How, when, and why did sounds like uh-uh/mm-mm, and uh-huh/mmhm, come to mean yes and no?

by aspark32

They seem to just be simplistic sounds that don't relate to any particular words.

Searocksandtrees

FYI, questions about "filler" words (in English and other languages) are very common in /r/Linguistics; a search there for 'filler' or any of the typical words like 'um' should turn up several posts