Yay-high
Dylan O'Donnell
Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
outside the US?
--
: Dylan O'Donnell : Money lost, little lost; honour lost, :
: Demon Internet Ltd, slave deck : much lost; pluck lost, all lost. :
: http://www.fysh.org/~psmith/ : -- NetHack, rumors.tru :
Robert Lieblich
Dylan O'Donnell wrote:
>
> Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
> course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
> "yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
> optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
> often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
> English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
> "yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
> outside the US?
Dunno about the rest of this, but I heard it in Texas forty and more
years ago. Meaning is obvious (gesture mandatory), source unknown to
me.
Bob Lieblich <lieb...@erols.com>
N.Mitchum
In article <5rqovg$8u9$1...@crucigera.fysh.org>,
dyl...@demon.net (Dylan O'Donnell) wrote:
------
> [...] Similarly, "yay-long" and
> "yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
> outside the US?
It's been around since the Flood, it seems to me. I'd say it's
also standard, in that practically every American will know what
it means even if he never uses the expression himself. And you're
right: it's always used in conversation, and is always
accompanied by a matching gesture. (I needed a moment to figure
out what the spelling meant, but would have had no trouble at all
if I'd heard it spoken.)
Someone outside the US will have to answer your final question.
--- NM
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Bernie Rataj
>course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
>[snip]
>_Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
>outside the US?
It's found in Canada, which is hardly outside the US at all
vocabulary-wise. At least it was 20 or more years ago. I don't remember
hearing it recently.
It's probably a cognate of eh ;-)
Bernie
--
Bernie Rataj br...@interlog.com qth://toronto.on.ca
Member: Ontario DX Association, Tsuruoka Canadian Budokai
--
John Nurick
On Thu, 31 Jul 1997 19:01:27 -0600, N.Mitchum <aj...@lafn.org> wrote:
>It's been around since the Flood, it seems to me. I'd say it's
>also standard, in that practically every American will know what
>it means even if he never uses the expression himself. And you're
>right: it's always used in conversation, and is always
>accompanied by a matching gesture. (I needed a moment to figure
>out what the spelling meant, but would have had no trouble at all
>if I'd heard it spoken.)
>Someone outside the US will have to answer your final question.
I'm outside the US and not American, but "yea high" has been in my
idiolect so long I can't remember where it came from. I may have
picked it up while doing engineering and construction work with
Americans way back when the world was young and all
Thanks to the accompanying gesture, everyone understands what it
means.
John
I dislocated my e-mail address, and the doctor says it will be
six months before I can see a specialist.
Benny H Quay
Dylan O'Donnell (dyl...@demon.net) wrote:
: Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
: course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
: optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
: often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
: "yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
: outside the US?
BQ I worked with a carpenter in the late 60s in British Columbia who
liked to used "yay" to emphasize his points. "Yer brain is yay big
(his mutilated thumb and forefinger framing his shut eye), he barked
at me that morning he discovered (after the concrete had set) that the
foundation of the house was 11 inches off square!
Thenceforth he would "yay" a lot at me. "You are yay much from getting
your walking papers, boy", he threatened me after his power-saw cut
into a nail in a plank. My only response was "yea, yea, yea".
Albert Marshall
Dylan O'Donnell <dyl...@demon.net> wrote
>Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
>course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
>"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
>optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
>often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
>English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
>"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
>outside the US?
>
--
Albert Marshall
S.E. England
nocifer
>Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
>course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
>"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
>optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
>often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
>English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
>"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
>outside the US?
If I heard the phrase I'd recognise and understand it, and so would most
Australians and anyone else over-exposed to US culture. But I haven't
encountered it in written form until reading your post :) That something
is "so high" seems to be the more likely written and spoken expression
here anyway.
-Nox
Perth, Western Oz
email: noc...@amber.com.au
KB (see signature)
In article <jlaU2JAs...@execfrog.demon.co.uk>, Albert Marshall
<alb...@execfrog.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Dylan O'Donnell <dyl...@demon.net> wrote
> >Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
> >course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
> >"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
> >optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
> >often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
> >English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
> >"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
> >outside the US?
