"Imph'm"
Bob Cunningham
In a book set in the Galloway region of Scotland, the
author, Dorothy L Sayers, has many of the characters
speaking a Scottish dialect. The meanings of most of the
words are immediately clear, while some take me a few
moments to puzzle out. One word, though, has me stumped:
"imph'm".
It's used time after time by different characters, and it's
typically used in a reply , It's often in the phrase "Ay,
imph'm", but also often not. One example:
Wimsey called at Sir Maxwell Jamieson's to make his
report about the eggs and bacon, which was received
with an "Ay, imph'm" of the driest kind.
Another :
"Ay, that's so. Then so far as ye ken, Mr. Gowan is
at this moment in London."
"For all I know to the contrary, he is."
"Imph'm. Weel, noo--I wad like tae speak a word wi'
Hammond."
Another word in the book that had me puzzled for a while was
"forbye", but I eventually thought to look it up. It's in
the _New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary_, marked "Now
Scottish and dialectal", with several meanings.
Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
CDB
Its just a variant spelling of "unhunh", I've always thought: yes.
Maybe the Scots typically say it with their lips pursed.
CDB
> Bob Cunningham wrote:
[...]
>> Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
>
> Its just a variant spelling of "unhunh", I've always thought: yes.
> Maybe the Scots typically say it with their lips pursed.
I answer myself? Very well, I answer myself. Robert Leighton, in his
somewhat interesting poem, says it means anything you want.
http://www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_scotch.htm
Leslie Danks
> In a book set in the Galloway region of Scotland, the
> author, Dorothy L Sayers, has many of the characters
> speaking a Scottish dialect. The meanings of most of the
> words are immediately clear, while some take me a few
> moments to puzzle out. One word, though, has me stumped:
> "imph'm".
Here you are:
http://www.rampantscotland.com/let020518.htm
<quote>
Let's hear ye spell Imph-m, that common word Imph-m,
That auld Scotch word Imph-m, ye ken it means - aye!'
<unquote>
--
Les
dontbother
[...]
> Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
>
Scottish Poetry Selection - Imph-m
Imph-m is a very Scottish word (or maybe is it just a sound like
clearing the throat? ... Then I gloom'd and said Imph-m, I glaunch'd
and said Imph-m, ...
www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_imphm.htm - 27k - Cached -
Similar pages
Scottish Poetry Selection - Scotch Words
As imph'm which means - anything you like; While some, though purely
English, and well known, Have yet a Scottish meaning of their own:
...
www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_scotch.htm - 27k - Cached -
Similar pages
[ More results from www.rampantscotland.com ]
--
Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan.
Unmunged email: /at/easypeasy.com
"Impatience is the mother of misery."
Donna Richoux
I've seen it in Scottish novels as well. I take it to be the forerunner
of the modern "mm-hmm" and "uh-huh," a grunt of noncomittal agreement.
Even a bit suspicious, like "Well, that's what *you* say, not me."
It's in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, www.dsl.ac.uk :
IMPHM, int. Also im(p)him, imp'm, euphm, imph. An
exclam., used with a variety of intonation to
indicate attentiveness, decided or reluctant assent,
sarcastic agreement, hesitation or the like: well?,
really, yes, hm!
[Followed by citations such as:]
*Ayr. 1901 G. Douglas Green Shutters xii.:
``Imphm; imphm; imphm; there might be something
in that!'' nodding his head and stroking his
moustache, as he uttered each meditative ``imphm.''
*Dmf. 1915 J. L. Waugh Betty Grier 27:
``Yes, sir,'' ``No, sir,'' ``Ay, ay; imphm!''
have so far been the sum-total of his contribution
to the conversation.
I wonder what the Scottish pronunciation really sounded like.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
Leslie Danks
[...]
> I wonder what the Scottish pronunciation really sounded like.
Try this:
http://www.scotsindependent.org/features/scots/imphm.htm
--
Les
Bob Cunningham
Thank you, Donna. That's very helpful. And thanks to
others who have posted helpful comments.
> I wonder what the Scottish pronunciation really sounded like.
