Intonation and attitude
There are certain sounds in any language that are considered nonsense syllables, yet impart a large amount of information to the informed listener. Each language has a different set of these sounds, such as eto ne in Japanese, em in Spanish, eu in French, and um in English. In this particular case, these are the sounds that a native speaker makes when he is thinking out loud——holding the floor, but not yet committing to actually speaking.
Exercise 8-12: nonverbal intonation
The top eight are the most common non-word communication sounds. They can all be nasalized or not, and said with the mouth open or closed. Intonation is the important factor here. Repeat after me.
1. uh oh
2. uh huh
3. uh uh
4. uh uh uh
5. hm mm
6. hm!
7. ah ah
8. ah ha!
A. uh huh
B. uh huh huh
C. uh huh uh
D. uh uh
E. uh uh !
F. uh uh uh
There are certain sounds in any language that are considered nonsense syllables, yet impart a large amount of information to the informed listener. Each language has a different set of these sounds, such as eto ne in Japanese, em in Spanish, eu in French, and um in English. In this particular case, these are the sounds that a native speaker makes when he is thinking out loud——holding the floor, but not yet committing to actually speaking.
Exercise 8-12: nonverbal intonation
The top eight are the most common non-word communication sounds. They can all be nasalized or not, and said with the mouth open or closed. Intonation is the important factor here. Repeat after me.
1. uh oh
2. uh huh
3. uh uh
4. uh uh uh
5. hm mm
6. hm!
7. ah ah
8. ah ha!
A. uh huh
B. uh huh huh
C. uh huh uh
D. uh uh
E. uh uh !
F. uh uh uh