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meeotch

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4 Jun 2014
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When I was in Japan as a teenager (back when I could pretend my Japanese was any good), I remember an expression my American friends and I would say all the time, based on hearing it said around us. Basically, it was a sound conveying surprise, or quizzical confusion. The type of thing you'd expect to hear a dog in a cartoon say with his head cocked to one side. Equivalent to "nani?" perhaps.

Anyway, I've been having a heck of a time trying to google it, since the word was "ah-re?" or "oh-re?"... Too short to google effectively.

Can anyone help? And while we're on the topic, is there a name for such words? My jiichan used to say something like "oh-shyo!" when he dragged himself out of a chair to a standing position. Would these be called giseigo/gitaigo/gijoogo?
 
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