Somebody could inquire in soc.culture.scottish. Maybe
someone there would make a sound file even.
Okay, I'll inquire there.
Or should I say "Imph'm, I'll inquire there"?
Mark Brader
> > Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
C.D.B.:
> Its just a variant spelling of "unhunh", I've always thought: yes.
And "unhunh", in turn, would be a variant spelling of "uh-huh".
--
Mark Brader "Many's the time when I've thanked the DAG of
Toronto past years for anticipating future maintenance
m...@vex.net questions and providing helpful information
in the original sources." -- Doug A. Gwyn
Peter Duncanson
<exw...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>> I wonder what the Scottish pronunciation really sounded like.
>
>Somebody could inquire in soc.culture.scottish. Maybe
>someone there would make a sound file even.
>
>Okay, I'll inquire there.
>
>Or should I say "Imph'm, I'll inquire there"?
Or "enquire".
Googling The Scotsman newspaper:
inquire site:.thescotsman.scotsman.com 58
enquire site:.thescotsman.scotsman.com 324
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Jonathan Morton
[Following up on "Imph'm"]
It certainly is one of the more annoying aspects of "The Five Red
Herrings" - for that is the novel which Bob is reading. It was years
before I realised the sound that DLS was intending to convey. My
father-in-law is from Glasgow[1], and definitely uses an "uh-huh" type
of assent of the type which earlier posters have mentioned. But it
doesn't bear any resemblance to "imph'm" - and neither does any other
sound I've heard uttered.
"Forbye" seems to mean "besides", "whatever" and various other things.
[1] He claims he's one of the few people from Glasgow - though 2 million
others live "just outside".
Regards
Jonathan
Bob Cunningham
<ma...@peterduncanson.net> said:
> On Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:29:20 GMT, Bob Cunningham
> <exw...@earthlink.net> wrote:
[...]
> >Okay, I'll inquire there.
> >Or should I say "Imph'm, I'll inquire there"?
> Or "enquire".
Not in this house. Here it's "inquire" only.
> Googling The Scotsman newspaper:
> inquire site:.thescotsman.scotsman.com 58
> enquire site:.thescotsman.scotsman.com 324
Thank you.
Bob Cunningham
Brader) said:
> Bob Cunningham:
> > > Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
> C.D.B.:
> > Its just a variant spelling of "unhunh", I've always thought: yes.
> And "unhunh", in turn, would be a variant spelling of "uh-huh".
Where do those meaning prevail? I've never heard anything
but the first means "no" and the second means "yes".
Antonyms are hardly variant spellings of each other.
CDB
> Bob Cunningham:
>>> Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
>
> C.D.B.:
>> Its just a variant spelling of "unhunh", I've always thought: yes.
>
> And "unhunh", in turn, would be a variant spelling of "uh-huh".
It's that damn froggy nasalisation seeping south over the river again.
CDB
I do believe that that is what the Sage of Hogtown intended to imply.
Nevertheless, that spelling is my representation of the way I
pronounce the "yes" grunt, with the "n"s indicating nasal vowels
(_V~'hV~_). The "no" grunt would be "unh-unh" (_'V~?V~_). I decline
to believe that there is an official spelling for grunts.
Mark Brader
>>>>> Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
C.D.B.:
>>>> Its just a variant spelling of "unhunh", I've always thought: yes.
Mark Brader:
>>> And "unhunh", in turn, would be a variant spelling of "uh-huh".
Bob Cunningham:
>> Where do those meaning prevail? I've never heard anything
>> but the first means "no" and the second means "yes".
You've heard "unhunh" before?
C.D.B.:
> I do believe that that is what the Sage of Hogtown intended to imply.
No, "no" is "uh-uh". Since "imph'm" means yes and "uh-huh" means
yes, C. had to be using "unhunh" to mean "uh-huh", even though he
wrote both syllables he same way.
> Nevertheless, that spelling is my representation of the way I
> pronounce the "yes" grunt, with the "n"s indicating nasal vowels
> (_V~'hV~_). The "no" grunt would be "unh-unh" (_'V~?V~_).
