Entry · catalog no. 9766
mmhm
/ — /pending
interjection · South / national · 2026
✓ Verified
1.
Yes — agreement, confirmation, or "I hear you," hummed rather than spoken. The tone does the work: it can affirm, doubt, console, or warn without opening the mouth.
“You said you'd be home by ten? Mmhm.”
Origin & Attribution
A back-channel of Black American conversation with a proposed lineage in West African speech patterns, carried through the South by enslaved Africans and their descendants. Yale scholar Robert Farris Thompson argued that English speakers learned it from Black Southerners. Linguists still debate the path; its home in Black Southern talk is not in question.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
South / national · 2026
Spoken by
South / national
$MMHMThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Rising0 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
12/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2026
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
NPR Code Switch, "Ready for a Linguistic Controversy? Say Mmhmm" — radio and article · 2018
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceRobert Farris Thompson, documentary remarks on African retentions — film · 2008
submitted
See also