What's the matter with ja?

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When I first met the man who'd later become my husband, I thought he had a tic or some little quirk with his speech. Of course by us just talking online and then Skype, I never caught on until I met him in person. That's when I thought he had a speech abnormality, tic, or something, but I didn't want to bring it up for fear of hurting his feelings. Anytime I'd say something, he'd inhale "yeah" in agreement with me. As it turns out, he just has a case of Norwegian-itis.

The next time we met, he did this less, so I assumed he was just less nervous this time. I didn't notice it again until after I moved to Norway and it returned. Except this time every Norwegian did it!

This is actually an ingressive sound Scandinavians make in which they inhale when they say "ja" sometimes. In some way it sounds as if they are startled or scared and gasp when saying "ja."

Here is a Youtube video I found where you can listen to the ingressive "ja" sound.

Kind of interesting to hear, right?

It's little quirks like this Norwegians don't even think about being confusing or different to foreigners. Just like for me and many other native English speakers the rolling of the R is absolutely impossible.

Wikipedia has a sound clip of the Norwegian ingressive "ja" sound as well.

I've been trying my own take on the ingressive "ja" except my husband has asked me to please stop. That is hubs code language for, "You're not doing it right, Please don't worry about making that sound ever again. People will wonder about you."

So next time you talk to a Norwegian, listen carefully as they answer with an inhaled "ja."

Comments

Anonymous said…
My mother either started doing this more recently or I just for some reason only noticed it a few months ago.
Interesting wiki-read, had no idea it was a national filler sound, and I've lived here all my life.
February 1, 2015 at 4:21 PM
richard.ashton said…
Have you seen Hja.no?
Name is based solely on that noise/ word!
February 3, 2015 at 2:08 PM
Anonymous said…
They do this on the east coast of Canada too. I think it is the cold climate.
February 3, 2015 at 6:04 PM
Anonymous said…
Here's a tip on the R sound: the R is so subtle that you can get away with it if you just put your front tip of your tounge up against the flesh just above the backside of your front teeth, and a tiny bit to the side of the middle.

The americans have a 'pirate' R, pronounced in the middle of the mouth, but on the westcoast of Norway they'll pronounce the R in the very back of their mouth, as their norwegian dialect, almost like a gargling sound.

But the most used formal norwegian has the R in the front of the mouth like I explained at first.

The whole "hja" thing is more of a personality trait I think, you don't have to do that.
February 4, 2015 at 5:49 PM
Elissa said…
I am so happy to read this post! I was thinking the same thing about my Norwegian "pen pal", that perhaps he had some type of speech abnormality. Thank you for clearing it up. :-)
October 6, 2015 at 4:24 AM
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