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Episode details

World Service,3 mins

Are We Witnessing the Death of 'Uh'?

Boston Calling

Available for over a year

We humans have been dropping "um", "uh" and other expressions of hesitation into our speech for a long time — maybe for as long as we've had language. More recently, though, linguists have noted a peculiar shift in usage of these pause fillers— and not just in English. Image: Young people talking. Credit: Thinkstock

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