How did uhn-uh come to mean “no” and uh-huh come to mean “yes” in English?

Question

Pretty much the title. Also curious if other languages have similar non-word sounds for negation/affirmation.

In: Other

Answer 1

I feel like if the words were just the noise of a couple beeps, a lower tone followed by a higher tone is generally happy. A tone followed by a lower tone feels negative. If you imagined the uh huhs as beeps you could tell what one feels happy and what one feels down.