Filler (linguistics)

In linguistics, fillers are sounds or words that are spoken to fill up gaps in utterances. Different languages have different characteristic filler sounds; in English, the most common filler sounds are "uh" "er" and "um". "Like", "y'know", and "basically" are more prevalent among youths.

Filler words in different languages

* In Danish, 'Øh' is one of the most common fillers.
* In Filipino, "ah", "eh", "ay", "am" are the most common fillers.
* In French, "euh" is most common; other words used as fillers include "quoi" ("what"), "bah" (or "ben"), "tu vois" ("you see"), and "eh bien" (roughly "well", as in "well, I'm not sure")
* In Hungarian, a common filler word is "Izé".
* In Italian, "e" is one of the most common fillers
* In Japanese, common fillers include "ehto", "ano" and "nto".
* In Korean, "eung", "eo", "ge", and "eum" are commonly used as fillers.
* in Lithuanian, "ten" (there) and "čia" (here) are common fillers.
* In Mandarin Chinese speakers often say "zhege" ("this"), or "neige" ("that").
* In Norwegian, common fillers are "på en måte" ("in a way"), "ikke sant" (literally "not true": "isn't it?" / "no kidding", "exactly"), and "liksom" ("like").
* In Romanian, "deci" ("therefore") is common, especially in school. "î" (lengthened accordingly to the pause in speaking) is also very common, whereas "păi" ("hm, well") is widely used by almost anyone.
* In Russian, fillers are called "слова-паразиты" (vermin words); the most common are "Э-э" (eh), "это" (this), "того" (that), "ну" (well), "значит" (it means), "как его" (what's it [called] ), "типа" (like).
* In Spanish, fillers are called "muletillas"; some of the most common in American Spanish are "e", "este" ("this") and "o sea" ("that is"). [http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishvocabulary/a/filler_words.htm]
* In Swedish, fillers are called "utfyllningsord"; some of the most common are "öhm", "ja" ("yes"), "alltså" ("therefore", "thus"), "va", "liksom" and "typ" (both similar to the English "like").
* In Urdu, 'yani' (meaning..), 'falan falan' (this and that; blah blah), 'umm' and 'aaa' are common fillers.
* In Welsh, "de" or "ynde" is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of "you know?" or "innit"). "Ym..." and "Y..." are used similarly to the English "Erm...".

A common pitfall among language learners is using fillers from their native tongue. For example, "Quiero una" umm.... "quesadilla". While less of a shibboleth, knowing the placeholder names (sometimes called kadigans) of a language (e.g. the equivalent of "thingy") can also be useful to attain fluency, such as the French "truc": "Je cherche le truc qu'on utilise pour ouvrir une boîte" ("I'm looking for the thingy that you use to open up a can").

See also

* Interjection
* Discourse marker
* Speech disfluencies

External links

* [http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=lw125 Why do people say "um" and "er" when hesitating in their speech?] , "New Scientist", May 6, 1995