"yeah"

[Wilson Gray]

Oh, yeah. I get it, now. Yea, Jon!

-Wilson

On 10/18/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "yeah"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sorry, Wilson. It was Mark's note that "yea" / je / is used in the U.S. Congress that I didn't get.
>
>   Maybe it's worth restating that one OE syn. of "yes" was / jE /.  This has survived as / je / in parliamentary language and archaic biblical language. One would expect that modern {yeah}, {yeh}, and {yea} (all pronounced much as in OE and in use throughout the anglophone world) is likewise a direct survival of the same OE word. OED, however, does not show any modern exx. (other than the formal/frozen kind) until 1905. (_Yeah_: 1905 U.S.; _yeh_: 1920: U.K.).
>
>   So what's the history of colloquial "yeah"?
>
>   JL
>
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "yeah"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My post should have read:
>
> > "Nay(, Jim)" WAS USED 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.
>
> -Wilson
>
>
> On 10/17/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: "yeah"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Err...
> >
> > I don't get it.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > Mark Mandel wrote:
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> > Poster: Mark Mandel
> > Subject: Re: "yeah"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Parliamentary procedure. OED under "yea, adv. (n.)":
> > 2. An affirmative vote; a person who votes in the affirmative: usually
> > pl., opposed to nays (or noes).
> > Still in use in the U.S. Congress. Cf. AYE.
> >
> > m a m
> >
> > On 10/17/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > >
> > > 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.
> > >
> >
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--
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.
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                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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