They seem to be using "что" for the russian question word, which serves the correct function in my experience. [1] However I'm not sure what the "a" interjection is supposed to be and I don't think I have heard it used in practice, although I'm not a native russian speaker.
[1] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=l...
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.
Re:Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? (2013)
by zastavka on Saturday September 26, 2015 @03:31PM
(#10284151)
> 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.
Re:Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? (2013)
by coldtea on Saturday September 26, 2015 @06:50PM
(#10284711)
>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.
"huh?" http://i.imgur.com/JQxm4YG.gif
is «что?», «ась?» or (nasal vowel) «a?» in Russian
"huh?" may be pronounced as «ха-а?» ([hãː] sound)
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.