Wenjer Leuschel (X) Feb 9, 2008:

Unnecessary to go into details, because it is boring and/or just as meaningless as empty. So, the import of the speech can be read in "you didn't accomplish anything" and the "blah, blah, blah" is just to express the meaningless of so many "empty" words.

Wenjer Leuschel (X) Feb 9, 2008:

To explain such signs in human communication in semiotic terms, the three strikes on a small Chinese gong is a "paralinguistic sign" for "blah, blah, blah" as a paraphrase of whatever said and/or done when it is not necessary to go into details again.

Wenjer Leuschel (X) Feb 9, 2008:

忘了说明：台湾布袋戏里的那三响锣，意思完全符合 hc_ha 查到的 blah, blah, blah 解释；几乎每个在台湾出生长大的人都知道。

Wenjer Leuschel (X) Feb 9, 2008:

台湾的布袋戏里，听到敲三响锣，那就是英文 blah, blah, blah 的翻译。

lhcm Feb 9, 2008:

Blah is a token word with no meaning of its own, usually used to illustrate generic, boring speech. It may be used to fill in blank space, or to replace another word or phrase. It's for this last purpose that blah is sometimes assumed to mean something negative because it is used to replace a word that may be unpleasant, but blah itself is neutral. If spoken aloud the tone can usually be used to determine the speaker's intent.

Blah can also work as an onomatopoeic word associated with vomiting. In this case, the word is often stretched out and guttural to suggest vomiting, to express displeasure, or both.

Blah is also used within a compound noun, suggesting a psychological state or expressing an opinion; for example, February blahs describes a generally depressed condition during winter. It is also viewed as a word expressing indifference, or lack of a preference. It may also be used to imply that something is not impressive, or it is boring, bland, or without character.

Several alternatives or variants of the word can be observed today, such as bleh, blech, bla, meh or bah, although some differences may be perceived in certain contexts. Generally these variants would only be used in place of blah to show unimportance, disgust or disinterest.

lhcm Feb 9, 2008:

In English, blah is a word that is sometimes used as an expression for words or feelings where the specifics are not considered important to the speaker or writer. It is not often seen in formal writing, except when transcribing speech. It differs from a speech disfluency such as "um" or "er" in that blah is a word used deliberately to represent other words, rather than as an accidental or temporary interjection into speech. Blah is also mimed behind peoples backs to suggest that they talk too much or that they talk about useless topics for no reason.
http://www.answers.com/blah