Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do ducks say in Russia? In America it's quack and in Germany it's kwak.
In French: coin coin :) No idea how to explain the pronunciation though ...
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Is huh a universal word? (2013)
51–60 of 93 posts
Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#52I must be skimming too much. They say "huh" is universal but point out Japan (and apparently Korean) use "eh". "eh" != "huh", not even close nor is its usage. Maybe these are are different but you can use "eh" to acknowledge you heard. With a question inflection to point out you didn't hear.
In Korean to "initiate repair" when you haven't heard quite well, typically you'll say, "네" (i.e. "yes?").
Seems to be automatic. When people are mildly stunned, they'll often go "어" (eoh).
Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#53I moved from Russia to Canada as a kid and remember reading English-language books and being really confused by the word "ouch". I thought it would be really weird to say "ouch" when you accidentally stumble or hurt yourself - it felt completely unnatural. It was fascinating that different cultures have such different exclamations for pain! Well it turns out that it's not the case. Humans all make roughly the same so…
I suspect you'll enjoy reading this:
https://aeon.co/essays/in-the-beginning-was-the-word-and-the...
"Yet many world languages contain a separate set of words that defies this principle. Known as ideophones, they are considered to be especially vivid and evocative of sensual experiences. Crucially, you do not need to know the language to grasp a hint of their meaning. Studies show that participants lacking any prior knowledge of Japanese, for example, often guess the meanings of the above words better than chance alone would allow. For many people, nurunuru really does feel ‘slimy’; wakuwaku evokes excitement, and kurukuru conjures visions of circular rather than vertical motion. That should simply not be possible, if the sound-meaning relationship was indeed arbitrary."
Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#54Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#55I must be skimming too much. They say "huh" is universal but point out Japan (and apparently Korean) use "eh". "eh" != "huh", not even close nor is its usage. Maybe these are are different but you can use "eh" to acknowledge you heard. With a question inflection to point out you didn't hear.
In Korean to "initiate repair" when you haven't heard quite well, typically you'll say, "네" (i.e. "yes?"). Seems to be automatic. When people are mildly stunned, they'll often go "어" (eoh).
I find it to be automatic for a lot of people. I know several people that go "mh?" (in english) or "hein?" (in french) when they perfectly understood what you said. It's just a reflex, maybe to give themselves a bit more time to think. It's a bit annoying, I often just wait a second and they start answering
Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
They studied 31 languages. One of the languages studied is ≠Akhoe Hai//om, which is a click language. It was not one of the 10 studied in deeper detail, but they found huh there.
Still, studying only 31 languages and argue that something is universal is dumb as heck. Given there are 6000 of them safer approach would be the search for almost universal or widely distributed phenomena.
If those 31 languages cover >90% of all humans I think making claims about universality is reasonably justified.
Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#57A bit OT, but here is another, probably related concept: What is the literal meaning of "to understand" in your language?
In at least 3 three languages that I know (Twi & Ga, major languages in Ghana, and English), the literal meaning evokes the sense of standing or sitting under something. I wonder if it is the same in many other languages
Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#58I must be skimming too much. They say "huh" is universal but point out Japan (and apparently Korean) use "eh". "eh" != "huh", not even close nor is its usage. Maybe these are are different but you can use "eh" to acknowledge you heard. With a question inflection to point out you didn't hear.
By close, they mean (from the article):
> Everywhere this word appears to be a simple syllable with a low-front central vowel, glottal onset consonant if any, and questioning intonation.
My wife's parents have a similar thing in English as an aside. `Huh` indicates that they've heard something novel, `huh?` indicates that they didn't hear you.
Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#59Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)
#60A bit OT, but here is another, probably related concept: What is the literal meaning of "to understand" in your language? In at least 3 three languages that I know (Twi & Ga, major languages in Ghana, and English), the literal meaning evokes the sense of standing or sitting under something. I wonder if it is the same in many other languages
'verstehen' in German. 'stehen' = to stand; perhaps not too surprising given the relationship between English and German, but interesting that it is the same in the African languages you mentioned. A counter example would be French (and some other Romance languages), se comprendre, which is derived from a Latin verb meaning 'to grasp'