information:classification
Interjections across languages

Interjections can take very different forms and meanings across cultures. For instance, the English interjections gee and wow have no direct equivalent in Polish, and the closest equivalent for Polish ' fu' (an interjection of disgust) is the different sounding ' Yuck! '. Curses likewise are famously language-specific and colourful. On the other hand, interjections that manage social interaction may be more similar across languages. For instance, the word ' Huh? ', used when one has not caught what someone just said, is remarkably similar in 31 spoken languages around the world, prompting claims that it may be a universal word. Similar observations have been made for the interjections ' Oh! ' (meaning, roughly, "now I see") and ' Mm/m-hm ' (with the meaning "keep talking, I'm with you").

Across languages, interjections often use special sounds and syllable types that are not commonly used in other parts of the vocabulary. For instance, interjections like ' brr' and ' shh! ' are made entirely of consonants, where in virtually all languages, words have to feature at least one vowel-like element. Some, like ' tut-tut ' and ' ahem ', are written like normal words, but their actual production involves clicks or throat-clearing. The phonetic atypicality of some interjections is one reason they have traditionally been considered as lying outside the realm of language.