> >
"Yay big" is another. Defintely not recent. I heard it used as a child
in the 1950s in California. I can't recall ever seeing any of the yays
written and I would consider them quite slang-ish. You can't really write
them because they need to be accompanied by a gesture. "It was about yay
big," he said, holding his hands about 6 inches apart.
I have heard blendings of yay high with knee-high, for example "yay high
to a grasshopper" (the standard phrase is "knee high to a grasshopper"
meaning "very short").
--
Kathy Brunetti
The "From" address is a fake, courtesy of my ISP. Here's a real one--remove capital letters to reply. kbr...@ns.REMOVE-TO-REPLY.net
Alan Pollock
KB (see signature) (no-jun...@ns.net) wrote:
: In article <jlaU2JAs...@execfrog.demon.co.uk>, Albert Marshall
--
I've seen it written in several novels (one of them a Robert Ruark I believe),
and it's always spelled 'yea high' or 'yea big' as far as I've seen.
Rather than being recent, I've always been under the impression that it was of
older usage. Nex
__________________________________________________________________________
"Ah, if in this world there were no such thing as cherry blossoms, perhaps
then in springtime our hearts would be at peace." Ariwara no Narihira
__________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Paterson
dyl...@demon.net (Dylan O'Donnell) wrote:
>Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
>course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
>"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
>optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
>often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
>English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
>"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
>outside the US?
I don't think I had ever seen it in writing before this, but I've
heard it used by Canadians from across Canada. I hadn't realized it
was used in the U.S., though.
Since the accompanying gesture seems obligatory, it's the kind of
thing that can escape reference books. In a quick check of a few, I
found it only in the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, which
associates it with "the casual speech of members of the scientific
fraternity" and says it should be confined to informal usage.
Jonathan Paterson
Montreal, Quebec
Dylan O'Donnell
In article <5s3da9$i99$1...@lamb.login.net>,>>[yay/yea-high and similar expressions]
>I don't think I had ever seen it in writing before this, but I've
>heard it used by Canadians from across Canada. I hadn't realized it
>was used in the U.S., though.
>
>Since the accompanying gesture seems obligatory, it's the kind of
>thing that can escape reference books. In a quick check of a few, I
>found it only in the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, which
>associates it with "the casual speech of members of the scientific
>fraternity" and says it should be confined to informal usage.
Much obliged to you and everyone else that has responded - obviously
it's just a coincidence that it hadn't crossed the Atlantic in my
particular direction sooner :-) (Though I'm intrigued by the report
of its use in a Kentish scout troop...)
Could I ask, out of interest, how the HDoCU spells it? It seems
clear from this thread that "yea" is to be preferred to "yay" if
it's written (which it generally isn't); how this relates to "yea",
the archaic form of "yes", (if at all) is unclear to me.
Peter Moylan
nocifer <noci...@ambergris.com.au> wrote:
>In article <5rqovg$8u9$1...@crucigera.fysh.org>, dyl...@demon.net (Dylan
>O'Donnell) wrote:
>
>>Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
>>course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
>>"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
>>optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
>>often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
>>English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
>>"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
>>outside the US?
>
>Australians and anyone else over-exposed to US culture. But I haven't
>encountered it in written form until reading your post :) That something
>is "so high" seems to be the more likely written and spoken expression
>here anyway.
I don't agree with nocifer that it's a US import. In fact I thought
it was an Australian expression until I read this thread. I've
known the expression since I was yea high, well before I was
exposed to things like television. I've never seen the "yay"
spelling, but that's a minor detail.
--
Peter Moylan pe...@ee.newcastle.edu.au
http://www.ee.newcastle.edu.au/users/staff/peter/Moylan.html
Freeland Blame
Jonathan Paterson:
> Since the accompanying gesture seems obligatory, it's the kind of
> thing that can escape reference books. In a quick check of a few, I
> found it only in the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, which
> associates it with "the casual speech of members of the scientific
> fraternity" and says it should be confined to informal usage.
