Re: ach y fi (was: CHAT Starbucks (was: Hymn to Ikea etc.))

Paul Bennett wrote:


> On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 15:43:32 -0500 (EST), J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
> wrote:
>
> >>> Yes it is /a:x@vi:/ or /a:xVvi:/ meaning something that you say when
> >> you
> >>
> >>> throw your hands up in despair. "Oh no!" "My goodness" or whatever.
> >>
> >>> Literally it's "Oh the me!"
> >>
> >> Very reminiscent of Spanish "¡Ay de mí!" and French? Italian? literary
> >> "ahimé" 'alas'.  Do other languages have such close correspondences?
Did
> >> Latin, or might this be a Celticism???  Just _speculans_.
> >
> > AiYah! (Oy vey...)
>
> You know, that actually fits my putative Proto-x /aE_^x@Bi:/ mold
> relatively well (it might end up being /6E_^x@Bi:/ by the time I've
> mangled it to absorb all the evidence), although it's clearly divergent
> (due to the required age of separation?). However, it *is* missing the
> central guttural.
From my point of view, the problem is that it's too divergent semantically,
since "vey" = Germ. Weh 'woe'; the "oy" is simply the Yiddish reflex of
Germ. /aj/, the almost worldwide cry of pain/surprise.

What I was trying to "universalize/celticize??" were expressions that
included, in some way, the 1st pers. pronoun.  In fact, we have "Ah, me" and
"Oh, my" in English too.

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