5 ms·

Is “huh?” A universal word? The convergent evolution of linguistic items (2013)

35 points by benbreen 5y ago

exitnode 5y ago
Huh?
psyc 5y ago
For laughs: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=huh&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- jakear 5y ago
  Huh, this could actually be a good query for relative frequency normalization. I had been searching for a way to display trends in a way that doesn’t just reflect overall content volume, without a good way to get a number for overall query volume for a period. https://jacksonkearl.github.io/HackerTrends/?query=“Huh”&from=2006&to=now&bucket=90&scope=comments https://jacksonkearl.github.io/HackerTrends/?query=“Huh”&fro...
  - robbedpeter 5y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law The difference between a sample over a period and a Zipf distribution can be useful in determining relative differences in query frequency.
totetsu 5y ago
This demo[1] show the relative height and forward/backness of vowel sounds from your mic. It's interesting to try and emulate some of these other Huh sounds. I wonder if anyone has looked into the inter language overlap these "repair initiator signals". For instance I often instinctual find the AA sound from Japanese speakers to sound a bit rude to my ears, even though I know it's not. [1]https://byu-odh.github.io/apeworm/ https://byu-odh.github.io/apeworm/
fortran77 5y ago
Not to counter the research in the paper, but growing up in Brooklyn we used "נו" or "מה" ("nu" or "mah"). Sometimes today I'll say that to in California to people who don't understand -- and reply with "huh!?"
asiachick 5y ago
No, it is not. Never heard a Japanese person say "Huh?". They say "Ha?". Similar but not the same and used less often the English "Huh?" It's usually only used in a kind of extreme shock situation where as "Huh?" in English, or at least USA English, is way more common. English a) "Hello" b) "huh?" (meaning I didn't hear you) a) "I just said Hello" Japanese a) "I went to buy a car but I bought a camel" b) "HA?" (WTF?) a) "Yea, seriously. It drinks lots of water"
- anyfoo 5y ago
  Germans say "hah?", too. Or at least the Bavarians do.
  - alar44 5y ago
    Wisconsin checking in, lots of people say ha? here.
  - mcntsh 5y ago
    In German it's more like "hä?"
    - anyfoo 5y ago
      That's why I clarified "Bavarian", it's really very "hah" there instead of "häh".
    - leonry 5y ago
      Hm, I would use „hä?“ rather to signal that I don‘t understand the content. I may well have understood the words or sentences, though. On the other hand „huh?“ is meant in the paper rather for signaling that I didn’t understood the form, AFAIU. For that I would rather use „Was?“ or „Hm?“ in a slightly higher voice, like the German instance at point 25. in Figure 1 suggest. As a sidenote, I wonder if the examples in the paper are acceptable in semi-formal conversations, say when talking to colleagues at work. In German I would rather stick with „Wie bitte?“ to avoid judgements like in the answers under https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/4876/verbreitung-und-gefühlte-unhöflichkeit-von-was-denn-im-vergleich-zu-was-un https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/4876/verbreitung-...
ggm 5y ago
A lot of the "nup" responses here are not philologists. Neither am I, but my understanding of this having read around a bit, is that words which we think are entirely different, can in fact be at root the same word, through a thousand years of branching. Nuh, Huh, No/Ho/Pho/Bo could, in this model actually at root be "the same" in the way ma/mum/mama/moma/maman are. There is no rule which says a H sound can't be replaced by a PH or BH or GH or TH sound. It all depends. I don't think the Japanese one is related to the finnish one btw. I am not arguing its one mother tongue. But, I wouldn't reject this hypothesis just because a german says Ha and an american says Huh
- Double_a_92 5y ago
  "Mama" is not really an universal word, it's mostly a western thing. The letters seem to be universal though. E.g. for the father it's mostly b, p, t and for the mother m, n, w.
  - Ekaros 5y ago
    There are counter examples like Finnish. Isä for father and äiti for mother. Ofc, something like mama is here, but that is probably from Swedish.
dang 5y ago
Related: Is huh a universal word? (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19126197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19126197 - Feb 2019 (86 comments) Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10283498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10283498 - Sept 2015 (25 comments) Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450769 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450769 - Oct 2014 (27 comments)
sinab 5y ago
It occurred to me, after reading the comments, how strange it is to then write out "huh" in text-based conversation.
Double_a_92 5y ago
Is this about the spoken word "huh" or about the humming noise with a questioning pitch?

