It's now used to imitate a tabor sound by human voice. (like you say doum doum to imitate a drum sound).
However originally in the past, in Ottoman music these sounds were used to indicate movement of a music (called
usul in Turkish). A musical composition had a certain movement (like rhythm today) composed of various combination of dum tek, like dum-dum-tek or dum-tek-tek or dum-tekka-tek-tek. Over 40 different combination were used in Ottoman music. I know there's similar movement method in Indian classical music too.
It's now used to imitate a tabor sound by human voice. (like you say doum doum to imitate a drum sound).
However originally in the past, in Ottoman music these sounds were used to indicate movement of a music (called
usul in Turkish). A musical composition had a certain movement (like rhythm today) composed of various combination of dum tek, like dum-dum-tek or dum-tek-tek or dum-tekka-tek-tek. Over 40 different combination were used in Ottoman music. I know there's similar movement method in Indian classical music too.
Hope it helps you