rebel yell and yeehaw

[Ron butters]

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

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