"Yo"

[Gerald Cohen]

At 7:16 PM -0400 9/19/01, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>
>A student of mine said that his German professor insists that "yo" is a
>shortening of German "jawohl"--and he gave a long explanation of why which
>I can't remember.  I can't buy this at all, but has anyone else heard
>it???  Could it have been "PA dutchified"?

      Germans do not use "jawohl" as a vocative, and they do not
shorten "jawohl" to "yo." The suggestion of the German professor
seems implausible.

---Gerald Cohen