Language desk
< January 4	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 5[edit]

Yay high?[edit]

I'm South African. My niece (early twenties old) returned home from university in Scotland for the holidays. We were chatting about the dogs my parents (her grandparents) had when she said "...it was about yay high" while indicating the height by hand. I've never heard "yay high" before, is it a Scottish expression? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 15:08, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It's common enough in my experience that it never occurred to me it might be regional. No Scottish connections that I know of. OED says it's probably from "yea". --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 15:37, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Likewise with EO.[1] It's certainly not unique to Scotland. It's common in the American Midwest, or at least used to be. Possibly a little old-fashioned. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:52, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Cromulent among the Canadians known to me. I had never seen with the "yay" spelling but per ngram, that spelling, although more recent, is used pretty much as often as "yea": [2]. Also, here's Wiktionary link: yea. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 16:17, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I live in London rather than Scotland, but I believe it's a recent introduction to British English from across the Atlantic. I don't recall it before about 20 years ago. For a reference I found:

"The OED records it as ‘U.S. slang’ and suggests it is probably from yea, yea being ‘a word used to express affirmation or assent'. The OED’s first recorded use is this from Wentworth and Flexner’s 1960 Dictionary of American Slang". [3]

Alansplodge (talk) 17:02, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Very common here in NC. I don't know that I've ever seen it actually spelled out, but "yay" is how I would expect it to be spelled. --Khajidha (talk) 12:22, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The words yea and yay are homonyms, and the word yeah can be pronounced either yay or yeh. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:33, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Written, I've only seen it as yea. —Tamfang (talk) 03:07, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"Yea, Lord, we greet thee, Born this happy morning..." Alansplodge (talk) 16:28, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It's quite common in Australia. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:15, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

...and has been for as long as this mature aged person can remember. HiLo48 (talk) 01:32, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've always wondered if it was somehow related to the German "je". --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 19:12, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Wiktionary:yea says: "From Middle English ye, ȝea, ya, ȝa, from Old English ġēa, iā (“yea, yes”), from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes, thus, so”), from Proto-Indo-European *yē (“already”)". Alansplodge (talk) 00:26, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

German je, on the other hand, is cognate to the archaic English adverb aye, meaning "always". There is no consensus whether the latter is related to the later affirmative interjection aye, although this is considered likely. --Lambiam 22:34, 8 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note that US Representatives and Senators vote "yea" or "nay", [4] whereas British and Commonwealth Members of Parliament vote "aye" or "no". [5] Alansplodge (talk) 16:28, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Constance van Eeden[edit]

Hi, should I use the DEFAULTSORT on "van Eeden, Constance" or "Eeden, Constance van" ? I thought it was the former rather than the latter, feel free to point me at the right guideline...GrahamHardy (talk) 20:06, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See Tussenvoegsel. She's Dutch, so index under Eeden. Were she Belgian you would index her under van. DuncanHill (talk) 20:15, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What about Afrikaans names? GrahamHardy (talk) 20:33, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

But I will leave Americans as Van GrahamHardy (talk) 20:37, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Afrikaners go under V - see van (Dutch). DuncanHill (talk) 20:43, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See also how the name is collated at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica#Notable people. --Lambiam 06:43, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]