Eh

Eh ( or ) is a spoken interjection used in many varieties of English. The oldest Oxford English Dictionary defines eh as "an interjectional interrogative particle often inviting assent to the sentiment expressed." Today, while eh has many different uses, it is most popularly used in a manner similar in meaning to "Excuse me?", "Can you repeat that?", "Huh?", or to otherwise mark a question. It is also commonly used as an alternative to the question tag "right?", as a method for inciting a reply; as in, "Don't you think?", "Do you agree with me?"

In the Americas, it is most commonly associated with Canada and Canadian English, though it is also common in England, Scotland, and New Zealand. It is also known in some American regions bordering Canada, including the area stretching from northern Wisconsin up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The spelling of this sound in English is quite different from the common usage of these letters. The vowel is sounded in one of the continental manners (as in French, only missing the apostrophe), and the letter "h" is used to indicate it is long, as though the origin of the spelling were German.

While evidence suggests that eh initially may have been considered as an onomatopoeic sound, the earliest uses of eh found so far, date back to Early Modern English in 1662, but first mentions of it are found in Middle English.

In the Upper Midwest, it is used to end sentences.

Canada

History

The first clear evidence of eh<nowiki/>'s usage in Canada was in 1836, through the writings of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a Nova-Scotian district judge and comical writer." However, despite mainly being perceived as a stereotypical marker of Canadian identity, eh was not recognized initially as a Canadianism in the Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (DCHP-1). Chief editor of the DCHP-1, Walter Avis, argued that it should not be included due to its historical use in British English and its frequency in American, Australian, and New Zealand English. Due to this frequency, it has since been included in the DCHP-2 as a Preservation of British English that is Culturally Significant.

Uses

According to the DCHP-2, there are five main uses of eh with four subtypes.

Future usage

On the basis of speaker attitudes, the speech of younger speakers, and new Canadians' adoption of eh, Elaine Gold argues that the expression is likely to see continuing use and to continue functioning as a marker of Canadian identity. Students account for a large percentage of eh users and continue to contribute to the growing community. In addition to the popularity amongst students, immigrants are essential to the future of eh. Survey results on immigrant recognition of eh show that immigrants had high rates of recognition for most types of eh, with opinion-eh and exclamation-eh at the top. The data shows that while the usage of eh in immigrant communities is different, it is still common. This shows that even though native speakers still use eh more frequently, there is no evidence that eh is falling out of use. Altogether, Canada's link with bilingualism has contributed to eh<nowiki/>'s common usage, and its recognition amongst immigrants suggests that eh will continue to be prevalent in Canadian culture. New Zealanders use eh much more than Canadians, who are more famous for the word. This commonly used and referenced feature of New Zealand English (NZE) is one of great controversy to many communication scholars as it is both a mark of cultural identity and simultaneously a means to parody those of a lower socioeconomic status. The use of eh in New Zealand is very common among all demographics.

Communications scholar Miriam Meyerhoff describes eh as a "validation checker" to create connections between speakers. She says that there are two main uses of the phrase: to signify a question, such as "You went to school in Christchurch, eh?"; or to confirm that the listener understands new information, such as "He was way bigger than me, eh". It is believed that eh became common in New Zealand due to similarity with the Māori word , which has a similar use.

A 1994 study by Meyerhoff sought to examine the function of eh in New Zealand culture. She hypothesized that eh did not function as a clarification device as frequently believed, but instead served as a means of establishing solidarity between individuals of similar ethnic descent. In her research, Meyerhoff analyzed conversations between an interviewer and an interviewee of either Pākehā or Māori descent and calculated the frequency of eh in the conversation. In order to yield the most natural speech, Meyerhoff instructed the interviewers to introduce themselves as a "friend of a friend", to their respective interviewees. Her results showed Māori men as the most frequent users of eh in their interviews. As Māori are typically of a lower socio-economic status, Meyerhoff proposed that eh functioned as a verbal cue that one reciprocated by another individual signified both shared identity and mutual acceptance. Therefore, in the context of Meyerhoff's research, eh can be equated as a device to establish and maintain a group identity. and the United Kingdom (where it is sometimes spelled ay on the assumption that eh would rhyme with heh or meh). In the Caribbean island of Barbados the word nuh acts similarly, as does noh in Surinamese Dutch and Sranantongo. The usage in New Zealand is similar, and is more common in the North Island. It is also heard in the United States, especially Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (although the Scandinavian-based Yooperism ya is more common), Oklahoma, and the New England region. In New England and Oklahoma, it is also used as a general exclamation as in Scotland and the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.

