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What Did You Say?

hchjjl / Shutterstock Two years ago, the linguists Mark Dingemanse and Nick Enfield found that the word “Huh?” is universal across 31 languages. That is, nearly every language has a short, one-syllable sound that’s used for clarification, or “repair.” As I wrote at the time: “Huh” was unlike other question words in those languages—it was always one syllable, consisting of a short vowel sometimes preceded by a glottal consonant sound (one made deep in your throat).

 

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