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martha said:
Something more like “Yeaaaaaaaaah-NO!” As if you're an idiot for assuming that the answer was “Yeah” instead of “No.” Sort of like when it was all the rage to add “NOT!” at the end of a sentence.
Anyone heard it this way?
Oh, yes. In fact, I've picked it up from some of my younger friends. I'm 43, but a good number of my friends are a decade or so younger than I am. I find myself picking up on their speech patterns. Things like "I'm not SAYIN'...I'm just SAYIN'..." (ellipses added to indicate pauses, not to indicate left-out words). The "Yeah, no" one is another addition. I concur with you, Martha, that when I hear it, most of the time, it is sarcastic.
I think I even responded this way when a good friend asked if I wanted to go to a NASCAR race this-coming weekend. I said, "Yeah, no" in a very sarcastic tone. Another phrase that serves the same purpose is the über-sarcastic, "Oh, hold me back!"
I, too, have only ever heard "Ya-no" as a sarcastic expression where the speaker thinks it's an obvious "no" answer. So when your caller's wife says: "Ya-no, we are not spending $50..." it's an obvious no based on her thoughts about the dog.
The way it's said it appears the speaker is considering your question, but only for the briefest of moments, before they give you the "correct" answer of "no".
For example, if I'm a fan of the Montreal Canadians hockey team and I get asked if I'm going to buy a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey the answer is: "Ya-no". There's more of an emphasis on the "no" than the "ya".
I've heard this for about 10 years from people my own age (50ish) in Alberta.
I apologize for the overuse of quotes, but don't know how else to make the sentences read the way I'm saying them.
ablestmage said:
... perhaps I could verb it ^_^
As I listened to this and another recent episode in the podcast, with all of their meta-goodness (words for classes of words, and the like), I noticed hearing many recent examples of using nouns as verbs. I thought at the time that the right word for this phenomenon might be "verbing" the noun, and I enjoyed the "meta" of that thought.
I think we're onto something!
MattPatAtty said:
As I listened to this and another recent episode in the podcast, with all of their meta-goodness (words for classes of words, and the like), I noticed hearing many recent examples of using nouns as verbs. I thought at the time that the right word for this phenomenon might be “verbing†the noun, and I enjoyed the “meta†of that thought.
I think we're onto something!
I believe that the "academic" word for using a word as another part of speech is "anthimeria." My favorite use of it ever was from Calvin and Hobbes: "Verbing weirds language."
Grant, I'm not buying your explanation of "lurve." I do hear intrusive Rs in some accents, but they have to do with separating adjacent vowel sounds. I've never heard this intrusive R that results from an exaggerated, emphatic, or lengthened vowel from someone whose accent doesn't already include intrusive rhotics.
Frankly, the only way "lurve" makes sense to me is from the perspective of someone with a nonrhotic accent. I can see a British person imitating Barry White and coming up with the spelling "lurve" to match it. So it doesn't have anything to do with an actual R sound.
AnMa said:
†I do hear intrusive Rs in some accents, but they have to do with separating adjacent vowel sounds.
What about Wash/warsh and oyster/erster? Intrusive Rs are often Linking Rs, but there are exceptions.
My favorite is from the online Homestar Runner cartoons, popular several year back, in which one character instead of "good job" says "GOOD JORB!"
Ya-no, (very common in South Africa, and probably influence by the Afrikaans ja-nee which is less slangy than it's english equivalent), you guys didn't offer an explanation for the origin of "raise the window down". What do you think? Two things came to mind for me: sash windows where the window had two linked sections such that raising the bottom section lowered the top section and in face opened the window. The second thought was whether there could have been a Dutch influence. Dutch seems to use more "double prepositions" especially where movement is indicated, along the lines of "i am walking in the road down". Dutch in Texas - I wouldn't know. First use? I could only find a reference to the name of a ?musical show in a 1942 "Billboard" magazine.
Thanks for the great show.
Welcome, wwkudu. I've only read about the "Ya-no" in South Africa, so it's nice to have it confirmed.
>>> where the window had two linked sections such that raising the bottom section lowered the top section and in face opened the window.<<
Seems plausible, although I'd love to know more about possibilities from other languages.
samaphore said:
Kaa: Thank you for introducing the lovely word “anthimeria†into the discussion!
Yes, Kaa, thank you. But why don't any of my dictionaries have this fine word? I couldn't find it even in my online dictionaries. I found it on Wiki, of all places! Ya-No!
Try onelook.com. 🙂 It shows up in 8 dictionaries, there, one of which is the Luciferous Logolepsy, which is a great source for obscure words. Which I collect. 🙂 Like tmesis, apophthegm, and perenidnation. I love words....
You see, hard on the heels of Grant's firm stance — people who insist on using the subjunctive are putting it on life support — I heard him say, “I see what's happening here… If this were a hundred fifty years ago, and the cotton gin were invented, you'd say, ‘No thank you.' “
Gee, Grant, was that twice in one sentence? Hard habit to kick, eh. Not that I quarrel with your word choice, but if you were looking for a chance to drive your point home, you missed it this time!
YES!! Love listening to you, Grant, but this did make me giggle. Do as I say I say not as I say?
Pi
Martha Barnette
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