Aye–ay: An Anglo-Frisian Parallel
In: Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren GermanistikSearch for other papers by Stephen Howe in
Current site
Google Scholar
The most widespread form for neutral “yes” in the Survey of English Dialects is not yea or yes, but aye. It is used not only in the North and Midlands, but also in areas of the South of England. It is a feature of Scottish English, and is familiar from government in many English-speaking countries. We also find the aye-like ayuh in Northeast America. “Aye” appears suddenly about 1575 and is “exceedingly common” around 1600; it is initially written I and its origin, like yes, is uncertain. Ay is also found in Old Frisian, as well as Sater Frisian today (öäi, a'äi etc.). This study reviews a number of proposed etymologies, examining which can account for the occurrence or development of ay(e) in both languages. Based on a wider study of change in forms of “yes” and “no” in English, the author argues that aye–ay is a parallel development of interjection + particle. The study also suggests functional and phonological overlap with the pronominal echo I in English, but not Frisian, with the vocalic form of the pronoun and diphthongisation in the “Great Vowel Shift”, accounting for the popularity and spelling I of “aye” around 1600.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Aijmer Karin , English Discourse Particles: Evidence from a Corpus , (Benjamins , Amsterdam 2002 ).
-
Badman Keith , The Beatles: Off the Record , (Omnibus Press , London 2009 ).
-
Beattie James , Dissertations Moral and Critical , (Strahan, Cadell & Creech , London & Edinburgh 1783 ).
-
Larry D. Benson (ed), The Riverside Chaucer , (Oxford University Press , Oxford 2008 [1988] ).
-
Bremmer Rolf H. Jr , 'Late Old Frisian ay “yes”: An Unnoticed Parallel to Early Modern English ay(e) “yes”, of Obscure Origin ' (1989 ) 13 nowele : 87 -105 .
-
Bremmer Rolf H. Jr , 'Bad Frisian and Bad Low German: Interference in the Writings of a Medieval West Frisian ' (1997 ) 16 (4 ) Multilingua : 375 -388 .
-
Bremmer Rolf H. Jr , An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary , (Benjamins , Amsterdam 2009 ).
-
Brinton Laurel J. & Traugott Elizabeth Closs , Lexicalization and Language Change , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2005 ).
-
Bybee Joan , Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language , (Oxford University Press , Oxford 2007 ).
-
Bybee Joan , Language, Usage and Cognition , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2010 ).
-
Campbell Alistair , Old English Grammar , (Oxford University Press , Oxford 1987 [1959] ).
-
(1864 ) Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature vol. 2. London: privately printed. .
-
Corbett Greville G. , Gender , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1991 ).
-
Corbett Greville G. , Number , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2000 ).
-
Cressy David , Coming over: Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1987 ).
-
Culpeper Jonathan & Kytö Merja , Early Modern English Dialogues: Spoken Interaction as Writing , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2010 ).
-
Charles Dahlberg (ed), The Romaunt of the Rose. A Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer , (University of Oklahoma Press , Norman 1999 ).
-
Dalby David , 'Americanisms that May Once Have Been Africanisms ', in Alan Dundes (ed), Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel: Readings in the Interpretation of Afro-American Folklore , (University Press of Mississippi , Jackson 1990 [1973] ) 136 -140 .
-
dare = Dictionary of American Regional English , Joan Houston Hall, Luanne von Schneidemesser, George H. Goebel & Roland L. Berns (eds), Digital version , (Harvard University Press , University of Wisconsin–Madison ) www.daredictionary.com. .
-
Devos M. , 'Het persoonlijk voornaamwoord 2e pers. enk. in het Westvlaams: geografie en historiek ', in M. Devos & J. Taeldeman (eds), Vruchten van zijn akker, Opstellen van (oud-) medewerkers en oud-studenten voor Prof. dr. V. F. Vanacker , (Seminarie voor Nederlandse Taalkunde en Vlaamse Dialectologie , Ghent 1986 ) 167 -191 .
-
dsl = Dictionary of the Scots Language , (2004 ) Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. www.dsl.ac.uk. .
-
Dobson E. J. , English Pronunciation 1500–1700, vol. 2 Phonology , (Clarendon Press , Oxford 1968 ).
-
Wright Joseph , edd = The English Dialect Dictionary , , (Oxford University Press , London 1898x–1905 ).
