Home > Ethnic Peoples > Zhuang > Say "Aw!" Not "Hm!"


Say "Aw!" Not "Hm!" by Chen Jin Feng
Do you pay much attention to short sounds that aren’t really words?

For example, how do you let someone know you agree with what they’re saying in your language?

One of the interesting differences I have noticed about languages is that they use different sounds to show the listener agrees. In English, most people would say "hm!" to indicate that they agree, or that they are following what you are saying. Beware of using the same sound in other languages!

Mrs Lu
Conversing in Zhuang in Wuming, Guangxi.


"Aw!"

For Hokkien, a Chinese dialect which I spoke in my childhood days, the sound to express approval is "ng!", a back nasal sound which some westerners have problems producing on its own.

Or, in Wuming Zhuang, the right sound is "aw!" or "w!", if you wish to show you agree. Here, the "a" sound is as in "arm." However the "w" is not the English "w", but a vowel like the "u" in tutu ("oo"), but produced without rounding your lips. So if you wish to sound like a native Zhuang speaker, you need to say "aw!", not "hm!". Takes some getting used to, if you do ever get used to it!