hesitationology

US President Barack Obama and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte both favor "uh" (or "eh" in Dutch) over "um." Younger people and women are more likely to say "um."

Are we witnessing the death of ‘uh’? Um, maybe — and not just in English

February 5, 2015Science

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, linguists are noting a shift in usage across a number of Germanic languages from “uh” to “um.”