Hunh-unh! (was: Origin of "oops")

[Wilson Gray]

When I was a little kid in St. Louis in the 'Forties, hunh-unh :
unh-unh = white speech : black speech. White kids even reproduced the
meaningless-to-children "aye-aye, sir" from war movies as "high-eye,
sir." Of course, the "high-eye" could have been due to a reanalysis
attempting to make something at least partially meaningful out of the
otherwise totally meaningless.

FWIW, in St. Louis, "unh-unh" can also be used to mean something like
"Don't ask!"

A. How things been goin' wit' you, man?  B. Unh-unh!

-Wilson Gray

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Hunh-unh! (was: Origin of "oops")
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Perhaps by disambiguating these semiarticulate yet meaningful grunts
>we are approaching the "Big Bang" of language itself.
>
>(Not *entirely* in jest this time.)
>
>JL
>
>Victoria Neufeldt <vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Victoria Neufeldt
>Subject: Hunh-unh! (was: Origin of "oops")
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>'Hunh-unh' is totally familiar to me. I'm sure that I have always
>used (and heard) that as often as 'uh-uh' or 'unh-unh' or 'mm-mm'
>(can't think of any other way to write the last one; it too has a
>pronounced glottal stop between the syllables).
>
>Victoria
>
>Victoria Neufeldt
>727 9th Street East
>Saskatoon, Sask.
>S7H 0M6
>Canada
>Tel: 306-955-8910
>
>
>On Tuesday, March 15, 2005 9:59 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>  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
>>
>
>---
>Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
>Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
>Version: 6.0.659 / Virus Database: 423 - Release Date: 4/15/04
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>http://mail.yahoo.com