<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 19 October 2009 - Volume 07<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands@lowlands-l.net">lowlands@lowlands-l.net</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Subject: Etymology<br><br>Sandy,<br><br>You wrote:<br><br></span><div style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I remember reading on this very list that "yes" in English is from the<br>
Welsh "oes".<br><br>
Could it even be that "yeah" and "yes" have different etymologies, from<br>
"ja" and "oes"?<br><br>
For the Anglo-Saxon dialects of Britain I guess there's an interesting<br>
study in the words for "yes":<br><br>
"yes"<br>
"yeah"<br>
"ay" (Scotland and north of England)<br>
"ah" (south west of England).<br><br>
Is the use of "yah" in British English an affectation?<br></div>
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>This is what the </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Oxford English Dictionary</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> says:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><div style="margin-left: 40px;">
<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CRon%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Edit-Time-Data" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CRon%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_editdata.mso"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">[An
affirmative word confined to English: OE. </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ése</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">, </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">íse</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">, </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ýse</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">, the forms of which point to early WS. <i>*</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">íese</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">:—<i>*</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">éas<img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Ron/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="{imac}" align="absbottom" border="0" height="15" width="4"></span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">, prob. f. </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">éa</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> YEA + <i>sí</i> 3 sing.
pres. subj. of <i>bēon</i>
to be; a similar formation is seen in <i>nese</i> (Northumb. <i>næse</i>, <i>næsi</i>),
prob. f. <i>ne</i> <a href="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." target="_top"></a>NE <i>adv.</i>
+ <i>s<img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Ron/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="{imac}" align="absbottom" border="0" height="15" width="4"></i> (as
above). <a name="50289421n1"></a></span></div><style>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.9134in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>The acceptance of this derivation necessitates the
assumption that </span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">ése</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> was orig. applicable as an
answer to a particular class of question, which is intrinsically not
improbable. The suggested derivation from <i>*</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">ƽ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">éa swā</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> ‘yea, so’ is phonologically inadequate. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.9134in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>The pronunciation (j</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">ɪ</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">s), still widespread in dialects, was
formerly current in polite speech and is recorded as such in Walker's <i>Pronouncing Dict.</i>]</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">The mentioned verb variant, whose root appears to be <i>sii</i>-, survives among the Continental Lowlands languages as well as in Luxembourgian, German and Yiddish; e.g. Low Saxon <i>sien</i>, Dutch <i>zijn</i>, German <i>sein</i> 'to be'.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Seattle, USA<br>
</span></p>
<br><br>
<p>
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