- 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.
* InMandarin 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 inAmerican 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").
* InUrdu , '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 theplaceholder name s (sometimes calledkadigan s) 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
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