"Why do we use it so much? "Um" has a myriad of utilities. It fills the space when we're trying to think of what word or idea to say next, it can soften our tone to make us sound more casual or polite, or it can signal to people that we're not finished speaking, which is known as "turn holding," said Jess Zafarris, an etymologist and co-host of the Words Unravelled podcast."
""That buys you time and helps prevent other people from talking over you," she said. The shortness of "um" and its employment of the "uh" vowel also make it really easy to say, as our tongues are relaxed, according to Delphine Dahan, who leads a psycholinguistics lab at the University of Pennsylvania. "Speakers can produce [it] effortlessly on the drop of a hat," she said. Because of this, filler words with similar sounds and uses show up across languages and cultures."
The filler word "um" functions to fill pauses when speakers search for words, to soften tone for casual or polite effect, and to signal that a speaker is not finished, thereby holding a conversational turn. Its short form and "uh" vowel make it easy to produce with a relaxed tongue. Cognates or analogous fillers appear across languages and dialects, reflecting neutral vocal noises. "Um" is infrequent in formal written English, appearing about seven times per one million written words, but young people increasingly write it informally to signal humor, confusion, irony, or correction.
Read at www.npr.org
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