How.... quaint.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto Well, somebody had to be the pedant here!
m...@vex.net -- David Keldsen
My text in this article is in the public domain.
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
...
> C.D.B.:
...
> > Nevertheless, that spelling is my representation of the way I
> > pronounce the "yes" grunt, with the "n"s indicating nasal vowels
> > (_V~'hV~_). The "no" grunt would be "unh-unh" (_'V~?V~_).
>
> How.... quaint.
And absolutely right, except that I (which should be taken as
equivalent to "absolutely right") use a glottal stop before the first
syllable of "no" grunt as well as the second.
Same with [-m'h-m] (yes) and ['?-m?-m] (no). On the other hand, sumpm
tells me the "p" in "imph'm" could be a glottal stop.
--
Jerry Friedman
CDB
> Bob Cunningham:
>>>>>> Can somebody please tell me what "imph'm" means?
>
> C.D.B.:
>>>>> Its just a variant spelling of "unhunh", I've always thought:
>>>>> yes.
>
> Mark Brader:
>>>> And "unhunh", in turn, would be a variant spelling of "uh-huh".
>
> Bob Cunningham:
>>> Where do those meaning prevail? I've never heard anything
>>> but the first means "no" and the second means "yes".
>
> You've heard "unhunh" before?
>
> C.D.B.:
>> I do believe that that is what the Sage of Hogtown intended to
>> imply.
>
> No, "no" is "uh-uh". Since "imph'm" means yes and "uh-huh" means
> yes, C. had to be using "unhunh" to mean "uh-huh",
Not to mention the fact that I said so above (":yes")
> even though he wrote both syllables the same way.
I would divide the word into the syllables un/ hunh. On reflection,
it mught be better to use another "h" to indicate the unvoicing of the
first "n".
>> Nevertheless, that spelling is my representation of the way I
>> pronounce the "yes" grunt, with the "n"s indicating nasal vowels
>> (_V~'hV~_). The "no" grunt would be "unh-unh" (_'V~?V~_).
>
> How.... quaint.
Unhhunh.
Roland Hutchinson
Note also (usually) rising intonation for the yes grunt and falling for the
no grunt.
--
Roland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food.
NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to
remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it.
Peter Duncanson
<jona...@jonathanmortonbutignorethisbit.co.uk> wrote:
>Peter Duncanson wrote:
>
Not me. Someone else wrote:
<snipt>
CDB
> CDB wrote:
[grunts]
>> I pronounce the "yes" grunt, with the "n"s indicating nasal vowels
>> (_V~'hV~_). The "no" grunt would be "unh-unh" (_'V~?V~_). I
>> decline to believe that there is an official spelling for grunts.
>
> Note also (usually) rising intonation for the yes grunt and falling
> for the no grunt.
Yes. Interesting, because if you substitute the word "yes" for the
grunt, you get a falling intonation.
CDB
[...]
> C.D.B.:
>> I do believe that that is what the Sage of Hogtown intended to
>> imply.
[...]
>
> How.... quaint.
Do I detect a note of asperity here? Maybe there's still time to say
that the epithet applied above, while jocular, was in no way intended
to be disparaging. Does no one remember Fred C. Dobbs, the Sage of
Beamsville" An excellent fellow, and sharp as a tack. Michael Magee
was always much funnier than poor Don Harron.
"Hogtown" is a little negative, of course, but I didn't invent that.
Jonathan Morton
> On Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:55:11 +0000, Jonathan Morton
> <jona...@jonathanmortonbutignorethisbit.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Peter Duncanson wrote:
>>
> Not me. Someone else wrote:
>
> <snipt>
Peter
Sorry if you felt that the <nothing> I attributed to you was insulting,
libellous or whatever. I should have attributed the quotation of
<nothing> to the right author :-)
Sometimes I think it's easier to put something on the end of the thread,
even if not, strictly speaking, replying to the previous poster.
Regards
Jonathan
Mark Brader
>>> I do believe that that is what the Sage of Hogtown intended to
>>> imply.
> [...]
Mark Brader:
>> How.... quaint.
C.D.B.:
> Do I detect a note of asperity here?
