The parole “ huh ” packs a mickle of meaning into just one syllable . When we apply it , we might be expressing muddiness , require for clarification , or requesting that a financial statement be repeated . We ’re also communicating so in brief there ’s scarcely a faulting in the conversation , make “ huh ” the politest form of interruption .
No wonder , then , that the word “ huh ” appears in multiple language . In fact , according to arecent study in the journalPLOS ONE , polyglot have found that the word is used to press out confusion not only in related language families , but across multiple , independently develop terminology . The researchers , who recently won anIg Nobel Prize honoring their study , argued that " huh ? " is so common it may really be universal .
accord toNew Yorkmagazine , the researchers contemplate conversational use of the discussion “ huh ” in 10 different voice communication , including English , Icelandic , Murrinh - Patha ( from Australia ) , and Cha’palaa ( from Ecuador ) . Though these terminology do n’t share an origin , they still use “ huh ” in much the same room .
The researchers believe that the widespread use of the word “ huh ” is an exemplar of convergent phylogeny . In each linguistic process , “ huh ” developed severally , but was shaped by alike environmental or linguistic pressures — for example , the motivation for a relatively polite manner to signal confusion . consort to the written report , the word “ fulfills a crucial need shared by all language – the effective signaling of job of hearing and agreement . ”
“ Huh ” is not an natural human sound , like a grunt or worked up cry , the investigator say . Rather , it ’s learned , taught to minor , and passed down linguistically from generation to generation . accord to researchers , its catholicity is a resultant role of its important conversational affair . Most of us probably take the word “ huh ” for granted — or do n’t even think of it as a word at all — but according to investigator , that ’s precisely why it ’s so crucial : It does’t take out aid to itself .
[ h / tNew York Magazine ]
