LL-L "Etymology" 2009.10.19 (07) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 19 October 2009 - Volume 07
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
 Subject: Etymology

Sandy,

You wrote:

I remember reading on this very list that "yes" in English is from the
Welsh "oes".

Could it even be that "yeah" and "yes" have different etymologies, from
"ja" and "oes"?

For the Anglo-Saxon dialects of Britain I guess there's an interesting
study in the words for "yes":

"yes"
"yeah"
"ay" (Scotland and north of England)
"ah" (south west of England).

Is the use of "yah" in British English an affectation?

This is what the *Oxford English Dictionary* says:

[An affirmative word confined to English: OE. *ƽ**ése*, *ƽ**íse*, *ƽ**ýse*,
the forms of which point to early WS. ****ƽ**íese*:—****ƽ**éas[image:
{imac}]*, prob. f. *ƽ**éa* YEA + *sí* 3 sing. pres. subj. of *bēon* to be; a
similar formation is seen in *nese* (Northumb. *næse*, *næsi*), prob. f. *ne
*
<http://dictionary.oed.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=yes&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=mIT6-7NQud6-17267&result_place=2&xrefword=ne&ps=adv.>NE
*adv.* + *s[image: {imac}]* (as above).


The acceptance of this derivation necessitates the assumption that
*ƽ**ése*was orig. applicable as an answer to a particular class of
question, which
is intrinsically not improbable. The suggested derivation from ****ƽ**éa swā
* ‘yea, so’ is phonologically inadequate.


The pronunciation (jɪs), still widespread in dialects, was formerly current
in polite speech and is recorded as such in Walker's *Pronouncing Dict.*]



The mentioned verb variant, whose root appears to be *sii*-, survives among
the Continental Lowlands languages as well as in Luxembourgian, German and
Yiddish; e.g. Low Saxon *sien*, Dutch *zijn*, German *sein* 'to be'.


Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

Seattle, USA

•

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