Aw and Ew

I have always thought of the word Aw as an Americanism. Sometimes in an exclamation such as "Aw shucks" (or "Aw, surely" if you were John Wayne playing a centurion), but more recently as an expression of sympathy or admiration, typically the reaction to a lovable baby animal. Often lengthened to Awwwww...
And the British equivalent, I thought, was Ah. Or even Ahhhhh...
But now some very British writers seem to favour the version with the W. Why? How do they pronounce it?
Then there's Ew, which suddenly appears to be an expression of disgust. Who invented this one? Don't they mean Ugh, or Yuk?

See, for me (neither american nor british, grown with a mixture of both but now definitely living things british), Awww is very different from Ahhh: the former denounces "cuteness", a pat on the shoulder, a friendly supporting hug, the latter, surprise.
They're pronounced differently as well.

If I was to replace Awww with something else, it might be with Ohhh.

Then again, I believe that every 'written sound' is very particular to each person, and how they use it in real life.

Regarding Ew, then funnily enough, I see that as an americanism, and I would say/write Ugh ;)

Agree "Aw" and the more drawn-outand sentimental "Awww..." is short for "Isn't she/he/it rather/humungously cute?, especially when texting or on social networking sites.

I never use it. I refuse to use it.

"Ew", as opposed to "Ugh", is a matter of degree, I think, especially when written. "Ew" is icky, "Ugh" is more disgusting. When spoken, it's perhaps down to the length and tone of the vowel and the addition of consonants: can you distinguish between Ew, Ugh, Eurgh, Yuck? Which would you use for snot hanging from someone's nose and which for something unpleasant someone had stepped in? Try it now.

They're all probably an involuntary vocalisation of disgust when we go to wrinkle up our nose, perhaps to stop smells being inhaled, accompanied by a narrowing of the eyes and the head being drawn back. Innate? Or a learned behaviour?

What do they use in other languages, in other cultures?

>4 Collectorator:
Are you talkin' to me?

Ew.

>3 ed.pendragon: in French, for yuck, ugh, they say "beurk", which can be lengthened to beeuuurk.
I'm trying to think of the equivalent of "awwww" and can only come up with oh right now: Oh, qu'il est mignon! isn't he cute.

Thanks, everyone for your helpful responses. I still don't believe Aww... represents a known sound in British English, unless it's a Northern thing. They have Mams up there don't they, not Mums or Moms, if the greetings cards may be believed. And I wonder where Ew came from? I don't recall it before the noughties. Could it be that someone read Ugh, pronounced it Ew, then wrote it in their revised spelling?

My usual term for anything messy or unappetising nasty is Yuck. I may adopt the French Beurk.

My friends' son aged 8 was once offered a slice of rather fatty roast lamb. He said what I can only transcribe as Yuke. This became a standard term in my family.

I'm sure "awwww" (or possibly "oarrrrr") for cuteness was more current than "aaah" in Lancashire in the sixties (I don't suppose anyone was ever provoked to say it over my pram...). But it could easily have been something picked up from American servicemen in the war, or from the cinema.
Disgust was "yuck" or "ugh". ("Yew" was something you found in the churchyard).

When you see "Aw" in nineteenth-century novels, it always seems to be in the John Wayne/"Aw, shucks" context, a quaintly American way of demonstrating that a character is a slow-thinking rustic.