“Huh” exists in all human languages, according to research (2019)

Re:“Huh” exists in all human languages, according to researc... by mistersquid on Saturday June 13, 2020 @11:23AM (#23510067)

I don't speak or read Greek, but I do want to note that this counterexample does not prove there is no "huh"-like repair initiator in Greek.

In American English, there is "Eh?" "Huh?" and "Eh?" are similar in function but sound different.

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Re:“Huh” exists in all human languages, according to researc... by YeGoblynQueenne on Saturday June 13, 2020 @12:18PM (#23510487)

The "h" sound (/ɦ/, I think) does not exist in Greek, but I agree that "Eh" sounds closer to the Greek exclamation than "huh".

On the other hand, the article seems to say that it's specifically "huh" that's universal. Anyway, I'm just curious to see how many counter-examples we can find.

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Re:“Huh” exists in all human languages, according to researc... by smogcutter on Saturday June 13, 2020 @01:29PM (#23511042)

Funnily enough, Ancient Greek did have a leading h- sound. It’s since disappeared, along with tonal accents and some vowel sounds.

I’m not sure the h itself is really necessary for the main argument, but possibly it got dropped somewhere along the way? That’s pure speculation though, I haven’t seen any evidence for that in print.

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