Communicating in plain text can be really tough; it just doesn't allow the subtlety, nuance and level of emotion that humans need to understand conversations properly. If you struggle with it, the Sound-Word Index might be able to help you out.

Do you make sounds in your head when you read text messages like pfft, hmm, ohhh,, ermm? Communicating via plain text makes it hard to read between the lines, and the level of emotion that humans need to understand conversations properly. How many times have we misconstrued the actual meaning behind a conversation in text without the proper tonalities?

The Sound-Word index is here to help us communicate better. Elanche de Lasa and Stina Gromark, are developing a crowd sourced reference library which attempts to allocate meaning to letter repetitions and onomatopoeia used on the internet. An urban dictionary 2.0?

Good luck to the duo. As I would really like to know the difference and meaning behind hmm, and hmmmmm, hmmm, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Sound-Word Index via The Verge]