I couldn't find it in Ninth New Collegiate; the only person I've known
who said "yay" much was in fact an MIT student (so "of the scientific
fraternity"). To my ear it sounds countrified, this MIT student was
also a corn-fed Ohioan.
Freeland
Tryptan Felle
N.Mitchum wrote:
>
> In article <5rqovg$8u9$1...@crucigera.fysh.org>,
> dyl...@demon.net (Dylan O'Donnell) wrote:
> > [...] Similarly, "yay-long" and
> > "yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
> > outside the US?
>
> It's been around since the Flood, it seems to me.
Yes, I think you're right. Before God got specific and told Noah the precise number of cubits
for the Ark, he had merely said "Noah, I need you to build me an ark about yea long..."
-- Tryptan Felle
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Christianity is a wonderful religion
- it's too bad it's never been tried."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rhiannon Macfie
Jonathan Paterson assembled this on a fridge door:
> dyl...@demon.net (Dylan O'Donnell) wrote:
> >Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the regular
> >course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the phrase
> >"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
> >optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage, however),
> >often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in British
> >English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
> >"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it found
> >outside the US?
> I don't think I had ever seen it in writing before this, but I've
> heard it used by Canadians from across Canada. I hadn't realized it
> was used in the U.S., though.
The only person I`ve ever heard use this (who in fact uses it with some
frequency) is a final-year medical student from Fife, Scotland.
Make of that what you will.
Rhiannon
--
http://www.ed.ac.uk/~rhi ENTP
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No, that won't do: it wouldn't be floccinaucinihilipilification.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is quite a nasty disease,
isn't it?
Brian Watson
In article <01bca75f$f2118f20$6d6ebdcc@default>
notc...@clemson.campus.mci.net "O&W" writes:
>
>
> Rhiannon Macfie <r...@holyrood.ed.ac.uk> wrote in article
> <5sncq7$1...@scotsman.ed.ac.uk>...
> > Jonathan Paterson assembled this on a fridge door:
> > > dyl...@demon.net (Dylan O'Donnell) wrote:
> >
> > > >Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the
> regular
> > > >course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the
> phrase
> > > >"yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen appears to be
> > > >optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than written usage,
> however),
> > > >often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory gesture, where in
> British
> > > >English I'd expect the phrase "so high". Similarly, "yay-long" and
> > > >"yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it
> found
> > > >outside the US?
> spelled "yea-high."
>
>
"Yee Har!" (with a bad attempt at a wild west accent) is more common here
just north east of London, England.
--
Brian Watson
O&W
Pete Collins
Donna Richoux <tr...@euronet.nl> wrote in article
<199708151...@p027.hlm.euronet.nl>...
> Rhiannon Macfie <r...@holyrood.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> If others are convinced that this is not common, we can narrow down the
> geography. I grew up in California, with one parent from Nebraska and
> one from Louisiana.
>
> Best wishes --- Donna Richoux
>
I don't recall seeing it in print myself, but I've heard it spoken my whole
life which has been spent entirely in Northern California. That's my two
cents.
Pete Collins
Donna Richoux
Rhiannon Macfie <r...@holyrood.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
> Jonathan Paterson assembled this on a fridge door: > dyl...@demon.net
> (Dylan O'Donnell) wrote:
>
> > >Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the
> > >regular course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use,
> > >the phrase "yay-high" (sometimes spelt "yea-high", and the hyphen
> > >appears to be optional; it seems to be more common in spoken than
> > >written usage, however), often accompanied by an appropriate estimatory
> > >gesture, where in British English I'd expect the phrase "so high".
> > >Similarly, "yay-long" and "yay-wide". _Is_ this a recent coinage? Is
> > >it standard usage? Is it found outside the US?
>
> > I don't think I had ever seen it in writing before this, but I've
> > heard it used by Canadians from across Canada. I hadn't realized it
> > was used in the U.S., though.
>
> The only person I`ve ever heard use this (who in fact uses it with some
> frequency) is a final-year medical student from Fife, Scotland. Make of
> that what you will.
