Huh?

If you had asked me what word or phase is universally understood, I wouldn’t have guessed “huh?” would be it. It’s not a word I ever use. Maybe that’s why I’m so misunderstood. From Karen Hopkin at Scientific American:

“So they eavesdropped on nearly 200 conversations in 10 different tongues, from Italian to Icelandic. And they found that, in language after language, a word that sounds a lot like ‘huh?’ gets the job done. For example, [international huhs]. It’s short and sweet so it’s likely to stop the speaker before the listener gets too lost. And it sounds like a question [more international huhs], so it warrants a response. 

The sound appears not to be innate. Babies don’t use it before they say mama. But most five-year-olds are masters of ‘huh?’ No matter where they come from.”