1. It is a very humble way of saying thank you. In Japanese you would say: お世話になりまして。 2. Again, a humble way of correcting someone, without appearing rude or arrogant in any way.

In the examples you noted above, the "Why" is used as an expression to give the statement emphasis . "Why" can be replaced with something similar to "wow" in those examples. Why, thank you! = Wow! Thank you! Why, yes. Didn't you know I was his cousin? In this case, "Why, yes" is more like "Yes, of course" (The "why" is said in front to give the sentence emphasis.) Why, no. I didn't know you were his cousin. Wow. No. I didn't know you were his cousin.

Wow what a good question lol. so hard to answer, I think Eliot has just about covered it as well as it can be.

It does not mean "why" < as in questioning "why". It means 맙소사! < 여자는 부드럽게 말할 지도 몰라요. People in the USA stopped saying this many many decades ago. It's from the movies - and a time period (1930-1950) I'd guess. If you watch old movies (30's - 50's) movies with big name female movie stars (Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Judy Garland) you'll see women saying this a lot > to men. It was a very feminizing (lady-like) expression of surprise or mild shock after a compliment or a question. However being as old fashioned as it is, people don't say this phrase anymore - rent a few Greta Garbo movies and you'll see what I mean. (Betty Davis or Mae West). "Why, thank you!" "Why, Mr. Jones, what ever did you mean?) "Why, I beg your pardon?!" < when asked a shocking question. ~~~~ It is primarily unused now because women generally want to be percieved as strong and independent (in the USA) and this phrase feminizes speech / but where it came from originally 몰라요. 좋은 질문있었어. ~~ 낸시

To express your surprise,and kind of asking yourself,