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Re: disfluencies/editing expressions

From:B. Garcia <madyaas@...>
Date:Thursday, August 26, 2004, 2:31
On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:29:25 -0500, Michael Erard <erard@...> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ----------------------- > Sender: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...> > Poster: Michael Erard <erard@...> > Subject: Re: disfluencies/editing expressions > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Brilliant! Thanks so much. Do you know any other > filled pauses in other natlangs? I have examples > from French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Hebrew, > Norwegian, Dutch, German, and Swedish. (Now > Indonesian, too.) > > Michael > > > > >Michael Erard wrote: > > > >(Sounds like an interesting project, BTW) > > > >..while speech disfluencies > >> typically refer to filled pauses ("uh" and "um"), repetitions (of > >> segments, syllables, words or phrases), and restarts. > >> > >Kash (a hopefully realistic language spoken by non-humans; see > >http://cinduworld.tripod.com/contents.htm ) uses the following: > > > >ena ['ena] or _ana_ equivalent to 'well' or 'hmmm...' at the beginning of a > >sentence (time-to-think particle); a shorter form _na_ might also be used, > >but is more common mid-stream, more like "er...." There's also _kaná_ > >'whatchacallit', when you can't think of the right word. _na_ would only > >occur between words or phrases; kaná might occur e.g. between a prefix and > >verb-- > > > >mi..kaná...rungombor > >we...ah...ruN+kombor (CAUS + demolish) > >we...ah...tore down/razed (it) or even > > > >miruN...ganá...rungombor, if the speaker had temporarily misplaced the root > >"kombor" > > > >(_na_ also functions to indicate a cleft sentence: > > > >keju na, ta pole minahan > >cheese na, not can we-eat > >"it's cheese we can't eat ~ cheese is what we can't eat" -- at least until I > >figure out a better way....) > > > >FWIW, Bahasa Indonesia uses _nah_, possibly borrowed from Dutch, as well as > >_anu_ which officially means 'thing' but is essentially just a hesitation > >particle when you can't think of the word, or get tangled up syntactically. > >(It's suprisingly similar to Japanese _ano_) > > > >In Indonesia, I sat in on a master's degree oral exam one day; the student > >began every answer with "begini, pak..." 'It's like this, sir...' -- > >probably an example of "academic" register, as I never heard it much in > >everyday speech. >
-- Something gets lost when you translate, It's hard to keep straight, perspective is everything - Invisible ink - Aimee Mann -