I've heard "yay-big" all my life and it comes as a surprise to even
consider the possibility that it is not widespread. I agree with the
original description - it is spoken, not written (I don't know whether
it should be yay or yea) and it accompanies a gesture --
"He was yay-tall" (holding hand a certain distance off of floor.)
"It was only yay-big" (holding thumb and first finger apart.)
Jeffrey Rollin
> > >
> > > >Recently (in the last year or so) I've been encountering, in the
> regular
> > > >course of my (UK-based) exposure to sources of US English use, the
> phrase
> > > >"yay-high"
....
_Is_ this a recent coinage? Is it standard usage? Is it
> found
> > > >outside the US?
> In South Carolina, I hear it much more often than "so high." Here it is
> spelled "yea-high."
>
>
It may well be that the practice of saying "yea high" originates in
Scotland and the North of England, where the phrase is, if not common, (at
least in NE England), at least widely understood. Scotland and NE England
share other features of vocabulary in common, witness "bairn" for "kid
(human)", but the accents are quite different. In South Carolina, it'll be
an anachronism, kinda like "yon young'un" for "that young man over there"
in Yorkshire. The only other context in which i've found "yea" is in
parliamentary language, why those votes in favour are "yeas" and those
against "nays".
O&W
Jeffrey Rollin <d.ro...@virgin.net> wrote in article
<01bcaa33$8da53600$6046a8c2@uss-enterprise->...
> > In South Carolina, I hear it much more often than "so high." Here it
is
> > spelled "yea-high."
> >
> >
> It may well be that the practice of saying "yea high" originates in
> Scotland and the North of England, where the phrase is, if not common,
(at
> least in NE England), at least widely understood. Scotland and NE England
> share other features of vocabulary in common, witness "bairn" for "kid
> (human)", but the accents are quite different. In South Carolina, it'll
be
> an anachronism, kinda like "yon young'un" for "that young man over there"
> in Yorkshire. The only other context in which i've found "yea" is in
> parliamentary language, why those votes in favour are "yeas" and those
> against "nays".
Actually, I think most of us around here would also "count the yeas and
nays" after asking for a tally of who wants to do what. This state is a
bit of a melting pot, but a large fraction of us have ancestors from
Yorkshire and Scotland. That portion of us are still pretty comfortable
with King James' English.
O&W
O&W <notc...@clemson.campus.mci.net> wrote in article
<01bcaa5b$3bf3a3a0$6f6ebdcc@default>...
> That portion of us are still pretty comfortable with King James'
English.
Portion are??
John M. Lawler
Jeffrey Rollin <d.ro...@virgin.net> writes:
>> In South Carolina, I hear it much more often than "so high."
>> Here it is spelled "yea-high."
>It may well be that the practice of saying "yea high" originates in
>Scotland and the North of England, where the phrase is, if not common, (at
>least in NE England), at least widely understood.
It's the same 'yea' we use in the US Midwest, *if* it has to accompanied
by a hand motion or other size gesture. 'Yea' is a deictic word, which
means it deals with here and now, precisely like 'here' and 'now'.
It means 'about this [gesture] size'; if speaking of things varying
monotonically in size (like corn plants and children), it may mean 'at
least this [gesture] size'.
>Scotland and NE England
>share other features of vocabulary in common, witness "bairn" for "kid
>(human)", but the accents are quite different.
This is a little more complex than a vocabulary difference.
'Yea' is a part of the gesture system as well as the vocabulary.
>In South Carolina, it'll be
>an anachronism, kinda like "yon young'un" for "that young man over there"
>in Yorkshire.
'Yon' is a deictic locative word, a third "extra-distal" component to add
to the normal pair of "proximal" 'here' and "distal" 'there'.
Hand gesture optional.
>The only other context in which i've found "yea" is in
>parliamentary language, why those votes in favour are "yeas" and those
>against "nays".
It might be related; it's also symbolic of a hand gesture.
But a different one.
For more about deixis, see Charles Fillmore's wonderful "Deixis
Lectures", very rewarding reading.
Or point your Web browser at
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ling/jlawler/aue/bring.html
-John Lawler http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ling/jlawler/ U Michigan Linguistics
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