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Aspeech disfluency, also spelledspeech dysfluency, is any of various breaks, irregularities, ornon-lexical vocables which occur within the flow of otherwise fluent speech. These include "false starts", i.e. words and sentences that are cut off mid-utterance; phrases that are restarted or repeated, and repeated syllables;"fillers", i.e. grunts, and non-lexical or semiarticulate utterances such ashuh,uh,erm,um, andhmm, and, in English,well,so,I mean, andlike; and "repaired" utterances, i.e. instances of speakers correcting their own slips of the tongue or mispronunciations (before anyone else gets a chance to).Huh is claimed to be auniversal syllable.[1]
A disfluence or nonfluence is a non-pathological hesitance when speaking, the use offillers (“like” or “uh”), or the repetition of a word or phrase. This needs to be distinguished from a fluency disorder likestuttering with an interruption offluency of speech, accompanied by "excessive tension, speaking avoidance, struggle behaviors, and secondary mannerism".[2]
Fillers are parts of speech which are not generally recognized as purposeful or containing formal meaning, usually expressed as pauses such asuh,like ander, but also extending torepairs ("He was wearing a black—uh, I mean a blue, a blue shirt"), and articulation problems such asstuttering. Use is normally frowned upon inmass media such asnews reports orfilms, but they occur regularly in everyday conversation, sometimes representing upwards of 20% of "words" in conversation.[3] Fillers can also be used as a pause for thought ("I arrived at, um—3 o'clock"), and when used in this function are called hesitation markers or planners.[4]
Research in computational linguistics has revealed a correlation between native language and patterns of disfluencies in spontaneously uttered speech.[5] Besides that research, there are other subjective accounts reported by individuals.
According to one commentator,[who?]Americans use pauses such asum orem, theIrish commonly use the pauseem,[6] theBritish sayuh oreh, theFrench useeuh, theGermans sayäh (pronouncedeh orer), theDutch useeh,Japanese use ああā, あのうanō or ええとēto, theSpanish sayehhh (also used inHebrew) andcomo (normally meaning 'like'), andLatin Americans but not the Spanish useeste (normally meaning 'this'). Besideser anduh, thePortuguese usehã oré.
InMandarin,那个;nà gè and这个;zhè ge are used, meaning 'that' or 'this', respectively. Arabic speakers sayيعني, the pronunciation of which is close toyaa'ni,[jæʕni] or[jaʕni], (literally 'he means'; there is no grammatical gender-neutral third person) andTurkish sayşey in addition toyani (without the[ʕ] found in Arabic) andııı.[citation needed]
Despite the differences between languages, pause fillers in different languages often sound similar because they tend to be the easiest and most neutral vowel sounds to make (such as theschwa), i.e the sounds that can be pronounced with a relaxed tongue or jaw.[7]
Recent[when?]linguistic research has suggested that non-pathological disfluencies may contain a variety of meaning; the frequency ofuh andum in English is often reflective of a speaker's alertness or emotional state. Some have hypothesized that the time of anuh orum is used for the planning of future words;[8] other researchers have suggested that they are actually to be understood as full-fledgedfunction words rather than accidents, indicating a delay of variable time in which the speaker wishes to pause without voluntarily yielding control of the dialogue. There is some debate as to whether to consider them a form of noise or as a meaning-filled part oflanguage, but disfluency can improve language understanding by signalling that the speaker may be about to say something new or complex.[9][10]
Hmm is an exclamation (an emphaticinterjection) typically used to express reflection,uncertainty,thoughtful absorption, or hesitation.[11] Hmm is technically categorized as aninterjection, likeum,huh,ouch,erm, andwow. The firsth-sound is a mimic for breathing out, and the secondm-sound, since the mouth is closed, is representing that the person is not currently sure what to say (erm andum are used similarly). The pause filler indicates that the person is temporarily speechless, but still engaged in thought. The variety of tones, pitches, and lengths used add nuances in meaning.[12]
The expression is used in many different languages; however, the origin ofhmm is difficult to find, mainly because "the word is so natural that it may have arisen at any time", as highlighted byAnatoly Liberman, alinguist at theUniversity of Minnesota and an expert on word origins. It is possibleNeanderthals might have usedhmm.Nicholas Christenfeld, apsychologist at theUniversity of California, San Diego, and an expert on filled pauses, attestshmm is popular largely since it is such a neutral sound and that "it's easier to say than anything else".[12] The earliest attestations ofhmm are fromShakespeare, "I cried hum ... But markt him not a word" (1598Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 iii. i. 154). It may be avocable that grew out oflexicalized throat-clearing.[13]
Hmm is a "filler" word, likeum ander. Typically,hmm is uttered when the person is being especially conscious about whom they are talking with, and as a result are thinking deeply about what to say. Moreover, the use ofhmm is often interactional and cognitive. The interactional function is to do with politeness: if someone is invited to a party and responds "no" without a filled pause, they might appear rude, but a reply of "Hmm, sorry, no" might appear much more polite, as it seems the speaker is giving the offer some thought, rather than abruptly declining.[14]
The use ofhmm is typically used during "thoughtful absorption", which is when one is engrossed[15] in their flow of ideas and associations, that lead to a reality-oriented conclusion.[16] The utterance ofhmm is key for listeners to understand that the speaker is currently engaged in thought; if the speaker thought silently instead, listeners may be unsure if the speaker had finished their utterance.Um ander are also used during thoughtful absorption; however, typically the extent of the absorption of thought is more limited sinceum ander are usually spoken mid-sentence[17] and for shorter periods of time thanhmm. For this reason, thoughtful absorption is typically associated with the utterance ofhmm.[18]
A 2013 study suggested that the word/syllablehuh is perhaps the most recognized syllable throughout the world.[19] It is aninterrogative which crosses geography, language, cultures and nationalities.[20]