[Ads-l] Antedating of "Yeah"

[Stephen Goranson]

Though I haven't researched this, I would guess yeah developed from yea, as
in yea and nay, and yea verily, so the change in pronunciation and spelling
may not have a clear dividing line, as noted above.

On Sat, Oct 17, 2026 at 7:36 AM Jonathan Lighter <
00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> But Fred may be vindicated by this:
>
> 1858 _Evening Post_ (N.Y.C,) (Jun. 18) 2 [G]: "Gosh, sakes alive!
> Whar's der polisse? Yeah, yeah, yeah!" And where were the police?
>
> I imagine "polisse" represents / 'po lIs /.
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Oct 17, 2026 at 7:27 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I can't argue with the spelling, but there's a complication.
> >
> > "Yeh! Yeh! [sic]" appears frequently in mid-nineteenth-century
> > representations of AAVE, but after a while I realized it wasn't "Yeah!
> > Yeah!"
> >
> > It was "Heh! Heh!"
> >
> > Ex.:
> >
> > 1850 Daily Picayune (N.O.) (Feb. 14) 1 [G] : Ringing loud above the
> > din came a regular "_yeah, yeah, yeah whooah!_ from the darkest of the
> > colored party in the box.  It was...the clearest, deepest, loudest,
> > heartiest laugh perhaps ever heard.
> >
> > Not to say Fred's ex. isn't legit, but what we really need is an ex.
> > where "Yeah!" or "Yeh!" or "Yea!" or even "Yah!" is clearly an
> > affirmative reply.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 16, 2026 at 9:06 PM Shapiro, Fred
> > <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > yeah (OED 1863)
> > >
> > > 1862 Weekly Vincennes (Indiana) Sun 29 Nov. 2/3 (Newspapers.com)
> > >
> > > An old darkey acting as cook in this company ... shakes his wooly head
> ominously when the big guns thunder and says. ... ["] Stonewall has a smart
> chance ob men ober der — whar will dis ole niggur be found den ? ... dats
> Sartin.  Yeah1 Yeah !"
> > >
> > > Fred Shapiro
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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