[Ads-l] Antedating of "Yeah"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I agree, but I think it's also been influenced by a tendency for the
"s" to fade away in pronunciations like "ye-es" that prolong the
vowel.

Cf. stereotypical Maine "ay-yeh."

Are there early printed exx. of "yea" as a routine affirmative?

JL

On Sat, Oct 17, 2026 at 8:05 AM Stephen Goranson
<00001dd3d6fc15d3-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> 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
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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