I love the word, use it when I can in an editorial. I checked an etymological on line dictionary: "row, disturbance, c.1930, first in Canadian English, ultimately from Scot. curfuffle."
But my first reaction to "funny sounding" was to think it's onomatopoetic, that maybe it's the sound barnyard fowl make when they're having a spat. It isn't, I suppose, but I like the thought.