4 ms·

I have never seen that word huh written or pronounced in Spanish, French o Italian. ... But know it exists. I suppose more than one reader has pronounced aloud

I have never seen that word huh written or pronounced in Spanish, French o Italian. ... But know it exists. I suppose more than one reader has pronounced aloud, in his native language, so it exits.

halfdan 6y ago
The title is misleading. It's not about the specific word "Huh" but about the fact that every language has a word that takes its function - namely to trigger a speaker to repeat their previous sentence.
- luckylion 6y ago
  And at least the one they claim for German ("häh?") is a general expression of "I don't understand", but it doesn't mean "can you repeat that?", it means "I don't understand", which you'd say if you don't understand e.g. an explanation. If you didn't understand somebody because you weren't listening, they are mumbling or there was a noise, you'd say "Wie bitte?" or something similar, not "häh?" I suppose if you widen the concept of "is the same" enough, you'll find all sorts of words that exist in all languages. Sure, they may sound different, they may not really convey the same meaning ... but they exist!
dogma1138 6y ago
Same in Hebrew and Arabic and quite a few other languages, there is no onomatopoeic word for huh but the vocalization of huh/ah exists. Some part of me wonders when huh and haha were even added to some languages it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of basic primate/human vocalizations in written forms are fairly new and only appeared as more complex fictional literature and heck even comic books/illustrated literature became a thing.
forty 6y ago
The word in French is generally written "hein" https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hein_(interjection) https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hein_(interjection)
- dgellow 6y ago
  Hmm, I think that would be “hein ?” then, without the question mark “hein” can have a lot of different contextual meanings that are quite different from “huh”.
  - elliekelly 6y ago
    Can you give some examples? I’m only conversational in French at best so maybe I haven’t encountered other uses yet but I’m struggling to think of a sentence with “hein” where “huh” wouldn’t fit in the English translation. Would you say it’s more like the Canadian “eh” that can be tacked on to just about anything?
    - forty 6y ago
      I think in most cases it will indeed be used in an interrogative tone, and written followed by a question mark to reflect that. It can also be used to mean "isn't it", to ask for agreement, approval (very informal). Example: il fait beau, hein? (The weather is good, isn't it?). The proper way to say "isn't it" is "n'est ce pas", but it's very rarely used in practice, and English people speaking French are often caricaturized ending all their sentences with "n'est ce pas", which is not very far from reality in my experience ;)
    - dgellow 6y ago
      It's not the kind of thing you will find in formal discussions, but it's a very common interjection in spoken french. I cannot tell you the rules, it's just something people use to complete their sentence or communicate something about the context. (all the examples below are from real chat discussions) Exemple 1: "Non mais sérieusement, c'est pas très malin, hein..." Translates to: "Seriously, that's not really smart..." "hein" here presses on the fact that the speaker is a bit impatient or annoyed. Example 2: "Je suis pas forcément anti Facebook hein!" Translates to: "I'm not necessarily against Facebook!" Here it is used to communicate that there may have been some misunderstanding in the context of the discussion, and making clear that even if I said stuff negative toward facebook, I'm in fact not anti-facebook. Example 3: "J'ai aucune expérience avec Haskell hein" Translates to: "Just so you know, I have no experience with Haskell" The "just so you know" is communicated through the use of "hein" at the end. Example 4: "C'est de ma soeur, hein, pas de ma part" Translates to: "To be clear it's from my sister, not me" Here too, the "to be clear" is communicated through the use of "hein". Be aware: the interpretation is purely subjective and depends on the context, and mostly the tone, so it's not that clearly communicated via text! Also, my french is actually swiss-french. Hope that helps, and tell me if "huh" would communicate the same meanings :)
johnchristopher 6y ago
Euh... moi si.
- seszett 6y ago
  "Euh" has a different meaning though. Huh is "hein" in French.
eternauta3k 6y ago
In my city's Spanish it's "eh?" or "hm?"
- elvecinodeabajo 6y ago
  The "hmm?" is the "word" that's shared by all human languages, not "huh".
lazyant 6y ago
Spanish equivalent I think it would be more like "hmm". "Eh" in Spanish exists but is more to call for attention, kind of like "ahoy" http://udep.edu.pe/castellanoactual/e-eh-y-he-2/ http://udep.edu.pe/castellanoactual/e-eh-y-he-2/
- elboru 6y ago
  In my region we use "¿eh?" more like an informal abbreviation for "¿qué?", so I guess it's similar to huh.
- yellowapple 6y ago
  And meanwhile, the difference between "hmm" and "huh" is pretty much whether or not your mouth is open when you make the sound. Seems plausible that even these might be related.

