Short primer (prĭm'ər)

[deelaundry]

This actually came up in real life this week - LOL.

yay  (yā) - interjection used as an exclamation of pleasure, approval, elation, or victory.
yea (yā) adverb meaning indeed; truly: They have spoken, yea, shouted their reply.  (Can also be used to mean a 'yes' vote as in The yeas have it but is not used in everyday conversation.)
yeah (yě'ə, yā'ə)  - informal form of "yes."

PS.  The opposite of "uh huh" is "nuh uh." <= Being a cheeky bitch here.

PPS.  If you see little boxes above, they should be the upside down e, which indicates a sound like the a in alone and sofa.  (It's called the schwa -- dictionary nerd, heh).

Comments

[romeo46.livejournal.com]

all right, all right, I will use the correct one :P

yay

Just out of curiosity, how did this come up, because where I am from yea and yay are both used, but now armed I can tell everyone to piss off...provided I remember my damn self :)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

In real life, one of my work colleagues said, "Hey, how do you spell 'yay' like you say when you're happy? With an 'ay' or 'ea'?"

In fanfic, there was a fic I MSTed a long while back, which had House saying, "Yea" instead of "Yeah" something like a dozen times in a row, which drove me nuts. (Just added my MSTs to my fic list at Poeia's request, which is why I thought of it.)

Where you're from, do people write "yea" to mean "yeah"? Or do they write "yea" to mean "yay"? And how do they pronouce it?

[romeo46.livejournal.com]

yea to mean yay and it is pronounced with a long a sound

[purridot.livejournal.com]

PS. The opposite of "uh huh" is "nuh uh."

Oh dear, it's not "uh uh"? Maybe that is a Canadianism or something...

Thank you for the links! Will read most happily!

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

It's "uh uh" here, as well (in the UK, or at least in my bit of it).

I've never seen yea used in place of yay - interesting.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I've mostly seen "yea" used for "yeah." Remember the "group MST" I wrote? (With "the warm, pig-covered body of Wilson.")

Nuh uh, it's not "uh uh." :P Kidding; I was just being bossy. : )

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

OK, with "nuh uh" I was just being silly and bossy! : ) I am sure "uh uh" is every bit as correct. (See elicia8's comment below.)

[elicia8.livejournal.com]

Can I be a nerd, too? *tiptoes into your awesome post*

I would say any form of uh-uh (nuh-uh, uh-uh, mmm-hmmm, huh-uh) is entirely tone and voice dependent and therefore should NOT be used in text at all, and it bugs me when people do. These words are attempts to spell out what are simply "affirmation grunts" and examples of rhinoglottophilia.

*tiptoes back out of your post the way she came, sweeping up bits of nerdiness*

...really bugs my ass when people misuse 'yay' and 'yea' though. ;)

[perspi.livejournal.com]

'Rhinoglottophilia' is now my new favorite word. EEEEEEE!!!!!!

[elicia8.livejournal.com]

Lmao, I'm so glad! :D

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Yay! So happy to have another language nerd around. 'Rhinoglottophilia' FTW!

[savemoony.livejournal.com]

*giggles* We were using the wrong ones?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I notice confusion between "yea" and "yeah" in ff.net fics especially. Like this one: http://deelaundry.livejournal.com/25740.html, which is otherwise pretty good.

*hug*

[savemoony.livejournal.com]

*hugs! (Are you writing Jack? HMMMM)

[roga.livejournal.com]

Hee! I actually made an entire post (http://roga.livejournal.com/72091.html#cutid1) comparing versions of various interjections between English and Hebrew. So we have yesh for yay, no yeah at all, and uh huh is pronounced ah ha - subtle difference, but it's there.

Ah, language :-)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

"Interjections! Show excitement! And emotion! They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong." Sorry, that was a little Schoolhouse Rock flashback there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHpJ45_zwM

Language is cool. : )

[xaipw.livejournal.com]

PS. The opposite of "uh huh" is "nuh uh."

In Rhode Island it's "no suh", which is basically "no sir" said with a really strong RI accent.

Yea and Yay - So I suppose that in some situations the term HoYea would be appropriate? Homoeroticism, indeed.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Yup. *grins*

I love your icon.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

So much yes! *g*The confusion between yay and yea has always annoyed me - it's nice to have it 'officially confirmed' though. I think Doonesbury is the most high profile offender I've seen, iirc.

Also - phased and fazed. There's a difference.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Loose and lose is another one! I actually bitched about that one on fanficrants. : )

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, do you have link? I am a slut for meta.

Also, in regards to your other comment, hello! ;)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Short rant, hardly even worth reading:
http://community.livejournal.com/fanficrants/4259064.html

Hi!

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I do so enjoy rantiness - thanks! That one has always puzzled me in terms of how one could possibly confuse the two, but yes, I hadn't factored in the rarely seen verb form XD