"yeah"

Wed Oct 17 17:41:51 UTC 2007

"Amen" to that! Now, why is it that the originally simpler form,
"yea," was more formal than the original compound, "yea swa"? I don't
even have a WAG, a joke, or an anecdote for that one.

-Wilson

On 10/17/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "yeah"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ECCO and EEBO overwhelmingly show "Yea" in biblical contexts, usu. meaning "yes indeed!" or "moreover" rather than as an offhand "yes."
>
>   Why this should be so is puzzling.  Can it be that modern "yeah" really is just (or mostly) a recent apocope of "yes"?
>
>   This is hard for me to believe.  "Yeah" just seems too fundamental a part of English.
>
>   JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "yeah"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Isn't "nay" a borrowing from the Danish dialect of Old Norse? "Nay(,
> Jim)" in place of "no" or "naw" in the Saint Louis of my youth, but I
> doubt that the history of its use is any more interesting than the
> history of "it matters not," always used in place of "it doesn't
> matter" or "I don't care." My WAG is that both usages stem from movies
> and stories about the days of knights.
>
> Back in an earlier day, "yay" as in "Yay, team!" was spelled "yea." I
> remember a cheer from a version of "The Gingerbread Boy":
>
> Baker:
> I'll make a gingerbread boy and surprise the children!
> [forgotten passages]
> Want banana in it?
>
> Children:
> Well, I guess!
> We want the pat-a-cake
> That we like best!
> Yea, team!
> Pat-a-cake! Pat-a-cake!
> Baker's man!
> Etc.
>
> But, even at this time, ca.WWII, there was no connection in my mind
> between biblical "yea" and cheer "yea," despite the identical spelling
> and pronunciation. OTOH, I waas inmy forties before I made the
> connection between "grass" and "graze," though I was aware of the
> connection between "glass" and "glaze." A Swedish friend of mind was
> chatting about something or other:
>
> Swedish friend: "... grassing ..."
>
> Me: "'Grassing'? What does that mean?"
>
> Swedish friend: "You know. Like 'sheep grassing in the meadow.'"
>
> The light dawned. And Hugh Masekela's "Grazing in the Grass" is one of
> my favorite tunes!
>
> -Wilson
>
>
> On 10/16/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: "yeah"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Exx. of {yea} used conversationally by Englishmen of the 17th & 18th C.:
> >
> > 1605 Jonas Poole, in Samuel Purchas _Hakluytus Posthumus_ (rpt. Glasgow: J. MacLehose & Sons, 1905) XIII 271: They demanded, as I tooke it, if all our men were wel: I told them yea, as loud as I could.
> >
> > a1625 in Samuel Purchas _Purchas his Pilgrimes in Five Books_ (London: Henrie Fetherstone, 1625) II 1067: Then they asked me whether in _Portugall, the Priests were marryed?_ I told them, no. They demanded, _whether we held the Councell of Pope_ Leo _which was made at_ Nice? I told them, _yea, and that I had alreadie declared, that the great Creed was made there_.
> >
> > 1704 William Chillingworth _Additional Discourses of Mr. Chillingworth_ 1: Probably I should answer no....but...I answer, yea.
> >
> > 1708 Francis Bugg _Goliah's Head Cut Off with His Own Sword_ (London: the author) 287: I ask'd her if she had a Book intitled, _Ishmael and his Mother cast out_, &c.? She told me Yea; saying, Wilt thou buy it? Yes [sic], said I, What wilt thou have for it? _Ibid_. 295: A Clergy Man...ask'd me if I would print it. I told him Yea.
> >
> > ca1720 Joseph Pitts in Michael Wolfe _One Thousand Roads to Mecca_ (N.Y.: Grove Press, 1997) 109 [ref. to 1685]: He looked earnestly upon me and asked me whether I was not an Englishman? I answered, "Yea." "How came you hither?" said he...."What, are you a slave?" said he. I replied, Yes [sic].
> >
> > 1726 George Roberts _The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts_ (London: A. Bettesworth and J. Osborn) 200: They...ask'd me, Whether I took as far as I could see to be the Top. I told them, Yea. _Ibid._ 204: They said, Yea, that they could.
> >
> > 1794 Thomas Holcroft _The Adventures of Hugh Trevor_ I 56: I called, with a trembling voice, "Mary! Are you alive?" And my heart bounded with joy to hear her, though dolefully, answer, "yea."
> >
> > And regarding "Yay!":
> > 1798 William Seward _Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons_ (London: T. Cadell jun. & W. Davies) I 120: The people answer Yea, yea, yea; King Edward, King Edward!
> >
> > It would be disingenuous not to observe that examples in colloquial contexts are rare. It may be, however, that spoken / jE: / was generally edited into "yes" on the erroneous assumption that it was merely a "slovenly" pronunciation of the latter. But why respelling didn't happen also to the formal "Yea" (antonym of "Nay" - early form of / nae:: /?) is
> > hard to explain.
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>  __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org