I have never seen that word huh written or pronounced in Spanish, French o Italian. ... But know it exists. I suppose more than one reader has pronounced aloud, in his native language, so it exits.

halfdan 6y ago

The title is misleading. It's not about the specific word "Huh" but about the fact that every language has a word that takes its function - namely to trigger a speaker to repeat their previous sentence.

luckylion 6y ago
And at least the one they claim for German ("häh?") is a general expression of "I don't understand", but it doesn't mean "can you repeat that?", it means "I don't understand", which you'd say if you don't understand e.g. an explanation. If you didn't understand somebody because you weren't listening, they are mumbling or there was a noise, you'd say "Wie bitte?" or something similar, not "häh?" I suppose if you widen the concept of "is the same" enough, you'll find all sorts of words that exist in all languages. Sure, they may sound different, they may not really convey the same meaning ... but they exist!

dogma1138 6y ago

Same in Hebrew and Arabic and quite a few other languages, there is no onomatopoeic word for huh but the vocalization of huh/ah exists. Some part of me wonders when huh and haha were even added to some languages it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of basic primate/human vocalizations in written forms are fairly new and only appeared as more complex fictional literature and heck even comic books/illustrated literature became a thing.

forty 6y ago

The word in French is generally written "hein" https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hein_(interjection) https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hein_(interjection)

dgellow 6y ago
Hmm, I think that would be “hein ?” then, without the question mark “hein” can have a lot of different contextual meanings that are quite different from “huh”.
- elliekelly 6y ago
  Can you give some examples? I’m only conversational in French at best so maybe I haven’t encountered other uses yet but I’m struggling to think of a sentence with “hein” where “huh” wouldn’t fit in the English translation. Would you say it’s more like the Canadian “eh” that can be tacked on to just about anything?
  - forty 6y ago
    I think in most cases it will indeed be used in an interrogative tone, and written followed by a question mark to reflect that. It can also be used to mean "isn't it", to ask for agreement, approval (very informal). Example: il fait beau, hein? (The weather is good, isn't it?). The proper way to say "isn't it" is "n'est ce pas", but it's very rarely used in practice, and English people speaking French are often caricaturized ending all their sentences with "n'est ce pas", which is not very far from reality in my experience ;)
  - dgellow 6y ago
    It's not the kind of thing you will find in formal discussions, but it's a very common interjection in spoken french. I cannot tell you the rules, it's just something people use to complete their sentence or communicate something about the context. (all the examples below are from real chat discussions) Exemple 1: "Non mais sérieusement, c'est pas très malin, hein..." Translates to: "Seriously, that's not really smart..." "hein" here presses on the fact that the speaker is a bit impatient or annoyed. Example 2: "Je suis pas forcément anti Facebook hein!" Translates to: "I'm not necessarily against Facebook!" Here it is used to communicate that there may have been some misunderstanding in the context of the discussion, and making clear that even if I said stuff negative toward facebook, I'm in fact not anti-facebook. Example 3: "J'ai aucune expérience avec Haskell hein" Translates to: "Just so you know, I have no experience with Haskell" The "just so you know" is communicated through the use of "hein" at the end. Example 4: "C'est de ma soeur, hein, pas de ma part" Translates to: "To be clear it's from my sister, not me" Here too, the "to be clear" is communicated through the use of "hein". Be aware: the interpretation is purely subjective and depends on the context, and mostly the tone, so it's not that clearly communicated via text! Also, my french is actually swiss-french. Hope that helps, and tell me if "huh" would communicate the same meanings :)

johnchristopher 6y ago

Euh... moi si.

seszett 6y ago
"Euh" has a different meaning though. Huh is "hein" in French.

eternauta3k 6y ago

In my city's Spanish it's "eh?" or "hm?"

elvecinodeabajo 6y ago
The "hmm?" is the "word" that's shared by all human languages, not "huh".

lazyant 6y ago

Spanish equivalent I think it would be more like "hmm". "Eh" in Spanish exists but is more to call for attention, kind of like "ahoy" http://udep.edu.pe/castellanoactual/e-eh-y-he-2/ http://udep.edu.pe/castellanoactual/e-eh-y-he-2/

elboru 6y ago
In my region we use "¿eh?" more like an informal abbreviation for "¿qué?", so I guess it's similar to huh.
yellowapple 6y ago
And meanwhile, the difference between "hmm" and "huh" is pretty much whether or not your mouth is open when you make the sound. Seems plausible that even these might be related.