We could also be a polarized nation, however on a verbal degree we’re witnessing an explosion of how to agree. Even an expert observer of linguistic change struggles to maintain up with the number of ways in which the youthful people must say “yep!” This fecundity is proof not solely of how language evolves but in addition of how dialects combine. And it’s enjoyable.
Again within the days of Center English, the best way to speak settlement was “yea verily.” Additionally “forsooth” — “sooth” meant “fact,” now perceivable solely in “soothsayer.” As we speak our default affirmation marker is “yeah.” Not “sure”: In most circumstances, “sure” has a distinctly chilly ring, a touch of displeasure with whoever is asking the query. Or it could possibly sound socially awkward, as when Miss Prissy, a hen within the Looney Tunes Foghorn Leghorn sequence, intones her flutily schoolmarmish “yeh-ess!” “Yeah” drafts an “ah” on to “sure” that softens it up, simply because it does with “nah,” conveying negation in a “no offense” means. “Yep” subs in a p, which when connected to the tip of a phrase could make it appear extra amiable, because it does for “nope” or “welp.”
All superb choices, however nothing in comparison with the cornucopia that Black English produced. The hip and jolly “proper on!” was most likely the primary affirmation to realize nationwide consideration within the late Sixties. By the late Nineteen Seventies it was beginning to sound dated. Earlier than lengthy, one was extra prone to say “phrase” (or the marginally extra embroidered “phrase up”), primarily based finally on a medieval proverb that “one’s phrase is one’s bond.” Additionally, we acquired the equally flavored “mos def” and “true dat.”
These affirmation phrases have been key markers within the affect of Black English on the language as an entire. Past particular person phrases, they’ve contributed a way, now commonplace, of language as a artistic and kinetic zone. Younger audio system of all shades now count on a continuing turnover in methods of claiming “yep.”
White American dialects have been fertile floor as nicely. I keep in mind a spirited dialog I as soon as had when a white good friend of mine instantly erupted with “primo!” It sounded so unusual to the remainder of us that we laughed, quite a bit. That was a long time in the past however I nonetheless chuckle once I consider how the phrase took us all abruptly. My good friend stated “primo” was a cherished phrase of assent amongst younger people within the Massachusetts space she got here from. “Totes” originated in white dialects, as did “completely.” Bear in mind Valley Women?
Extra typical is the Black slang import “wager,” which is opaque to the untrained ear however only a shortened and melodically flattened model of the longstanding “you wager.” Somebody says “The present wasn’t even that good, anyway”; his good friend solutions, “Wager.” Equally incomprehensible to the uninitiated is “no cap.” Its primary which means is “no kidding” — in Black English, one which means of “capping” is mendacity — but it surely’s now additionally used as a marker of settlement. Additionally on the smorgasbord today is “say that,” a descendant of “you’ll be able to say that once more” and “you stated it” with the flavour of the Black “preach it!”
A West Coast good friend stories that her (white) teenage boys’ variations of assent are presently “peak,” “hearth” and “details.” On the East Coast I just lately encountered a (white) 20-something whose most well-liked affirmation marker was “interval,” which threw me the primary couple of instances. One can solely start to think about all of the variations to be discovered between.
One other affirmation marker is “mm-HMM.” One principle is that it was introduced into English by enslaved individuals, most of whose West African languages are tonal, like Mandarin. That makes for a terrific story, however I’m not satisfied. For one factor, “mm-HMM” just isn’t particularly related to Black individuals and even the South. For an additional, there’s a extra economical clarification obtainable if we pull the digicam again just a little.
“Mm-HMM” is what linguists name a melodic expression. In English, others embrace “MM-mm” to imply “nope,” “mm-MM-mm” to imply “I don’t know,” and “hm-M” to imply “What?” The melodies of the latter two appear to be primarily based on the best way we are saying “I don’t know” and “What?” “Mm-HMM” most definitely derived from the best way we are saying “OK” or “That’s proper.”
The impulse to achieve for sounds as an alternative of phrases to imply “yep” and “nope” crosses cultural boundaries. Swedes can agree by simply inhaling whereas saying one thing like “shupp.” In Italian, “bo” is a means of claiming you don’t know. Most of our idiomatic methods to agree come from Black English, however some transcend dialect totally.
Thus we are able to even depend a sort of singing amongst our efflorescence of how to convey heat settlement, a lot of it pushed by Black English seasoning the overall American vernacular. Language adjustments, dialects combine — even in how we are saying “yeah!”
By the best way, I just lately did an interview with Bari Weiss of The Free Press about my new ebook, “Pronoun Bother.” In the event you watch it, you will note me assert — with a sure take-a-stab confidence — that there aren’t any languages during which phrases for women and men are primarily based on physique elements, alongside the strains of current proposals like “individuals with uteruses.” I have to eat crow. Mark Submit, a linguist on the College of Sydney, informs me that in Galo, an Indigenous language of India, the phrase for son-in-law interprets as one thing like “mister penis” (i.e., the supply of future offspring), and names and nicknames of daughters typically confer with delivery order alongside the strains of “first vagina” and “final vagina.” To make use of one other melodic expression the youngs are utilizing today, “womp womp.” Now I do know!
