Query: Origin of "oops"

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:33 AM -0500 3/15/05, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>We said both "hunh-uh" and "unh-uh" in Minnesota too--more or less
>interchangeably, though I think (from age-old memory) I said the former
>more often.  Jonathan's "unh-unh" would work for me too.  "Uh-uh" wouldn't
>be a negative at all for me.

One problem here, I think, is in the inadequacy of the transcription
system; our orthography is not really geared up for representing
lexical tone/stress, nasal vowels, and glottal stops, all of which
are involved in distinguishing the affirmative "uh-HUH" from the
negative "UHN-unh" (transcriptions somewhat arbitrary, as noted).

L

>
>At 11:09 AM 3/15/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>>You didn't have to go so far; you could have heard us guys around
>>Louisville doing the same "hunh-uh." I have no idea if there is any
>>subtle (distributional) difference between the two, but I have both.
>>If I were not a sociolinguist and deplored introspection on use with
>>every fiber of my being (except for folk linguistic analysis), I
>>might opine that the "h"-full form is more deliberate or emphatic,
>>but I won't go there.
>>
>>dInIs
>>
>>>Looks to me that in fuller context,the Atlantic's "uh-uh!" actually
>>>means "uh-oh!"
>>>
>>>Did I mention once before that when I moved to Tennessee I heard
>>>people saying "hunh-unh!" (No!) with quite audible aspiration where
>>>I was familiar only with "unh-unh!"
>>>
>>>Could this be a survival from Middle English ?  You know, like "hit" ?
>>>
>>>Couldn't resist.  But the reported form is genuine.
>>>
>>>JL
>>
>>--
>>Dennis R. Preston
>>University Distinguished Professor
>>Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>>        Asian and African Languages
>>Wells Hall A-740
>>Michigan State University
>>East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
>>Office: (517) 353-0740
>>Fax: (517) 432-2736