-
'eLALME = An Electronic Version of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English ' (2013 ) Angus McIntosh, Michael Louis Samuels, Michael Benskin with the assistance of Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson; first published by Aberdeen University Press, 1986; revised and supplemented by Michael Benskin & Margaret Laing; webscripts by Vasilis Karaiskos & Keith Williamson. www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme/elalme.html. .
-
Ellis Alexander John , Essentials of Phonetics , (Pitman , London 1848 ).
-
eMED = Electronic Middle English Dictionary , (2006 ) The Middle English Compendium University of Michigan. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/. .
-
Fischer David Hackett , Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America , (Oxford University Press , Oxford 1989 ).
-
Christina M. Fitzgerald & John T. Sebastian (eds), The Broadview Anthology of Medieval Drama , (Broadview Press , Peterborough, ON & Buffalo, NY 2012 ).
-
'Friese brieven uit de vijftiende en zestiende eeuw [Frisian letters from the fifteenth and sixteenth century] ', in Pieter Gerbenzon (ed), Estrikken , (Frysk Ynstitút & Rijskuniversiteit Groningen , Groningen 1967 ).
-
Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, and Wazzats , (Down East Books , Camden 1975 ) Gould, John in collaboration with Lillian Ross and the editors of Down East Magazine. .
-
Heine Bernd & Kuteva Tania , World Lexicon of Grammaticalization , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2002 ).
-
Hinton Leanne, Nichols Johanna & Ohala John J. , Sound Symbolism , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2006 [1994] ).
-
Hogg Richard M. , A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology , (Wiley–Blackwell , Chichester 2011 ).
-
Holmberg Anders , The Syntax of Yes and No , (Oxford University Press , Oxford 2016 ).
-
Hopper Paul J. & Traugott Elizabeth Closs , Grammaticalization , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1993 ).
-
Howe Stephen , 'The Personal Pronouns in the Germanic Languages ', in Studia Linguistica Germanica , (Walter de Gruyter , Berlin 2013 [1996] ).
-
Howe Stephen , 'Old Frisian Personal Pronouns: Morphology and Change Directions for Old Frisian Philology ', in Rolf H. Bremmer, Stephen Laker & Oebele Vries (eds), Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik , (Brill/Rodopi , Amsterdam & New York 2014 ) 201 -242 .
-
Howe Stephen , 'Eastern English in America: “Dow” and “Jearse” in New England ' Paper presented at the Third Southern Englishes Workshop , 19 February 2016 , University College London .
-
Howe Stephen , 'Emphatic “Yes” and “No” in Eastern English: Jearse and Dow ', in Laura Wright (ed), Southern English Varieties: Then and Now (Topics in English Linguistics) , (De Gruyter Mouton , Berlin ) Forthcoming .
-
Jespersen Otto , A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part I: Sounds and Spellings , (Bradford & Dickens , London 1961 [1909] ) corrected edn. .
-
King Stephen , The Colorado Kid , (Simon & Shuster , New York 2005 ).
-
Kohler Klaus J. , 'An Etymological Note on Ay(e) “Yes” ' (1968 ) 67 Transactions of the Philological Society : 56 -66 .
-
Kohler Klaus J. , 'Etymologie und strukturelle Sprachbetrachtung ' (1970 ) 75 Indogermanische Forschungen : 16 -31 .
-
König Erich , Johannes Cadovius Müllers Memoriale linguae Frisicae. Nach der Jeverschen Originalhandschrift (Verein für niederdeutsche Sprachforschung iv) , (Soltau Verlag , Norden & Leipzig 1911 ).
-
Kramer Pyt , (2014 ) Formen-Wörterbuch des Saterfriesischen www.allezhop.de/frysk/FormenWtb/FWB.htm. .
-
Langenfelt Gösta , (1950 ) Ay/e/ = Yes. Moderna språk 44 : 33 -38 .
-
Lass Roger , 'Phonology and Morphology ', in Norman Blake (ed), The Cambridge History of the English Language, vol. 2: 1066–1476 , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1992 ) 23 -155 .
-
Lerch Eugen , Historische französische Syntax , (Reisland , Leipzig 1934 ).
-
A Bibliography of English Etymology , (University of Minnesota Press , Minneapolis 2010 ) Liberman, Anatoly with the assistance of Ari Hoptman and Nathan E. Carlson .
-
Liberman Anatoly , 'The Ayes Have It ' (2014a ) Oxford etymologist blog http://blog.oup.com/2014/11/aye-yes-etymology-word-origin/. .
