Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Pascal MacProgrammer)
Subject: what people say when they're pausing (uh)
Message-ID: <D2r64M.3oH@indirect.com>
Sender: usenet@indirect.com (Internet Direct Admin)
Organization: Grammar 'R' Us 
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 11:19:34 GMT
Lines: 17

Not so very long ago, wprestong@aol.com (WPrestonG) said...

>In American English people say "uh" (British people spell this "er") when
>they're halfway through saying something, not finished yet and don't want
>you to interrupt them.  ...  but if uh or er or ah is a word in
>your language, you wouldn't use it, would you?

  Not on purpose.  But it's just a sound that naturally comes out when you
vibrate your vocal cords without putting your teeth, lips, tongue, etc, in
a position to make a meaningful sound.  However, this sound corresponds to
one common English word:  "a".

-- 
                              ==----=                    Steve MacGregor
                             ([.] [.])                     Phoenix, AZ
--------------------------oOOo--(_)--oOOo---------------------------------
            "A tautology is a tautology" is a tautology.
