I remember seeing a comic strip in junior college where it consisted 9 boxes of of two dudes saying “dude” to each other, with subtitles under each box to explain the particular meaning of each use of the word.
My boy has hit that phase in his life. It turns out that “ahh” with various hand gestures and different intonations is an extremely versatile word.
You really can get quite a bit done with just one expertly executed vowel sound.