Re: verbal diarrhoea

Tristan McLeay wrote:


>I was just wondering what various con- and natlangs (and dialects) use to
>'umm' or 'aah'.
>
>To start off with, Aussies tend to prefer 'umm', and I understand Japanese
>'anoo' (but I could be wrong).
>
Indonesian:  na ~nah; anu, when you can't think of the right word right
away. (Cf. the Japanese??).  A Filipino of my acquaintance used _kuan_
[kwan] in this last sense.
The late Prof. James McCawley used [æ:] to excess; disconcerting until you
got used to it.

Kash:  na:,  aná, ená 'well, er, umm'; kaná, like anu or kuan; nána
'(unspecified) thing' as in _kandri nana yu?_ 'what's that thing?'