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She seems to use it as if it's a conversation filler, and I never really understood what it meant.

When I asked what she means by that, she says it's like "something between us". I just nodded and said "Ohhh" but I didn't really understand.

She doesn't use it in chats or text, but I just notice that she says it out of habit during conversations. What does it mean?

Zaenille
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  • Can you provide an example? – eltonjohn Jul 06 '15 at 04:11
  • @eltonjohn I don't remember the sentences exactly, but I noticed that she used them similarly as conversation fillers like ええと, あの, or when connecting two sentences like そうして. She's from Hiroshima, if that helps. Maybe it's a dialect thing? – Zaenille Jul 06 '15 at 04:15
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    Do you mean なんか rather than なか that would make better sense in context and as a conversation filler? – virmaior Jul 06 '15 at 04:41
  • I looked up http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/srch/dialect/%E5%BA%83%E5%B3%B6/, https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BA%83%E5%B3%B6%E5%BC%81, http://ww41.tiki.ne.jp/~naosaku/hiro/a.html and http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2138823000034277601 without luck. Maybe it is her own idiosyncratic usage, but of course I am not sure at all. – eltonjohn Jul 06 '15 at 04:41
  • @virmaior - I am open to the possibility that I might have misheard her and it might be なんか, can you put it up as an answer including as how it could be used in daily conversations? If there is no other answer, I'd say it's very probable that I really have misheard her and will accept your answer. – Zaenille Jul 06 '15 at 04:42
  • Can you remember any sentences where she uses it? – virmaior Jul 06 '15 at 04:50
  • @virmaior - No, I'm sorry. It was about a month ago and I only thought of putting this question up this morning. – Zaenille Jul 06 '15 at 05:10
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    I think @virmaior is right, because なんか literally means "something"! – Chocolate Jul 06 '15 at 08:47

1 Answers1

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As @virmaior suggested in the comment, it's likely that you've misheard なんか(何か), which is an informal contraction of なにか or なんだか.

Basically なんか can be used in the same way as なにか, but なんか very often precedes an adjective/adverb to add a 'somewhat' or 'kinda' nuance:

  • なんか食べるもの = なにか食べるもの something to eat
  • なんか変 = なにか変 kinda odd

Sometimes it's used on its own as an equivalent of なんだか, meaning "not sure but ...", "dunno why but ..." or "somehow":

  • なんか、あの2人って仲いいよね。 Somehow they're geting along well, aren't they?
  • なんか、急に怒り出した。 Dunno why but (he) suddenly fell into a rage.

なんか as a truly meaningless filler (i.e. as an equivalent of "er..." or "well...") is not very common, but it's mainly used by some people, especially by younger females. Some people do have a habit of saying this very often, but many people frown upon such usage.

  • ってゆっか~、なんか~、超ダサいってゆっか~ (I don't know how to translate this...)

Finally, as for "something between us", maybe your friend was trying to describe the definition of 仲【なか】 (personal relationship / term), which is not relevant.

naruto
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