rebel yell and yeehaw

[Dan Goncharoff]

He never said it was identified as a "rebel yell" before the Civil War.
DanG


On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 10:40 AM, <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Re: rebel yell and yeehaw
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>
> His "authority" is that he grew up in South Carolina. How can we argue
> with that? Maybe he even read an explication of the topic in one of those
> little pamphlets on "Hah tuh Tawk Souf Kuhlinyun" that Yankees can buy in
> the multitude of tee-shirt stores in Myrtle Beach during beer-drinking
> season.
>
> Odd, though, that there was something identified as a "Rebel Yell"
> "before" the War Between the States. Maybe they yelled it at the Redcoats?
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Jan 21, 2012, at 12:41 AM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA> wrote:
>
> > I got the following comment today on my blog post on "yeehaw"
> > (http://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/yeehaw/):
> >
> > ----
> > Wrong. The reason "Yeehaw" exists in association to the West is
> > because so many Southerners ended up there after the Civil War
> > because their homeland had been sacked and burned and was under
> > Federal (Yankee) occupation - home itself was not friendly territory.
> > They probably did yell it on cattle drives; whether early Hollywood
> > actors and writers from New York, Chicago and maybe Alberta were
> > familiar with it is irrelevant.
> >
> > "Yeehah!" is the Southernism that was identified as the "Rebel Yell"
> > which was in use since before the Civil War and was heard during the
> > Civil War... usually delivered at the top of one's lungs. Just
> > because you haven't observed its history doesn't mean that such
> > history doesn't exist. I grew up in rural South Carolina and this
> > goes back a long, long way, for generations.
> > ----
> >
> > Needless to say, I think he is a little oversure of his version,
> > although it is in its way an interesting contribution to the
> > question. I would be glad of comment (by email or at
> > http://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/yeehaw/) by any with
> > pertinent knowledge -- someone a little "closer" to it might speak
> > more authoritatively than I could.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > James Harbeck.
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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