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Is huh a universal word? (2013)

huh.ideophone.org

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Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#71

Post by danielbarla »

marcodave wrote: post #68
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 :)

"magyarázni" is actually to "explain", though it does seem to share a common root with Magyar, the word we use for our people. The word understand would be "érteni", and I'm not sure it has any interesting roots other than "ér" meaning vein or stream (potentially, did you get its meaning / source?)

I too have wondered about the flavor and basic influence these kind of things must have on those who use the language. I suspect the effect is small, but there, although this particular example might be spurious.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#72

Post by Tor3 »

williamdclt wrote: post #55
newsbinator wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As a teenager I did that too, I always replied (the equivalent in my langague of) "what?" to whatever was said. Just a reflex. Then my aunt pointed it out to me, and I was able to stop doing that. Good thing.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#73

Post by uranusjr »

One thing to keep in mind is that while huh has an approximate between languages, you might not be able to communicate the same intent across. One such example occurs here in Taiwan. Native Taiwanese use ha (different from Mandarin), but this sound is used to provoke someone in Japanese. Gotta be careful when you huh in a foreign country.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#74

Post by anticensor »

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 Turkish, it is "anlamak", which wordly means mind-ise, which resembles English word remind somehow.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#75

Post by fiblye »

uranusjr wrote: post #73

One thing to keep in mind is that while huh has an approximate between languages, you might not be able to communicate the same intent across. One such example occurs here in Taiwan. Native Taiwanese use ha (different from Mandarin), but this sound is used to provoke someone in Japanese. Gotta be careful when you huh in a foreign country.

Japanese people definitely say "ha?" when they're confused.

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#76

Post by sn41 »

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, (Indian, Dravidian language), the word (based on Sanskrit) is "Manassil aayo", which is literally "has it entered your mind"?

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#77

Post by newsbinator »

Tor3 wrote: post #72
williamdclt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As a teenager I did that too, I always replied (the equivalent in my langague of) "what?" to whatever was said. Just a reflex. Then my aunt pointed it out to me, and I was able to stop doing that. Good thing.

Ah that reminds me of when I was in school, and there was a girl who started every answer with "Okay!...".

The teacher would ask, "What's the capital of X?", and she'd respond confidently (and correctly), "Okay! The capital of X is Y."

Not sure if it was conscious on her part or not. I'm sure it came from the spotlight, since she was otherwise "normal" (not that there necessarily is such a thing).

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#78

Post by blattimwind »

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.

No, not really. It is used in many, many words, with no obvious intrinsic meaning of the prefix itself (and sometimes it's pretty much just redundant), although some clusters of meaning can be made out (often ver- signifies something negative or grave, for example).

verstehen, vergehen (active), vergehen (passive), verdammen, verabreden, verfahren, verlaufen, verfestigen, verändern, verallgemeinern, veranschaulichen, veranlassen (ver+an+lassen), verlassen, verärgern, verarmen, verbiegen, verdrehen, ...

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#79

Post by govg »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #46
archgoon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What about those African languages made up of all clicking sounds? I am unaware of any African language, or any language in general, that only uses clicking sounds. Which one are you thinking of?

They might be thinking of Xhosa; but I reckon I've heard a language expressed only with clicks (perhaps it's a vernacular?), and a whistle-language used by some mountain peoples (in Eastern Europe?).

Even Xhosa has some consonants that aren't clicks, afaik. Also, your comment leads to this interesting wiki article : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistled_language

Re: Is huh a universal word? (2013)

#80

Post by justtopost »

tomxor wrote: post #65

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…

Oddly, i seem to only hear extended uhmmms in english. I am sure there is a spoken word frequency database we could compare, or create somewhat easily scraping captions. Seems like a good project.
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