Yes, a faint one, but it was in response to what *I* had quoted just
before that, not to the passage C. requotes here.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | In the affairs of this world men are saved,
m...@vex.net | not by faith, but by the want of it. --Franklin
Peter Duncanson
<jona...@jonathanmortonbutignorethisbit.co.uk> wrote:
>Peter Duncanson wrote:
>> On Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:55:11 +0000, Jonathan Morton
>> <jona...@jonathanmortonbutignorethisbit.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> Peter Duncanson wrote:
>>>
>> Not me. Someone else wrote:
>>
>> <snipt>
>
>Peter
>
>Sorry if you felt that the <nothing> I attributed to you was insulting,
>libellous or whatever. I should have attributed the quotation of
><nothing> to the right author :-)
I'm not in the least offended. I was just pointing out that the
quoted sentences were misattributed to me. The right person is fully
entitled to any praise or blame.
>Sometimes I think it's easier to put something on the end of the thread,
>even if not, strictly speaking, replying to the previous poster.
>
>Regards
>
>Jonathan
--
Robin Bignall
I'm so used to seeing attribution lines at the tops of posts that, if
someone properly introduces a completely new concept into a current
thread and posts without attribution, I get momentarily annoyed
because it either looks like a top-post or like a GG nitwit who
doesn't understand attribution. Sad, but true.
--
Robin
Herts, England
CDB
> C.D.B.:
>>>> I do believe that that is what the Sage of Hogtown intended to
>>>> imply.
>> [...]
>
> Mark Brader:
>>> How.... quaint.
>
> C.D.B.:
>> Do I detect a note of asperity here?
>
> Yes, a faint one, but it was in response to what *I* had quoted just
> before that, not to the passage C. requotes here.
Oh. That's all right then.
Bob Cunningham
[in alt.usage.english]
[...]
[about the pronunciation of "imph'm"]
> Somebody could inquire in soc.culture.scottish. Maybe
> someone there would make a sound file even.
> Okay, I'll inquire there.
> Or should I say "Imph'm, I'll inquire there"?
As promised, I inquired in soc.culture.scottish. There have
been some replies. No sound files yet, but helpful
comments.
Of particular interest is a link, courtesy Jane Margaret
Laight, to a charming poem at
http://www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_imphm.htm
I'm crossposting this to soc.culture.scottish to thank
everyone who has responded, or will yet respond, to my plea.
Adam Whyte-Settlar
"Bob Cunningham" <exw...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:rkomn21fbautmm2ir...@4ax.com...
Wow!
Someone actually said 'thank you'.
The word crops up in this poem too.
THE SHORT CUT
IS'T me, ye're seekin'? O, ye're on the hike?
An makkin' for Auldadam? Was ye, tho?
An they haed telt ye it was fairly warth the while
To tak a peth, a short cut, like,
That lands ye at the toon an saves a guid three mile?
An that the shepherd-ay, that's me!-
Wad pit ye on it gin ye speirt at him?
Imph'm!
Wha telt ye that? O, ay, the merchant,
The mannie at the shoppie doon the road?
(Gin I haed but his craig in thae twa haun's
I'd rax it for him weel!
The hunker-slidin' bleck!
The coorse ill-deedie chiel!
He's ne'er forgi'en me ower that bogie-rowe
I haunit back till him a twalmont syne
Stinkin' o ile, an wi a bittie twine
Fair i' the he'rt o't-the wee clarty swick!
But, fegs, there's ane can conter's ilka trick
An that ane's me!
Weel dis he ken it, sae he tried to lowse
A' thae bare-leggit limmers on the hills
To gar my yowes
Play helty-skelty ; but wi a' his wile
I'll live to see him yet whaur he should be,
An that's the jile!)
http://www.scotstext.org/makars/david_rorie/poems.asp
Not sure if that is the slightest use to you mind.
A W-S
The Highlander
I don't recognize the spelling, but I think it may be the Uh-hu hmhm
sound made through the closed mouth in Scotland to indicate agreement,
- although I don't think it's unique to Scots.
The Highlander
Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.