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Huh? Is it universal? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5268 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 1 of 11 09 November 2013 at 1:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I saw this article in today's NYT and thought it might be interesting to the community-
The Syllable Everyone Recognizes
Link to study Is "Huh" a universal word? So, what do you think? Huh? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lykeio Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4250 days ago 120 posts - 357 votes | Message 2 of 11 09 November 2013 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, since by it's nature universal means present across all languages right? I can think
of several which don't use it. I suppose if you take the loose definition this study seems to, being present in each continent, then yeah it is universal. I feel old and grumpy (despite being neither) complaining but this is basically what happens when you gut the precise philological core from the discipline. Once we had laryngeals, now we have huh. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4259 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 11 09 November 2013 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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The article doesn't say which languages were used, but it says that the sampling was TEN languages, TEN of which at least TWO were Germanic! I don't think that holds any water or can face any scrutiny whatsoever.
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| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5431 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 11 09 November 2013 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I bet though if you said any one or two syllable words with the same intonation that you
use for 'huh~?', then you'd broaden the scope of languages whose native speakers would understand you. Heck even in English, try replacing 'huh' with 'A', or 'Eh', no one would not understand you. But universal in the world of languages is a huge claim, I imagine. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6588 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 11 09 November 2013 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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If we're pretty loose with the phonetics, a similar word is found in all the languages I speak. Swedish "öh", French "hein", Cantonese "haa2", and so on.
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| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4450 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 6 of 11 10 November 2013 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think there is enough similarities between languages to draw conclusions.
The words that are similar tend to be interjections used in front of sentences. Here is a short list in Chinese: 嘩 huā for a crashing sound (in Cantonese pronunciation wa for Wow!) 啊 ā for surprise Ah! / Oh! 唷/喲 yō for sign of surprise Oh! My! 噫 yī for yeah, 嘻 xī to laugh or giggle 嗯 èn OK, what? 嗯 en for approval 啫 zhě (used a lot in Cantonese to mean so what... like someone saying your friend can sing better than you and you reply: 啫) 啊呀 āyā used frequently for surprise 哎喲 āiyō for ouch or in pain (The Chinese expressions listed all contain the character 口 kǒu on the left for mouth). Edited by shk00design on 10 November 2013 at 12:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4674 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 7 of 11 10 November 2013 at 3:03am | IP Logged | ||
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In Croatian we say ''ahm'' (English respelling) and it sounds like Portuguese ã.
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| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4834 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 8 of 11 10 November 2013 at 4:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been watching the Montalbano series which has just finished on BBC TV. (It's set
in Sicily). I was amused by the way Montalbano always makes "eh" "oh" "umm" noises during a conversations (when the other person is talking...sort of "yes, go on" noises). Once I'd noticed them, I couldn't stop listening out for them. I suppose we do the same in British English, but it's not as noticeable. Something else I've been thinking about is how universal is the "question tone" - the raising of pitch towards the end of a sentence. I suspect it's by no means universal, even in Western European languages, but I'd be interested to hear the experiences of others. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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