> ---------------------- 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.
>