Yee-ha(w) / "Rebel yell"

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Isn't this what Slim Pickens said as he rode the A-bomb in Dr.
Strangelove?


>
> It's the 21st C., so why be surprised, as I was, at the
> appearance of exclamatory "Yee-ha!" in Australia:
> http://walkabout.com.au/tales/Travellerstales00043.shtml . Also:
>
>   2001 Matthew Reilly _Area 7_ (Rpt. N.Y.: St. Martin's,
> 2002) 175: Beside her, Elvis was yelling, "Yee-ha!" as he
> rained hell on the 7th Squadron men with the minigun.
>
>   "Yee-ha!" / ji:::: ' ha:::: / is frequently known as "the
> rebel yell," but 19th C. descriptions of that yell (or those
> yells), analyzed by Allen Walker Read in _AS_ long ago show
> that its dominant effect was not "Yee-ha!"
>
>   I grew up in a bluebelly ethos where "whoopee" and "yahoo"
> and "wahoo" were familiar from movie westerns and the phrase
> "rebel yell" was used only in history books.
>
>   I first became conscious of "Yee-ha !" in 1974 or ' 75.
> Since then it has been yelled everywhere. But when did this
> popularity begin.  There's a "famous 'Yeehaw!' scene," it sez
> here, in _Red River_ (1948), but I can't recall whether the
> yell (prefaced by 'Take 'em to Missouri, Matt!") sounded like
> "Yeehaw!" or something else.
>
>   A West Indian "yee ha" from 1877 is readily findable
> through Google Books,  but it seems like nonsense syllables
> rather than any kind of yell.
>
>   Phonetically it's related to "hee-haw," but there all
> similarity ends.
>
>   Thoughts?  Early cites ?  Any connection to Yeehaw
> Junction, Florida?  (Under "yeehaw," OED's earliest is 1977,
> despite appearances.)
>
>   JL
>
>
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