> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Mark J. Reed
> Usually grouped with "Ayup."
>
> "Yay" is definitely a respelling of "yea"; the latter
> spelling was used in
> the modern sense of the former for quite some time. "Yea" is
> also sometimes
> used in formal meeting settings instead of the more usual Aye.
>
> "Yeah" is indeed /j&:/ for most of us over here, but some do
> pronounce it
> /jE/ (sometimes with a corresponding respelling to "yeh").
> Typically this
> is a shortened version, spoken quickly. Final /E/ is quite
> rare (though not
> unheard of) among us rhotic types, which is no doubt the
> reason that the
> vowel in "yeah" changed for us.
Don't forget the very similar [a_nha] (=yes) and [a_n?a] (=no).