Cross cultural onomatopoea

Josh Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas has a post up on the difference between the Yiddish "oy" and the American "argh." Are they the same? Are there better equivalents? In the comments, others have brought up the Japanese and Australian "oi" and the piratical "arrr." This is becoming a truly international discussion. If have strong feelings about onomatopoea (and who doesn't?), you'll want to rush over and add your yadda yadda.