Your Guide to ... umm
Being sort of fluent なんか... えーと
The words we use the most are usually the words we don’t think about. At least in speaking, we seldom remember the umms, uhhhs and y’know’s. This article will wholly focus on filling in these filler words and learning the slang that everyone uses but no one realises.
Think Fast
It is natural to not have everything front of mind. In English, we have our share of words that act like a loading bar. Um, like, you know, when our brain stalls for time mid-sentence. To my surprise, these words are not commonplace outside of English speaking countries. Even though the umm seems like the most natural noise, other places don’t use it.
In France, it’s euh which does feel a little like umming with a stereotypical French accent. Yet in Japan, they aren’t used to our umms. It’s eto (えーと).
So what is eto, and why is it the default “hold on a second” in Japanese conversation? Let’s look at it in the actual Japanese phonetics.
“えー” (pronounced “ehhhh”)
Stretch that vowel. This is closest to our uhh’s, it can be extended as much as needed. After a certain length though, it makes you sound less like you’re trying to find something to say, and more like you’ve got nothing in your head at all. However a reasonable amount of time with the ehhh section helps you gather thoughts without leaving dead space.
Then the ““と” (pronounced “to”).
Wrap it up. No more need to keep the listener waiting on your buffering thought process. Instead, it serves as a marker that for the other party, hey, time to listen again.
That basically covers the eto section! Yet that barely covers all the ways to fill words when thinking and talking on your feet. We aren’t stuck with just um, like, hmmm, and so neither are the Japanese. Even if the eeeeehs can be drawn out, there are others out there to fill otherwise empty noise.
To Err is Human
It does feel like a universal truth that no one actually likes silence in conversation. Somehow across cultures, from more formal and hierarchical to the casual and whatevers, it still feels impossible to leave too much of a gap when chatting.
Languages have filled that void with more noises. This becomes a careful balance when speaking as you never want to under-use. Even if you were taught to never stutter, consider that if you don’t you sound more like a textbook for robots. Which is never really the goal when linguisting. Yet if you over-use it, you sound like a high schooler overthinking every decision, or 70% of the anime available. Even now, I find it so difficult to talk the line. Here’s your sounding guide to sounding.
あの (ano):
Ano…ther filler. To me it does feel interchangeable to the aforementioned eto (えーと). I’m told that it is a better signalling word, so literally a sound to get someone to pay attention to you before launching into conversation. A little marker that goes “HEY GUYS I’ve got something to say now”, but polite and socially normal. Some describe the English conversion to a “well”, before speaking.
なんか (nanka):
Like. This corresponds pretty easily into like, you can drop it into any sentence and it fits. There are countless other actual slang words that are used, but like “like” in English, nanka gets used constantly. This is thanks to its extreme malleability as a word. For example, you could use it to … extend a thought or sentiment. Or, you use nanka is used to soften emotions and phrases. In that sense, it’s sort of like sort of (sorta). A somewhat more informal way of saying somewhat. Or, in other contexts used not to soften, but to emphasise. Pretty confusing and context dependent. In the emphasising emphatic turn of phrase, nanka’s been described to me as more as a “the likes of”, which does bring a little more negative gravitas to a sentence.
This one does have a limited run rate if you are older than say 35, as it can run the risk of becoming a little too casual. Dropping one or two nanka’s is fine in any context, maybe cool it with the dozen uses or you can sound like Steve.
My point is, nanka, fills many of the gaps in everyday dialogue, much like the filler words in English. To understand how it is used is annoyingly contextual. As I said, it has a lot of universal usage that could fit into almost any sentence. I probably haven’t even covered all their uses. If I was to jump to conclusions… if you understand how all the Japanese filler words work, you are much closer to understanding Japan.
The New Sound of Silence
To come full circle, ummms and uhh’s are not fully replaced by their Japanese counterparts. Even amongst the totally fluent and don’t-speak-any-English speakers, you will get a a good portion of umms.* You might hear one in the wild streets of Osaka and think where the eto went.
I have two theories to how this came about.
Umming is normal. Maybe the most natural vocalising you can do. The evolution of speech probably started from a cry, to an umm or humm, then to actual linguistic words.
Japanese speakers aren’t immune to English. When most media features some forms of English, either translated or subtitled, your um’s and ahhs are going to slip in. It is maybe the most innocuous of sounds to pick up. There are already countless actual English words and phrases that are part of Japanese, from television to orange, so what is the worry when the filler word gets filled by outside sounds?
*[Editor’s note: I reckon the above “umm” heard in Japan is actually misnoming a much more common but similar sounding filler-sound, “mmmmm”]
Ultimately, I’m not sure what we’ve learnt. Perhaps I could say that the filler words show something deeper about Japanese culture, some zen they’ve achieved through years of hyper practice. Or maybe the (contested) rise of the um in Japanese speakers highlights the scary fact that globalisation is here to stay, even in Japan. None of these really sound right.
In actuality, as a foreigner my main takeaway is that filler words just help you sound that little more local. You get a better sense of reading the contextual clues that make language more than just the words on a page. Using them helps me get in the mindset that it is an actual language spoken not just by perfect enunciating teachers, or strict rule abiding textbooks. Instead, while the words are almost entirely different to English, the Japanese language and all cultures seem to share one universal trait. It is really awkward to be silent mid-sentence.