Communications Consultant
In a past life I wrote for dB Magazine here in Adelaide. I was fortunate to talk to a lot of artists I loved, liked, admired and discovered as I went.
One was a young Canadian crooner named Michael Buble. He’s back in town on tour, and been to hell and back since we spoke, but here’s a moment in time with a much younger man.
Enjoy!
A study by Mark Liberman on the use of um and uh in spoken English looks at use of these filler words – and the frequency – by gender.
We use them in the act of speaking, when we need a moment to clarify our next sentence. In (unscripted) conversation, silence is an invite for others to fill the space.
Um and uh signify we’re not finished.
Quirky note – males use uh 14% less when talking to females, who in turn increase their uhs when talking to males.
From a communications viewpoint, it looks like a subconscious case of knowing and accommodating your audience.