It is occasionally used to express indifference, in a similar way to meh.

Since usage of the word eh is not as common in the United States as it is in Canada, it is often used by Americans, and indeed Canadians themselves, to parody Canadian English.

The equivalent in South African English is hey. This usage is also common in Western Canada.

Eh is also used in Guernsey English and Jersey English.

Eh is very common in the English spoken in the Seychelles.

In Singapore, the use of medium Singlish often includes eh as an interjection, but it is not as popularly used as lah. An example of a sentence that uses eh is "Dis guy Singlish damn good eh", meaning "this guy's Singlish is very good".

Similar to Singapore, Malaysia also uses eh in Manglish as an interjection. It is also used as an exclamation to express surprise, depending on the length and context of the eh. It also depends how one sounds uses it as a short eh can be a sarcastic shock or a genuine one. Sometimes it can be used as the equivalent as oi when the speaker is being angry to the listener such as "Eh, hello!?" or "Eh, can you not!?". A long eeeh can be a disgusted shock, annoyance, or greater surprise. The eh usage here is similar to the Japanese usage. It is used by all Malaysians regardless of what language they are using.

==Similar terms in other languages== <!-- This section is linked from Pinyin -->

• Hè ('heh' ) (not to be confused with hé ('hey' ), an informal greeting and (potentially rude) way of getting someone's attention is an informal yet very common Dutch interjection that can be used as a brief exclamation to indicate confusion or surprise ('huh?'), in a prolonged manner when disappointed or annoyed ('aww'), or at the end of any sentence to form a tag question. The third usage is arguably the most popular. It very closely compares with "Eh" in Canadian English. In the regional dialects of Zealand and West Flanders, the corresponding and frequently used interjection , is in fact pronounced the same as in English (note that the equivalent of Dutch is silent in Zealandic and West Flemish).
• Japanese /'？ () is a common exclamation in Japanese and is used to express surprise. It is also used when the listener did not fully understand or hear what the speaker said. It can be lengthened to show greater surprise (e.g. ). Ne and are extremely similar to the Canadian eh, being statement ending particles which solicit or assume agreement, confirmation, or comprehension on the part of the listener.
• Portuguese ?, a contraction of ? meaning 'isn't it?', is used to turn a statement into a question, even if no answer is expected, for emphasis or other objectives.
• is used in French and in Portuguese in much the same way as in English.
• is used in Mauritian Creole and it can express a variety of ideas. It is generally used in context of a conversation and is generally interpreted very quickly.
• or , , or ('true' or 'correct') or (from , 'not') are used in (very) colloquial German to express a positive interrogative at the end of a sentence, much as eh is used in Canadian English. Statements expressed in Standard German are more commonly phrased in negative terms, and outside of colloquial usage the ending interrogative is often , which invites a response of ('agreed', literally 'that's right').
• is used in Dutch in the same way as is in German.
• Spanish , literally translated to English as 'no', is often put at the end of a statement to change it into a question and give emphasis, i.e. ('The weather is nice, isn't it?<nowiki>'</nowiki>). is also used as well for emphasis, as in ('You're going to fall from the chair, if you keep doing that!'). Che also has a similar function.
• In Catalan, is also commonly used.
• Swiss German meaning 'or' in English, is commonly used interrogatively as '... or what?' and at the end of sentences in German-speaking Switzerland, especially in the Zurich area. It is used more as a matter of conversational convention than for its meaning. The expression is used in highest Alemannic-speaking parts, and is used similarly to in German. The term is also used, which is pronounced similarly to eh in English and has the same meaning.
• Azerbaijani , , , and are commonly used as 'huh?'. Alternatively, 'yes?', and 'is it correct?' can be used as 'isn't it?'.
• Pakistani Urdu is used to mean 'what? say it again'.
• Egyptian Arabic () is used to mean 'what? say it again'. It could also mean 'what's wrong?' either in a concerned manner or a more aggressive one, depending on the tone used to pose the question. Besides, it could refer to an exclamation.
• Levantine Arabic or (, ) as 'what?'.
• Gulf Arabic () is used to mean 'what?'.
• Regional Italian is used in regional Northern Italian as spoken in Piedmont, Western Lombardy (Northwestern Italy), and the Ticino (Southern Switzerland), with the meaning of "isn't it true?". It comes from the expression in the local languages (Piedmontese and Lombard) , which means, once again, 'isn't it true?'

See also

• English interjections
• Discourse marker
• Canadian English

References