"a warning singsong"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I mean that universally recognized singsong suprasegmental that people use
to suggest that you'd better stop what you're doing instantly. It can also
be used with "I told you so!" for extra obnoxiousness.  That would be a
"triumphant singsong"; GB gives a 1906 hit - out of only nine exx. - but
that one seems insufficiently sarcastic  (if that's the right word.)

A "warning singsong (tone)" is about the best way I can describe the
principal phenomenon.  GB's earliest relevant hit (and there are very few)
is from 1951, pretty recently from Hengest's standpoint.

My mother used to use it on occasion, but I can't recall if she started in
my earliest childhood or later.  My feeling is that it was later, when
everybody was using it, including me. But I can't picture my grandparents
using it.

Questions:

1. Is this feature common in other languages?

2. What's the earliest evidence for its existence in English?  Did young
Will Shakespeare employ it?  (For that matter, did he go, "Nyah nyah nyah
nyaah nyah"? I fear that history is mute on that question.)

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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