this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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What exactly does a "long" knock sound like?
Yeah I was wondering the same thing. At first I thought it didn't really matter, you'd just go by the length of time between knocks. But then I saw the "be quiet", which would be indistinguishable from "cone here"...
wouldn't be quiet b: Tak, tak, tak.
and come here be: Tak, tak. Tak.
My assumption is that dots have no pause after nock, while dash requires pause. Just like when someone uses Morse code underwater
E.g.:
U-571 Morse cose scene
This only works if the sequences are guaranteed to never end with a long knock. If you meant to say the pause goes before the long knock, like in the example you gave, not after it, then it only works if the sequence is guaranteed to never begin with a long knock.
Putting the pause before the long knock instead of after is so counter-intuitive that my brain struggles to allow me to actually tap the sequences that way while I read them, for example your "Tak, tak. Tak." intuitively sounds like dot dash dot (super sister meeting), and not dot dot dash (come here).
I think the scene in that movie is a Hollywood inaccuracy. Tapping/knocking has its own system for communication: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_code
Interesting, I never heard about that system.
During my reply to another comment I stumbled upon another issue with how I thought pauses could work, so maybe instead of pause they distinguished dashes from dots by designating different knocking surfaces (e.g. wall for dash and wood(like bedframe or doorframe) for them?
The goal would be to produce different sounds so e.g. dot = tak and dash = tuk. That way only pauses would be for switching the surface and for intermission between phrases
That's exactly what I thought. But when the only dash is at the end of the message, how do you tell?
..-and...are going to be indistinguishable, no?So, for dash they could have put pauses on both sides, maybe?
Few examples:
a) -·· => Tak. Tak, tak.
b) ··- => Tak,tak. Tak.
Then only option that wouldn't work is -·-.
Other option, that would allow all combinations, is if they devised solution where dash and dot knocks used different surfaces to produce different sound. E.g. for dash on a wall and for dot on wod (like a bed frame).
For a danish, your onomatopoeia choice for a knock would sound annoyingly polite.
ooh,
so somethig like: Please, please. Pleeease.
That does sound like younger sibling😁
hahah its rather: Thanks, thanks thaaanks. But your version is equally annoyingly polite. 😁
Maybe a knuckle drag?
Was my thinking too, if they’re sharing a wall it would be pretty quiet but easily heard by the other
Or maybe different sounds altogether. Like in enunciated morse code "dit dit dit" / "dit dit daa".
The dit could be done by tapping with a nail, daa with a finger, or something like that.
I'm not certain but I'm assuming a short knock they remove their hand quickly after impact and a long hand they keep their hand pressed against the wall after impact. Or maybe the difference between knuckles and palm knocks?
If you do a long knock, you can kinda hear the delayed release from the wall if you listen closely.
like the engine of my car at idle
It's like Morse Code. It really isn't about the length of the sound, it's the spaces between them. A dot would have a short space after it, a dash would have a long space. So dot dot dot would be three quick knocks, dash dash dash would be three slow knocks.