#inklish

“Wumi” (popularly spelled by the fandom “woomy”) is Inklish for “yes”. It can be used the same way English uses “yeah”. You hear it as a battle cry, a celebratory cheer (splatting Octarians), and a response to address (talking to girls in the plaza).

Now, why don’t the boys’ voice clips say it? Probably because there are multiple ways to respond in the affirmative (okay, sure, alright, sounds good, that’s cool, etc.) and Inklish has its own variations. There are also many ways to respond to address (what’s up, hey there, can I help you, hi, etc.).

The big question is this: are the gargling sounds incidental to the mollusk-people’s voices, or are they special consonants only pronounceable with their squishy boneless anatomy? My guess is the former, for a number of reasons:

Crustaceans like Crusty Sean and Bisk can fluently speak Inklish, no accents. One would imagine that clicky arthropod parts would make it difficult to make squishy gargle noises.

Calamari Inkantation has been transliterated into hiragana.

There is almost no gargle in Tide Goes Out.

The only gargle you can hear in City of Color sounds more like vibrato than anything else. 

me: ????

little sister: y'know, inklish?

me: uh. no?

little sister: splatoon? inklings?