible effects on the sound quality (and the third syllable might be better described as "lax" [because the last vowel in I don't know is lax] than "breathy", but it's hard to say). The best way of seeing this is through the use of ultrasound or other imaging techniques.