In Ireland you’ll find that some folks have an odd habit of gasping in mid-conversation. A Texan who lived in Dublin for years says he found this speech trait disconcerting. The hosts explain that this “pulmonic ingressive” is heard other places around the world. More about ingressives here, including examples in audio clips from Sweden and Scotland. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Pulmonic Ingressive”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Jonathan from Austin.
Hi, Jonathan, how are you doing?
I’m good, thanks.
What’s on your mind?
Well, I’ve listened to your show a total of one time, and I thought, Aha, this is a solution to finally get an answer to this question. So I hope you can help.
So about eight years ago, I lived in Dublin, Ireland, and experienced a linguistic idiosyncrasy that’s puzzled my wife and I to this day. When we first arrived there, I had a leasing agent in Dublin showing me some office space, and quickly became aware that at the end of every other sentence or so, he would audibly inhale, like this. And it was a little disconcerting. And, you know, at first I was kind of filled with compassion for the poor man, and I thought he had his apparent medical condition. And, of course, you know, I didn’t reference it with him. And my wife and I had subsequently heard this with other people, including my executive assistant, who had the same sort of quirk. And, you know, at first we’re concerned about this great Irish respiratory illness that apparently no one had heard of. But I finally came to realize it was probably more cultural than medical.
So have you guys heard of this peculiarity?
Yes.
Yes.
Oh, Jonathan, this is so great because linguists are talking about it. It’s called the pulmonic ingressive.
The pulmonic ingressive.
Yeah, isn’t that great? I like that.
Yeah, and the pulmonic is related to pulmonary. It has to do with the lungs and aggressive drawing air in like that. And it’s not just in Ireland. I mean, you’re right to detect it there in Ireland, but it’s not just there. It’s on just about every continent. You hear it a lot in Scandinavian languages, for example.
Interesting.
It’s an element of speech that does have meaning, doesn’t it, Grant?
Yeah, it can. And it varies from country to country and language to language. One of the reasons that we know that it has meaning, there was a really interesting study done of Swedish speakers who use a similar kind of ingressive. And what this linguist did was to divide people into two groups, and they were trying to make travel reservations on the phone. And some of them were talking to actual travel agents, and some of them were talking to what they thought was a computer on the phone. The people who were talking to actual people and knew they were talking to actual people used that aggressive during the conversation. But people who were talking to the computers did not.
Wow.
And so clearly it seems that it has a certain kind of meaning, either giving feedback or expressing like that.
Yeah, that was my joke.
Oh, yeah.
Right, right.
Or expressing solidarity or affirming what the other person is saying? Did you hear it in those kinds of situations, Jonathan?
Well, you know, the one I distinctly remember was the leasing agent who was attempting to sell us property or sell us at least a lease. And I suppose that what you’re saying matches with sort of a sales context, like, you know, you agree with me right or I’m in with you, something like that.
That’s exactly right. That would make perfect sense. He’s confirming for you with this cultural sound that what he’s saying is good and positive and it’s something that you should agree with.
Right, but actually he was freaking you out.
Right, we didn’t know how long he had on this earth. You know, we’re not sure if we’re going to get our lease with him or not.
That’s great. That’s fantastic. You solved the riddle. My wife will be pleased to hear this. It’s just been puzzling us for so long. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for calling.
All right.
Okay, thanks guys.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Let’s say those words again so people can do a little Googling and find out more about it. It’s, what is it again? It’s pulmonic ingressives, right?
Pulmonic ingressives.
P-U-L-M-O-N-I-C-I-N-G-R-E-S-S-I-V.
Right. And you know what we could do is put some links on the website.
I am the link master.
Yes, we will do that.
You are.
You are link man. Just in case you haven’t gotten enough of the pulmonic ingressive and you want to hear more, go to our website, thiswaywardradio.org.
And you can always call us. The number’s 1-877-929-9673 or email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.