-
Liberman Anatoly , 'Yes? Yeah … Oxford etymologist blog ' (2014b ) http://blog.oup.com/2014/12/etymology-affirmations-yes-yea-yeah-yep-aye/. .
-
Malone Kemp , 'Nine English Etymologies ' (1949 ) 17 Studier i modern språkvetenskap : 95 -100 .
-
Metcalf Allan , OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word , (Oxford University Press , New York 2011 ).
-
Miles Barry , Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now , (Secker & Warburg , London 1997 ).
-
Millett Bella , 'Ancrene Wisse/Guide for Anchoresses: A Translation ', in Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies , (Liverpool University Press , Liverpool 2009 ).
-
Minkova Donka , 'A Historical Phonology of English ', in Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language , (Edinburgh University Press , Edinburgh 2014 ).
-
Moore Erin , (2007 ) Yeah-no: A Discourse Marker in Australian English Honours thesis, University of Melbourne. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/39316. .
-
Moravcsik Edith A. , 'Some Cross-Linguistic Generalizations about Yes–No Questions and Their Answers ' (1971 ) 7 Working Papers on Language Universals : 45 -193 .
-
Narrog Heiko & Heine Bernd , Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization , (Oxford University Press , Oxford 2011 ).
-
oed = oed Online. Oxford University Press. www.oed.com.
-
'A Complete Concordance to the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer ', in Akio Oizumi (ed), A Lexical Concordance to the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer , (Olms–Weidmann , Hildesheim 2003 ) programmed by Miki Kunihiro vols. 1–5 .
-
Orton Harold & Wright Nathalia , A Word Geography of England , (Seminar Press , London & New York 1974 ).
-
Paardekooper P. C. , 'Jaak/neenik enz ' (1993 ) 23 (3 ) Tabu : 143 -170 .
-
Paul Hermann, Wiehl Peter & Grosse Siegfried , Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik , (Niemeyer , Tübingen 1998 ).
-
Paul Piper (ed), Die Schriften Notkers und seiner Schule , (Mohr , Freiburg, Leipzig & Tübingen 1895 [1882] & 1883 ) 2 vols. .
-
Quirk Randolph, Greenbaum Sidney, Leech Geoffrey & Svartvik Jan , A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language , (Longman , Harlow 1985 ).
-
sand = Syntactische Atlas van de Nederlandse Dialecten/Syntactic Atlas of the Dutch Dialects , Sjef Barbiers, Hans Bennis, Gunther De Vogelaer, Magda Devos & Margreet van der Ham (eds), , (Amsterdam University Press , Amsterdam 2005 ) Part 1. Commentaar. .
-
Sandahl Bertil , 'Middle English Sea Terms. I. The Ship’s Hull ', in Essays and studies on English Language and Literature viii , (Lundequistska Bokhandeln , Uppsala 1951 ).
-
Orton Harold & Dieth Eugen , sed = Survey of English Dialects , 'Basic Materials ', (E. J. Arnold for the University of Leeds , Leeds 1962–1971 ) Introduction and 4 vols. (each in 3 parts). .
-
Shakespeare William , (1609 ) Romeo and Juliet Third quarto. Digital facsimile, British Library. http://special-1.bl.uk/treasures/SiqDiscovery/ui/record.aspx?Source=text&LHCopy=81&LHPage=46&RHCopy=81&RHPage=46. .
-
Siebs Theodor , 'Geschichte der friesischen Sprache ', in Hermann Paul (ed), Grundriss der germanischen Philologie , (Trübner , Strasbourg 1901 ) 1152 -1464 .
-
Siewierska Anna , Person , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2004 ).
-
Stange Ulrike , 'Emotive Interjections in British English: A Corpus-Based Study on Variation in Acquisition, Function and Usage ', in Studies in Corpus Linguistics , (Benjamins , Amsterdam 2016 ).
-
Stenbrenden Gjertrud F. , Long-Vowel Shifts in English, c. 1050–1700. Evidence from Spelling , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2016 ).
-
Martin Stevens & A. C. Cawley (eds), The Towneley Plays , (published for the Early English Text Society by Oxford University Press , Oxford & New York 1994 ) 2 vols. .
-
Storm Johan , Englische Philologie. I. Die lebende Sprache , (Reisland , Leipzig 1896 ).
-
Svartvik Jan, Eeg-Olofsson M., Forsheden O., Oreström B. & Thavenius C. , 'Survey of Spoken English. Report on Research 1975–81 ', in Lund Studies in English , (Lund University Press , Lund 1982 ).
