Huh (disfluency)

'Huh is a simple sound representing confusion of the one making it, similar to "er" or "uh" and other speech disfluencies. Huh is pronounced with a nasal vowel at the end.

It can also represent unarticulated muttering such as in Huh-euh-huh.

Huh can be a slang way of creating an interrogative which is nearly rhetorical, giving "huh" the meaning of "isn't it?", e.g., "France is cool, huh?"

In a similar but newer and much less widely used manner (presumably western U.S. coast and late generation "X") "Huh." or "Huh!" can be used as an entire slang sentence replacing and shortening the also slang "I know, huh." as a somewhat condescending response to a fairly obvious (at least in the eyes of the responder) statement. Pronunciation of this use is much closer to "Ha" or Hah" as there is no "uh" sound in it, but while written use of this slang is rare, spelling seems to remain "huh". This use of the sound "huh" is close in meaning to the purposely and overly sarcastic statement "Gee, you really think so? Wow, what an insight." In this use, the sound is in no way representative of the confusion of the one making it, but rather of their firm belief that the previous statement was itself so rhetorical as to be almost comical in it's utter lack of neccessity. This use of the sound is also somewhat confrontational, and is almost always accompanied by a condescending look to emphasize the user's lack of respect or lack of a feeling of neccessity for the previous statement. Many people who understand and/or use this particular slang liken it to the belittling slang "Duh". Additionally, as opposed to the confused use of this sound, in this instance the sound us uttered boldly and with confidence. e.g., Statement: "Murder is bad." Response: "Huh!" Oddly enough, this version and pronunciation of the "huh" sound can also be used to affirm or agree wholeheartely with the previous statement with no malicious intent. e.g., Statement: "We should go to an amusement park, that would be fun." Response: "Huh!"

Huh used as a statement can also mean 'I tentatively accept that.', however the intonation drops instead of rises in pitch.

"Uh-huh" states "yes", and the pitch of "huh" is usually higher than "uh."