Re: OT: English and front rounded vowels

>"T. A. McLeay" <conlang@...> wrote:
>I would not be surprised if the modern "yay" was just another
>representative of ME "yea" and therefore we have four different
>continuations of *ja: yea (archaic), yes, yay (interjection), yeah
>(informal).
There is also an expression used by New Englanders, mainly by
Vermonters I believe.  I have no idea how it is spelled but it sounds
something like /e'@/.  Perhaps it is spelled <ea>.  I wouldn't be
surprised if this, too, wasn't related to "yea" and "yay."  If you have
ever seen the motion picture "Rooster Cogburn" you heard Katherine
Hepburn's character Eula Goodnight use it from time to time.

Charlie

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