35 points by benbreen 5y ago

Huh?

psyc 5y ago

For laughs: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=huh&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

jakear 5y ago
Huh, this could actually be a good query for relative frequency normalization. I had been searching for a way to display trends in a way that doesn’t just reflect overall content volume, without a good way to get a number for overall query volume for a period. https://jacksonkearl.github.io/HackerTrends/?query=“Huh”&from=2006&to=now&bucket=90&scope=comments https://jacksonkearl.github.io/HackerTrends/?query=“Huh”&fro...
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law The difference between a sample over a period and a Zipf distribution can be useful in determining relative differences in query frequency.

totetsu 5y ago

This demo[1] show the relative height and forward/backness of vowel sounds from your mic. It's interesting to try and emulate some of these other Huh sounds. I wonder if anyone has looked into the inter language overlap these "repair initiator signals". For instance I often instinctual find the AA sound from Japanese speakers to sound a bit rude to my ears, even though I know it's not. [1]https://byu-odh.github.io/apeworm/ https://byu-odh.github.io/apeworm/

fortran77 5y ago

Not to counter the research in the paper, but growing up in Brooklyn we used "נו" or "מה" ("nu" or "mah"). Sometimes today I'll say that to in California to people who don't understand -- and reply with "huh!?"

asiachick 5y ago

No, it is not. Never heard a Japanese person say "Huh?". They say "Ha?". Similar but not the same and used less often the English "Huh?" It's usually only used in a kind of extreme shock situation where as "Huh?" in English, or at least USA English, is way more common. English a) "Hello" b) "huh?" (meaning I didn't hear you) a) "I just said Hello" Japanese a) "I went to buy a car but I bought a camel" b) "HA?" (WTF?) a) "Yea, seriously. It drinks lots of water"

anyfoo 5y ago
Germans say "hah?", too. Or at least the Bavarians do.
- alar44 5y ago
  Wisconsin checking in, lots of people say ha? here.
- mcntsh 5y ago
  In German it's more like "hä?"
  - anyfoo 5y ago
    That's why I clarified "Bavarian", it's really very "hah" there instead of "häh".
  - leonry 5y ago
    Hm, I would use „hä?“ rather to signal that I don‘t understand the content. I may well have understood the words or sentences, though. On the other hand „huh?“ is meant in the paper rather for signaling that I didn’t understood the form, AFAIU. For that I would rather use „Was?“ or „Hm?“ in a slightly higher voice, like the German instance at point 25. in Figure 1 suggest. As a sidenote, I wonder if the examples in the paper are acceptable in semi-formal conversations, say when talking to colleagues at work. In German I would rather stick with „Wie bitte?“ to avoid judgements like in the answers under https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/4876/verbreitung-und-gefühlte-unhöflichkeit-von-was-denn-im-vergleich-zu-was-un https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/4876/verbreitung-...

ggm 5y ago

A lot of the "nup" responses here are not philologists. Neither am I, but my understanding of this having read around a bit, is that words which we think are entirely different, can in fact be at root the same word, through a thousand years of branching. Nuh, Huh, No/Ho/Pho/Bo could, in this model actually at root be "the same" in the way ma/mum/mama/moma/maman are. There is no rule which says a H sound can't be replaced by a PH or BH or GH or TH sound. It all depends. I don't think the Japanese one is related to the finnish one btw. I am not arguing its one mother tongue. But, I wouldn't reject this hypothesis just because a german says Ha and an american says Huh

Double_a_92 5y ago
"Mama" is not really an universal word, it's mostly a western thing. The letters seem to be universal though. E.g. for the father it's mostly b, p, t and for the mother m, n, w.
- Ekaros 5y ago
  There are counter examples like Finnish. Isä for father and äiti for mother. Ofc, something like mama is here, but that is probably from Swedish.

dang 5y ago

Related: Is huh a universal word? (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19126197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19126197 - Feb 2019 (86 comments) Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10283498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10283498 - Sept 2015 (25 comments) Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450769 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450769 - Oct 2014 (27 comments)

sinab 5y ago

It occurred to me, after reading the comments, how strange it is to then write out "huh" in text-based conversation.

Double_a_92 5y ago

Is this about the spoken word "huh" or about the humming noise with a questioning pitch?