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Is huh a universal word? (2013)

huh.ideophone.org

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Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#61

Post by blattimwind »

prmph wrote: post #57

A 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

German: "verstehen" (an "odd" compound of ver+stehen, note that ver- doesn't really carry meaning by itself and only exists as a prefix), which could be understood as standing on/around(?) something. Then we have "begreifen" which is a fairly direct equivalent of "to grasp".

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#62

Post by notahacker »

bewo001 wrote: post #60
prmph wrote: post #57

A 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'

Another counterexample common in Romance languages is entender, derived from a Latin word originally meaning "to stretch out" or "to focus/aim" and the origin of the English "intend".

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#64

Post by ObscureScience »

blattimwind wrote: post #61
prmph wrote: post #57

A 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

German: "verstehen" (an "odd" compound of ver+stehen, note that ver- doesn't really carry meaning by itself and only exists as a prefix), which could be understood as standing on/around(?) something. Then we have "begreifen" which is a fairly direct equivalent of "to grasp".

There alot of those "are they necessary?" prefixes around. But isn't "ver" the same as "for", which I imagine is the same as "pro" from latin. Meaning either "before" or "causing" or "facilitating" or similar.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#65

Post by tomxor »

I've noticed my partner when speaking in her dialect uses "uh"/"ah" a lot - which sounds pretty much like "huh" and even without understanding most of the words it's pretty clear this is the meaning in a conversation.

I think this sound is probably more common in languages that lack a collection of more elaborate and synonymously used words for this purpose such as in English with ["what", "pardon", "sorry", "excuse me"]. Perhaps English is actually the outlier here.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#66

Post by knowThySelfx »

prmph wrote: post #57

A 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

In Malayalam its "manasilayo" - manas + aayo which means "did you understand?". Manas means mind in Sanskrit. Which forms the base of most Indian languages.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#67

Post by knowThySelfx »

tokyodude wrote: post #30

I 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 Malayalam its "eh" as well.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#68

Post by marcodave »

prmph wrote: post #57

A 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

not my native language, but in hungarian "to understand" is "magyarázni", which literally means "to hungarianize", which I think is amazing :)

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#69

Post by Geee »

prmph wrote: post #57

A 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

In Finnish, 'ymmärtää' is an old word for 'to encircle', 'to encompass', 'to surround'.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#70

Post by Tor3 »

ObscureScience wrote: post #64
blattimwind wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German: "verstehen" (an "odd" compound of ver+stehen, note that ver- doesn't really carry meaning by itself and only exists as a prefix), which could be understood as standing on/around(?) something. Then we have "begreifen" which is a fairly direct equivalent of "to grasp".

There alot of those "are they necessary?" prefixes around. But isn't "ver" the same as "for", which I imagine is the same as "pro" from latin. Meaning either "before" or "causing" or "facilitating" or similar.

That is correct (causing or facilitating, in this case).

The (I think most common) word for 'understand' in Japanese translates to something like 'it resolved for me'.

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