Question/Discussion: How would you linguistically describe the sound a whistle makes?
Context: I came up with a riddle I thought was clever and was basically downvoted into oblivion in the Riddles subreddit because they thought it was not clear or obvious enough.
The riddle: I'm what you hear when the kettle gets hot. Add just one letter and I go from costly to not.
Answer: >!Fee!<
(Answer is in the explanation below as well)
Explanation: While maybe it's not what most people think of right off the bat, the goal is to think outside the box. The sound a whistle makes, to me, is a fricative followed by a long, high "i" (IPA i) - Fiiiiiiiii - or written out in English - "FEEEEEEEEEEEE"
Fee is a cost. Add just one letter and it becomes: Free - without a cost.
Is it this absurd to think that the sound a kettle makes, or a whistling noise could be sounded out as a "Fee"? I was absolutely bashed for thinking this works and want to see if I am crazy or not.
They said I should make something with "Whistle" because I should use an onomatopoeia (yes, multiple users attacking me for the same thing when I tried to explain my reasoning above), and I said "Whistle" is not an Onomatopoeia, while "Fee" would be - it's exactly the sound you hear if you name it "Fee" - like how "Honk" is the onomatopoeia for a car horn, while "Horn" is not one, just like how "Whistle" is not one.
Genuinely feel like I'm taking crazy pills, but if it's that far of a stretch, then I'd like to hear it from those with a better grasp on linguistics in general.