Quote Originally Posted by Misha Tal View Post
Here's one thing I don't understand:

The Russian spelling for "Aha!" is "Ага!". How come? "Аха!" would be much closer to the actual sound...

I guess most Russians can say "h", even though the consonant doesn't exist in their language.
I think most Russians pronounce "voiced х" sound here. In standard Russian letter "г" mostly denotes "voiced к" sound but in South Russian pronunciation as well as in Ukrainian accent (rather common) this letter is pronounced as "voiced х" sound. Moreover, even in standard Russian letter "г" in some words (like interjections "Ага"=Aha, "угу"=uh-huh, "Ого"=wow) in fact is pronounced as "voiced х".

So "voiced х" sound is usually associated with letter г, not х.