Özden Arıkan Germany Local time: 18:28 Member English to Turkish
Short answer
Mar 23, 2010
No interjection is universal (this is an interjection, right?)
Turkish: as Samuel's answer above, depends on the tone and tune. The "mmmhhh" might have gained wide recognition thanks to the Internet, though. There are others which were circulated widely through comics, especially in the 70's (and I suspect they're still more 'universal' within the Turkish-speaking and -reading communities).
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Igor Popov wrote:
Generally, mmmh will be understood anywhere.
A Russian instead of mmmmh will say
Oh! Yammy оr Ooh! Yammi (In Russian O!Vkusnyatina! or OO!Vkusnyatina!)
Hm will be used same as in Hm, it is quite dubious.
Igor
[Edited at 2010-03-23 17:26 GMT]
I'd like to take a liberty of having a go at free translating the last year's chicken (grille) stores promo action in Ukraine: a young female performing in the kitchen, (her?) sweet & sensuous voice announcing "exquisite flavour, delicious grilled chicken 'NYAM-NYAM'". And afterwards, the sweet and sexy 'NYAM-NYAM' to be observed on company trucks, the chain shop-windows as well as marching over into the local folklore. It helped improve the sex-life (even) for the many, me guess,.. for it kept evoking THE juicy associations all the time...).
[Edited at 2010-03-23 18:36 GMT]
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Samuel Murray Netherlands Local time: 18:28 Member (2006) English to Afrikaans + ...
On deliciocity
Mar 24, 2010
Samuel Murray wrote:
Matt Bissette wrote:
I was wondering if the expression "mmmmhh" is universal or where it is not used.
I have not yet met anyone who does not understand "mmm", but I have experienced that different cultures use different tones and tunes to mean different things. I don't think you can have a fruitful conversation about "mmm" without sound files, because I can only guess why you write "mmh" instead of "hmm".
When I answered this question with the above answer, the thread title didn't have the word "delicious" in it. In fact, it never occurred to me that deliciocity might be the meaning of the word "mmh" that the Matt was referring to.
I wonder of "mmh" isn't merely universal for "delicious" because it allows you to say something about the food when you have food in your mouth, without opening your mouth with food in it. In some cultures, it is rude (or even taboo) to open your mouth to speak when you have food in your mouth.
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Tim Drayton Cyprus Local time: 19:28 Turkish to English
There are few if any cultural universals
Mar 24, 2010
Özden Arıkan wrote:
No interjection is universal (this is an interjection, right?)
Turkish: as Samuel's answer above, depends on the tone and tune. The "mmmhhh" might have gained wide recognition thanks to the Internet, though. There are others which were circulated widely through comics, especially in the 70's (and I suspect they're still more 'universal' within the Turkish-speaking and -reading communities).
I do not think that this interjection is used or understood as such in Turkey. In fact, there is a specific gesture (fingers cupped back with thumb resting between middle two fingers and hand moved slightly up and down a few times) for expressing pleasure with food or drink. I agree that one has to tread very cautiously in making claims for universality about any aspect of human culture.
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Wendy Leech United Kingdom Local time: 17:28 Member (2006) Spanish to English + ...
Origin of mmm [delicious]
Mar 25, 2010
I would assume that the sound comes from the sound that "all" people make when eating: If you do the action of chewing something with your mouth open [go on all you reading this - give it a go!] and then activate your vocal chords at the same time, then the sound that comes out is a sort of "nyumnyumnyum" and I can easily see how this would become "mmm".
Alternatively, if you eat with your mouth closed, and someone asks you a question - a question that is very commonly "how is the meal?" or something similar - then the only sound you can politely produce is indeed "mmm".
As far as i can tell [and i've sat here practising a few alternatives, to the amusement of my cat!], there is no other sound that can be emitted and so, therefore and therefrom, it could possbly be considered a "universal sound".
??
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Nesrin United Kingdom Local time: 17:28 English to Arabic + ...
My point exactly
Mar 25, 2010
Wendy Leech wrote:
I would assume that the sound comes from the sound that "all" people make when eating: If you do the action of chewing something with your mouth open [go on all you reading this - give it a go!] and then activate your vocal chords at the same time, then the sound that comes out is a sort of "nyumnyumnyum" and I can easily see how this would become "mmm".
Alternatively, if you eat with your mouth closed, and someone asks you a question - a question that is very commonly "how is the meal?" or something similar - then the only sound you can politely produce is indeed "mmm".
As far as i can tell [and i've sat here practising a few alternatives, to the amusement of my cat!], there is no other sound that can be emitted and so, therefore and therefrom, it could possbly be considered a "universal sound".
??
I agree Wendy - that's what I meant in my post as well, though your explanation makes it a bit clearer and even explains the open-mouth version - I agree that it's as universal as an interjection can be, unlike more local ones like "yuk" (which is probably just be an attempt to create an opposite of "yum").
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