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I frequently hear 「あれ？」 when people find something that catches their attention, often even when a listening party is not present. It seems to have a similar function to "what?", "what's that?", or "huh?".

Since あれ isn't a "question word" itself, was this あれ contracted from a longer sentence? The closest I could think of is 「あれはなんだ？」, but I'm unsure. If it isn't from a longer sentence, is there an explanation behind あれ as a question?

I am also interested in if it was historically contracted from something.

senshin
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jlptnone
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    What is "what?!?!" contracted from in English? Why do you think using "that?!?!" makes any less sense than "what?!?!"? Both seem to make zero logical sense; they are simply idiomatic expressions. – ithisa Dec 04 '13 at 21:07
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    I don't think I ever think of 「あれはなんだ？」 when I say あれ；in fact, あれ rarely, if ever, even means "What is that?". –  Dec 05 '13 at 00:20
  • Unlike what you seem to think, we say あれ or あら to ourselves much more often than to others. –  Dec 05 '13 at 02:04
  • Am I wrong in thinking that this あれ is *not* the same word as in これ・それ・あれ? I could be crazy, but it seems like the former is あれ【LH】 and the latter is あれ【HL】. – rintaun Dec 05 '13 at 06:14
  • @rintaun The pitch is certainly different (due to it being a question, albeit rhetorical). Whether it's "a different word" is more of a philosophical question I think. It definitely has a different meaning. – Darius Jahandarie Dec 05 '13 at 06:26
  • @rintaun I pronounce both as aré. – ithisa Dec 05 '13 at 11:56
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    「あら」とか関係あるんですか？ – nkjt Dec 05 '13 at 12:51
  • @rintaun In fact the pronoun is accentless, i.e. あれ【LH】, at least in the standard language. Perhaps you're thinking of the Kyoto accent, where it is indeed あれ【HL】. – Zhen Lin Dec 05 '13 at 19:01
  • Aside: how did you type the pitch accent? – ithisa Dec 05 '13 at 19:52
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    @user54609 http://meta.japanese.stackexchange.com/a/982/1478 –  Dec 06 '13 at 02:15
  • ありがとうございました!!!! – ithisa Dec 06 '13 at 02:55
  • @nkjt http://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%82%E3%82%8C?dic=daijisen&oid=00595300 –  Dec 06 '13 at 22:37

1 Answers1

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I think it's less a question than it is a way to show surprise or confusion. Also I don't think it's contracted from anything, this dictionary defines it as a [感動詞]{かんどうし} or interjection which would hint that it's not a contraction of a larger sentence.

ishikun
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