Yah!

[Joseph Salmons]

A German-sounding [ja:] is a common affirmative in the Upper Midwest.
It's part of wellworn stereotypes like "Yah, you betcha", "Yah hey
(dere)!", etc., but also widely used in daily speech, if far from
universal.

Joe


On Oct 22, 2008, at 8:25 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Re: Already use < Spanish ya?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It sounds totally natural to me as well, though my non reflective
> intuition connects it with Yiddish (and dialects of American English
> that are influenced by German?)
> .
> ------Original Message------
> From: Wilson Gray
> Sender:
> To: ADS-L
> ReplyTo: ADS-L
> Sent: Oct 21, 2008 10:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Already use < Spanish ya?
>
> It sounds okay to me, but I've heard Carlos Smoov, the world's
> greatest Latin soul-singer, say it so often that, if it ever struck me
> as odd, I'm now accustomed to its face.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 10:20 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com
> > wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>> Subject:      Already use < Spanish ya?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Honduran-Mexican Ned Mencia (aka Carlos Mencia), raised in Los
>> Angeles, has a rerun of "Mind of Mencia" tonight "Performance
>> Enhanced". The advertisement is (or something close to):
>>
>> "I want to make fun of handicapped people...You already can. Our
>> president's retarded."
>>
>> This "already" sounds odd to me. If it's not common use, it occurred
>> to me that maybe it's from Spanish "ya". BB
>>
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>> 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.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
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> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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