Well, I admire your spirit of observation, but If I had to write the sound of my laughing according to how I pronounce letters… I would go for hehehe. I’m just too used to how I read them in books, comics, or stripes here. But your analysis could be part of the reason why we write that way (I really don’t know). eheheh sounds more like a hiccup now that I think of it 
Well then I wonder why italians write it that way. Do any of you guys actually laugh like that?
That could be actually a good poll for italian forum users!
What does your laughing sound like?
- Ha Ha Ha
- Eh Eh Eh
- He He He
- Ih Ih Ih
- Uargrgheghegaag
0 voters
I’m sorry, I must disagree. It’s not the lenght of the word in letters that determinates the lenght of the sound, which is given by the unsilent sillables.
Using your examples:
pen: 1 syllable. Shortest sound. Stift: 1 syllable. pen-na: two syllables, longer sound.
In the second example there’s an error: “forma” in italian means ONLY “shape”. The correct translation for “form” is “modulo”.
So:
form 1 syllable, shortest sound. Mo-du-lo, 3 syllables. For-mu-lar, 3 syllables, same sound lenght.
En-glish: 2 spoken syllables. En-glisch: same sound lenght. In-gle-se: 3 syllables, longer sound.
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This is an interesting question. I’ll give you the answer my teacher at primary school gave me…
I wrote “Ha ha ha” to mean a laugh.
She explained to me that, since “ha” and “ho” are real words in italian (which mean “he/she has” and “I have”, respectively) in order to avoid confusion the conventional right way to write the onomatopoea of a laugh is putting the “h” AFTER the vowel, even if it is less natural.
Putting the H first is simply an error, in italian.
But, why eh eh instead of ah ah?
Well, you can laugh with any vowel sound.
Ah ah is the most obvious laugh.
Eh eh is pronounced “he-he” (like the sound in the english word “hell”) and suggests a sardonic laugh.
Ih ih is pronounced “hee-hee” (like the sound in the english word “heel”) and suggests a light and witheld laugh.
But you can go also Oh Oh (like Santa), or Uh uh if you’re a real weirdo.
Oh, I knew a guy who laughed like H h h h …Quite singular.
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Shut up and vote!!!
Just kidding, that´s real interesting, thanks for the detailed info!
I voted, but it’s more the sound of @milanfahrnholz strangling me than the sound of my laugh…
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Everytime I make a poll anywhere I always include a joke answer and am surprised (and maybe a little delighted because it means people take my survey seriously) how rarely people actually go for the joke answer.
Maybe because it is a serious answer? 
I actually know people who laugh like the last of your options.
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Look at what I found and scanned!
From an old book of my childhood, by Benito Jacovitti!
And you can find the H-h-h laugh, too! 
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Ahem…
Wolfram Alpha calculates lenght, not sound emissions, so all the evidences brought by Someone are correct.
But referring to dubbing, obviously it’s sound emission that counts.
Form (en): Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data
- The visible shape or configuration of something.
‘the form, colour, and texture of the tree’
mass noun ‘the flowers of this shrub are remarkable both in form and colour’
Forma (it): fórma in Vocabolario - Treccani - Treccani - Treccani
- a. L’aspetto esteriore con cui si configura ogni oggetto corporeo o fantastico, o una sua rappresentazione (The outward appearance with which every material or fantastic object is configured, or a representation of it)
We should put in the German counterpart, maybe “form” ?
Ah, yes. I thought of form as a document.
According to your definition the german “Form” is correct (while there are some synonyms).
You know, if I were to read them in a book, I’d interpret them differently.
“Hahaha” is a hearty laugh, “hehehe” is a lighter laugh, like when you’re anticipating some evil prank “hihihi” is a childish, frivolous laugh. “Hohoho” is Santa Claus, “huhuhu” is a racist football fan imitating a monkey when a black player is on the field.
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Fuck that guy! Tell him to stop and go back to chant Seven Nation Army again.
I[quote=“Gffp, post:90, topic:2277, full:true”]
Ahem…
Wolfram Alpha calculates lenght, not sound emissions, so all the evidences brought by Someone are correct.
But referring to dubbing, obviously it’s sound emission that counts.
[/quote]
Yes, I was referring to that, I wasn’t arguing that Wolfram Alpha was right nor @Someone was wrong.
In english with “form” you can refer to a shape or a document.
@Someone was referring to the latter, since he translated it into “formular”, which doesn’t mean “shape”.
“forma” in italian means ONLY shape, and can’t refer to the document, which is called “modulo” or “modello” (both have 3 syllables like german, versus 1 syllable for english).
If you refer to the other meaning:
English: form (1 short syllable) or shape (1 long syllable, made by two vowel sounds: ʃeɪp)
German: form (1 short syllable) or ge-stal-ten (3 syllables)
Italia: for-ma (two syllables)
Yes and no.
Form (=the document) is “Formular” (for-mu-lar)
Form (=the shape) is “Form” (1 syllable)
to bring something into shape = “formen” (for-men, 2 syllable)(*)
“gestalten” is primary the word for building/making something in a creative process (in the sense of “designing” or “constructing”) My dictionary says that the direct translation of “gestalten” is “pattern”, “fashion” or [Am] “mold”.
(*)sidenote: the German word “formen” is pronounced like the english “for men”.)
I was just trying to stretch to find an example in which the german sound was longer than the Italian 
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If you squint you can hardly see the gap between the two words…
Who wouldn´t fancy himself some obsession formen?
You know that “Obsession for men” is the most dangerous perfume in the world? Wild animals (like bears) can smell this perfume over a long distance. So if you use it, I recommend to buy the Thimbleweed Park Anti-Bear lotion too. 
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Quick status update:
Maniac Mansion progress= 59% (line 666 of 1119)
Monkey Island progress=11% (line 525 of 4437)
Yep, I thought "MM is a much shorter game. If I translate that one first, I can buy myself a bit more time to work on the MI translation."
Perhaps I’ll try a Zak translation afterwards (although the C64 version doesn’t seem to be supported by scummtr).
Thinking about the 16000 lines of dialogue in TWP is disheartening.
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