Why does a human make the sound ‘huh’ when he doesn’t know something?

Answer

Those sounds are not completely automatic, some are clearly dependent on the language in which you speak and are therefore learned. But they are so deeply ingrained that people who use a foreign language fluently and without an accent often betray their background by throwing in the um, er, he or he from their own language.

The main function of ‘uh’, ‘awel’, ‘so’ is to keep the sentence going as you search for words. They are filler words, or pause words. They give you time to think: “I’ve been here since uh a quarter to two.” In addition, they have some other functions:

• They can provide additional communication, and emphasize what follows. For example, they can serve to signal a correction: “it’s black, uh brown!”. Or they can indicate irony: “I’m here with my uh best work.”
• They also help prevent stuttering and breathing, as they slow word formation without slowing the talking rate.
• Sometimes they also have the function of a safe word, for example to indicate the end of a sentence “it’s nice weather hey.”

The ‘hesitations’, fillers or pause words differ from language to language and even between dialects:

• US: um, uh
• VK: er, erm
• FR: uh
• The H
• JP: ano, eto

Fun fact: sign languages ​​also have such words