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From: mmar@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Mitchell Marks)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Boo for "Yea!"
Message-ID: <881@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Jul-85 00:43:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: sphinx.881
Posted: Wed Jul 24 00:43:23 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 21:49:55 EDT
References: <3156@decwrl.UUCP>, <2174@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: U Chicago -- Linguistics Dept
Lines: 29

From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Message-ID: <2174@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
> Recently I've been noticing that no one knows how to spell a cheer
> any more.
> 
> Cheers are spelled "Yay!"  (As in hip, hip, hurrah!)
> 
> Yea! and Yeah! are NOT cheers.
> Yea! is a noise you make when you vote in favor of something.
> Yeah is currently an informal version of Yes (and goes back to Chaucerian
> days, I've been told).

I'm with you, Lee, in my personal preferences for how to spell these.  But I
have a suspicion that we would be on shaky ground if we claimed historical
authority.  I can't find an origin for 'yay'.  If it comes from 'hurray'
(which, by the way, is a word Americans actually use, unlike 'hurrah'),
then we're safe.  But it's not implausible that it might come from 'yea',
and use of that spelling would be a throwback instead of a peculiar
innovation.
	Besides 'yea' for 'yay', I also frequently see 'yea' for 'yeah'.  the
meaning, of course, is the same: "yes".  But if it's in fictional dialogue or
colloquial writing, you know they don't mean to indicate the 'yea' pronunciation
(that is, 'yay').  These are totally different registers (levels of formality).
Yeah, man, that's cool.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death ...  and Shirley Gustafson Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life.
-- 

            -- Mitch Marks @ UChicago 
               ...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!mmar