
Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? (2013) - antigizmo
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0078273
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xiaq
This paper won the Ig Nobel prize this year. The authors were not able to go
to the ceremony and sent a video in which every researcher uttered a "huh" \-
as hilarious as their research :)

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drdaeman
> We sampled 31 languages from diverse language families around the world in
> this study, and we found that all of them have a word with a near-identical
> sound and function as English Huh?

Is there a table for this? I'm wondering, because I can't readily identify
such word in my native language (although I have few candidates that may or
may not fit the criteria...) At least, something like "huh" would sound
absolutely alien if used in Russian. Phonetically closest I could remember
would be "фух" [fuh], which has completely different meaning (sound for relief
and/or tiredness, interchangeable with "уф" [uf]). And maybe "хе"/"хех"
[he/heh], but that's omantopoeia for a snicker. Neither is normally pronounced
with a questioning tone. Can't remember anything else sounding any close to
"huh".

Just have a feeling that something like "eh?" or, possibly, "hm?" would be
more universal. But I didn't any research, that's completely subjective
perception.

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sm0ckr
The Russian example in the paper is something like "a?". Part of their
hypothesis that makes "huh" a word is that it is calibrated to the phonetic
system of its language.

~~~
zastavka
> calibrated to the phonetic system of its language

The funny thing about that, though, is that English "huh" has a phonetic
feature that's almost nonexistent in the language otherwise: a nasal vowel not
followed by a nasal consonant.

~~~
coldtea
> _a nasal vowel not followed by a nasal consonant_

Maybe depends on where in the English speaking world? I'm thinking of
Scotland, Ireland, Australia, etc.

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adsche
Earlier discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450769](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450769)

Informational website by the authors with a good FAQ:
[http://huh.ideophone.org](http://huh.ideophone.org)

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takee
I cannot think of a similar word in Hindi and other Indian languages (spoken
by more than 1.2 Billion people). The closest is "Haan" in Hindi which
literally means "yes" but is never used to express confusion over what the
other person just said like huh is. Unless of course the person is influenced
by English use of huh and has come to use it because of the usage in Western
media.

~~~
19f191ty
हैं?

~~~
takee
I guess that does sound close enough then.

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davidw
In Italian you can say "eh?", but also the very non-universal "boh" for "I
don't know".

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edc117
It's a monosyllabic noise with a rising pitch to indicate a question on the
end. Nothing to do with the word itself.

~~~
hugh4
Surely rising pitch to indicate a question isn't universal?

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hudell
In portuguese, that word would be "né?", or "ahn?" in a different context.

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drdaeman
As a request to repeat/rephrase:

\- Russian: "э?" or "а?" ("eh?" or "a?")

\- Japanese: "え？" ("eh?")

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pygy_
\- French: _" Hein?"_ which is a nasalized sound without an English
counterpart. Pronounce "Haaaaa" then let some air go through your nose by
raising your uvula/lowering the back of your tongue a bit.

This voice synth is accurate:
[https://translate.google.com/#fr/fr/hein%3F](https://translate.google.com/#fr/fr/hein%3F)
(click on the speaker at the bottom left of the text box).

Edit: It's pretty close to its portugese counterpart:
[https://translate.google.com/#pt/fr/ahn%3F](https://translate.google.com/#pt/fr/ahn%3F)

~~~
hudell
We actually say both "ahn?" and "hein?". Sometimes we also use "hein" to start
a sentence (usually when you are repeating a question)

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coldtea
In my country it's "eee?" (prolonged "e" sound).

One joke about our local equivalent of a redneck, asks how one of them would
say: "I'm sorry sir, I didn't catch that, can you repeat yourself please?"

To which the answer is:

\- "Eee?"

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HeyLaughingBoy
No, it's not.

The year is 1998. I'm in Saskatchewan in mid-winter (why?) and I say to a
three year-old Canadian toddler, "tastes pretty good, huh?" he stares at me
like I have three heads. I remember where I am and repeat "tastes pretty good,
eh?" and instantly he nods and smiles.

Universal my ass.

~~~
sm0ckr
Cute story, but I don't think this is an example of "huh" as a "repair
initiator" (i.e. "what did you say?") that the paper investigates.

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gopowerranger
Huh?