-
Szelog Mike , () Ayuh, the Northern New England Accent in a Nutshell Blog. www.theheartofnewengland.com/lifeinnewengland/Essays/accents.html. no date. .
-
Trawick-Smith Ben , '“Ayuh”: America’s Oddest “Yes” ' (2011 ) Blog. http://dialectblog.com/2011/04/14/ayuh-americas-oddest-yes/. .
-
Trudgill Peter , Dialect Matters: Respecting Vernacular Language. Columns from the Eastern Daily Press , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2016 ).
-
Ungerer Friedrich, Meier Gerhard E. H., Schäfer Klaus & Lechler Shirley B. , Grammatik des heutigen Englisch , (Ernst Klett , Stuttgart 1984 ).
-
Varty E. K. C. , 'A Note on the Origin of “Aye” ' (1957 ) 202 Notes and queries : 507 .
-
Vennemann Theo , 'Celtic Influence in English? Yes and no ' (2009 ) 13 (2 ) English Language and Linguistics : 309 -334 .
-
Wallage Phillip & van der Wurff Wim , 'On Saying “Yes” in Early Anglo-Saxon England ' (2013 ) 42 Anglo-Saxon England : 183 -215 .
-
Snijman Frederick Johannes , wat: Woordeboek van die afrikaanse taal. Vyfde deel: J–Kj , , (Staatsdrukker , Pretoria 1968 ).
-
Wedgwood Hensleigh , A Dictionary of English Etymology , (Trübner , London 1872 ).
-
Wells John C. , Accents of English , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1982 ) 3 vols. .
-
Stanley Wells, Gary Taylor, John Jowett & William Montgomery (eds), William Shakespeare: The Complete Works , (Clarendon Press , Oxford 1988 ) compact edn. .
-
Wright David , Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: A Verse Translation with an Introduction and Notes , (Oxford University Press , Oxford 1985 ).
-
3
Date of composition, Wells et al. 1988: 335. Romeo and Juliet, act 3 scene 2, Third Quarto, 1609, original spelling (my short s). Digital facsimile, British Library.
-
15
Millett 2009: 153.
-
20
Varty cited in Liberman 2010, 2014a.
-
28
Wright 1985: 434.
-
29
Wright 1985: 135.
-
31
See Orton/Wright 1974: map M17 and sed vol. iii, 1176–1177; also David Britain ah (p.c. April 2016), Peter Trudgill ah (p.c. April 2016) and (2016: 163–164). I assume that ah ‘yes’, commonly recorded in the sed, is a further reduction of aye, thus a(h) + ye(a) > aye > ah.
-
32
Compare Cressy 1987: viii who writes “It seems to me more appropriate to consider seventeenth-century New England as an outlier of the old country, as a detached English province, than as the seed-bed of a new nation”.
-
39
See Benson [1988] 2008: xxii. The text is quoted from Dahlberg (1999: 215, emphasis mine).
-
40
Likely not by Chaucer, see Benson 2008: 637. The text is quoted from Benson [1988] 2008: 658, emphasis mine.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1528 | 223 | 25 |
| Full Text Views | 176 | 6 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 61 | 14 | 0 |
Aye–ay: An Anglo-Frisian Parallel
In: Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren GermanistikSearch for other papers by Stephen Howe in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The most widespread form for neutral “yes” in the Survey of English Dialects is not yea or yes, but aye. It is used not only in the North and Midlands, but also in areas of the South of England. It is a feature of Scottish English, and is familiar from government in many English-speaking countries. We also find the aye-like ayuh in Northeast America. “Aye” appears suddenly about 1575 and is “exceedingly common” around 1600; it is initially written I and its origin, like yes, is uncertain. Ay is also found in Old Frisian, as well as Sater Frisian today (öäi, a'äi etc.). This study reviews a number of proposed etymologies, examining which can account for the occurrence or development of ay(e) in both languages. Based on a wider study of change in forms of “yes” and “no” in English, the author argues that aye–ay is a parallel development of interjection + particle. The study also suggests functional and phonological overlap with the pronominal echo I in English, but not Frisian, with the vocalic form of the pronoun and diphthongisation in the “Great Vowel Shift”, accounting for the popularity and spelling I of “aye” around 1600.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1528 | 223 | 25 |
| Full Text Views | 176 | 6 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 61 | 14 | 0 |