Huh?
Huh? is the German spelling of the interjection , understood in many languages , with which a question of understanding is expressed and asked for clarification. It is used as a synonym for the question "I beg your pardon?" And means: "Sorry, I did not understand you, can you please say that again or explain it to me?"
In the German language , the exclamation “Huh?” Is often perceived as impolite. In addition to clarifying questions of understanding, “Huh?” In German can also be used to express that one considers something to be absurd - i.e. generally incomprehensible in terms of the content of the message.
In other languages
The word is spelled differently in different languages. It is always pronounced similarly and always serves the same purpose: The dialogue that has been disturbed by an understanding problem should be quickly restarted. Linguists have shown that “Huh?” Is understood in languages around the world. So far it is the only known word with this universal distribution across different countries, peoples, languages and cultures.
The following table contains examples in different languages and different spellings:
| English | Spanish | French | Standard Chinese | Russian | Lao | Italian | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| original | Huh? | ¿E? | Hein? | 咦? | A? | Eh? | |
| German circumscribed | Ha? | E? | Huh? | A? | Eh? | ||
| Phonetic transcription ( IPA ) | e↗ | huh | ãː↗ | aː↗ | hãː↗ | ɛː↗ | |
| The arrow “↗” means that the pitch is rising. | |||||||
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Susanne Schneider: Huh? About the world career of a word. SZ Magazin (online), October 12, 2016, archived from the original on August 18, 2019 ; accessed on August 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Mark Dingemanze, Francisco Torreira, NJ Enfield: Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent Evolution of Linguistic Items. PLOS ONE , November 8, 2013, archived from the original on February 9, 2015 ; accessed on August 18, 2019 .