pronun. of "yahoo," n.

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/12/2007 11:17 AM, Jon L. wrote:
>The IPA symbols used by OED say "YAH-hoo." Mine say "YAY-hoo."

And a reply from an authority on 18th century poetry:

"So the bulk of the evidence suggests the accent fell on the first
syllable, at least in the popular mind.  If your question was
about something other than which syllable gets the stress -- if,
for instance, you're asking about the exact vowel sounds -- I
can't find any evidence of it from before the nineteenth century."

Joel

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