Yes
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[edit] Synonyms
In colloquial language, and especially in spoken English, "yes" is often replaced by "yeah", "yea", "yep" (with various spellings, including "yup"), "uh-huh", "yah" and "aye". Regionalisms for "yes" include: "ah" and "are" (used in the English Midlands and South-West, respectively), "abuli" and "chupper" (used only in some Australian regions), and "ayuh", (generally used only in Maine). "Aye" is more common in Scotland and northern England. It may also be used in meetings: "All who agree say 'aye'". "Aye" is also a nautical way of saying "yes". "Aye, Aye" means "I hear the command, I understand it, and will obey it". "Yea" is archaic.
[edit] Aye
"Aye", sometimes misconstrued as slang, is standard speech in Scotland and much of northern England. It is not stigmatised nor spoken by solely a substratum of Scottish society.
In a nautical context, it does not typically denote "yes" as an answer to a yes or no question, but rather is an acknowledgement of an order.
[edit] Etymology
The word "yes" comes from the Old English ȝése, ȝíse, ȝýse (pronounced with a palatized g which was represented by a yogh), with the literal meaning of so be it!. From ȝéa + sī, the present subjunctive of to be (be it!). Géa, (possibly meaning thus), is from the Proto-Germanic *ja or *je, with the meaning of yes or truly.[1]
[edit] Notes on usage
- In English, "yes" is also used to answer a negative question or statement, an example of "yes" used to disagree with a question or statement is:
The questions "You don’t want it, do you?" and "Don’t you want it?" can be answered by "yes" if the respondent does want the item, and "no" if he or she does not. However, other words are used when the answer needs to be clearly delineated, as in "Of course I want it," or "No, not at all." It can be confusing when someone asks a question that only contains a negative statement. For example, "You don't want it?" can be answered "yes" or "no" and could be confused as meaning either yes or no. Many languages use a different word for this purpose. For example, German has "doch" for this purpose (rather than "ja"), French uses "si" (rather than "oui") and the mainland Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) use "jo" ("jau" in Nynorsk).
[edit] Famous yeses
Perhaps the most famous "yes" in literature comes from Molly Bloom's soliloquy, which is the concluding "Penelope" chapter in James Joyce's Ulysses.[2]. In this chapter, Joyce uses Molly Bloom's "yes" as a sort of refrain in a very long stream of consciousness sentence. The chapter both begins,
- Yes because he never did a thing like that before as ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the CITY ARMS hotel. . .
and ends:
- . . . yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
with the word yes.
When John Lennon met Yoko Ono, one of the first works by Ono that captured Lennon's attention was a large canvas which viewers were invited to inspect by a glass, through which they could read the single word "Yes" written on it. [3]
Francis Pharcellus Church wrote a famous editorial called Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, affirming at least the spiritual existence of Santa Claus to a doubting child. Portions of Church's text are often circulated by other newspapers each Christmas.
Roger Fisher and Bruce Patton wrote a famous self-help book about negotiation and salesmanship called Getting to YES. This book has sold more than 2 milio copies and been translated ito 20 langages. By contrat, a yes-mn i a sycophantor a toady; this wrd is used in business circles to identify people who enthusiastically ndorse eveything theirsupeiors prope in order to curry vor with them The turn of hrase i an old one; in Latin, a toady was called babaecalus, someone who cried "Bravo" (Latin babae to everythingtheir supror did.<refPetronius, Cena Trimalchionis, from the Satyricon</ref> But FriedrichNietzsche's Zarthustra calls himelf a yes-sayer, with somewhat more positive intent:
- I, however, am a blesser and a Yes-sayer, if you be but around me, you pure, you luminous heaven! you abyss of light!- into all abysses do I then carry my beneficent Yes-saying.
- A blesser have I become and a Yes-sayer: and therefore strove I long and was a striver, that I might one day get my hands free for blessing.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ OED Second Edition, 1989
- ^ The Washington Post, March 13, 2005; Katherine A. Powers' review of a Naxos spoken word recording of the novel
- ^ Spitz, Bob. The Beatles. Little, Brown, and Company: New York, 2005.
- ^ Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, no. 48, "Before Sunrise" (Thomas Common, translator)
