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

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

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Anonymous 0 Comments

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.  

Anonymous 0 Comments

I’m more curious as to how HAAAAANNNN!? came to mean, sorry, what, excuse me, I didn’t hear you , and how it got to be so common
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