Filler (linguistics)

For other uses, see Filler.

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 Afrikaans, ah, em, eh, dinges ('thing'), goeters ('things'), watsenaam ('what's its name') as common fillers.
• In Arabic, yani ('meaning') and wallahi ('by God') are common fillers.
• In Bengali, mane ("it means")
• In Czech tak ('so'), prostě ('simply'), jako ('like') are used as fillers. A person who uses 'jako' sounds a bit simple-minded to others.
• 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, ben ('well'), tu vois ('you see'), and eh bien (roughly 'well', as in 'well, I'm not sure'). Outside of France other expressions such as tu sais ('you know'), t’sais’veux dire? ('you know what I mean?') or allez une fois ('go one time'). In Québec, additional filler words include genre (kind), comme (like) and style (style; kind)
• In German, a more extensive series of filler words exists called modal particles, which actually do give the sentence some meaning. More traditional filler words are äh, hm, soo, tja, and eigentlich ('actually').
• In Hindi, matlab ("it means")
• In Hungarian, a common filler word is izé. Furthermore it can be micsoda ('what is it'), hogy is hívják ('what's it called').
• In Italian, e is one of the most common fillers.
• In Japanese, common fillers include etto, ano, sono and ee.
• In Korean, eung, eo, ge, and eum are commonly used as fillers.
• in Lithuanian, ten (there) and čia (here) are common fillers.
• In Mandarin Chinese speakers often say zhe ge/zhei ge ('this'), or na ge/nei ge ('that').
• In Norwegian, common fillers are øh, altså, på en måte ('in a way'), ikke sant (literally 'not true?' / 'no kidding', 'exactly'), vel ('well') and liksom ('like'). In Bergen, sant (true) is often used instead of ikke sant. In the Trøndelag region, sjø is also a common filler.
• In Persian bebin (you see) is the most common filler.
• In Portuguese tipo (like) is the most common filler.
• In Romanian, deci ('therefore') is common, especially in school. ă (lengthened accordingly to the pause in speaking and rendered in writing as ăăă) 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 in American Spanish are e, este ('this') and o sea (roughly means 'I mean').
• 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).
• In Ukrainian ой, pronounced 'oy' is a common filler.
• In Urdu, yani ('meaning..'), falan falan ('this and that'; 'blah blah'), umm and aaa are also common fillers.
• In Turkish, yani ('meaning..'), şey ('thing') and falan ('as such', 'so on') are common fillers.
• In Welsh, de or ynde is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of "you know?" or "isn't it"). Ym... and Y... are used similarly to the English "um...".

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 the placeholder names (sometimes called kadigans) 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

• Discourse marker
• Interjection
• Like: As a discourse particle
• Speech disfluencies
• Valspeak

External links

• Why do people say "um" and "er" when hesitating in their speech?, New Scientist, May 6, 1995
• Lotozo, Eils (2002). "The way teens talk, like, serves a purpose". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Citing Siegel, Muffy E. A. (2002). "Like: The Discourse Particle and Semantics". Journal of Semantics. 19 (1): 35–71. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)