March 7, 2007
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Snow Day–Yeah!
Today, as predicted, we awoke to three or so inches of icy snow. The kids said, “Please, oh, please. Can we have a snow day?” Being the fun mom that I am, I said, “Sure!” They played pinochle, lounged about, and are currently watching High School Musical while LibbyK makes grilled cheese. (Get’cha, get’cha head in the game!) There is sledding planned for after lunch. I hope to sew some costumes since I would be foolish to go sledding with this cough.
FI read Fairest last night. I’m a fan of Gail Carson Levine (except for The Wish which was so-so). Fairest wasn’t as good as Ella Enchanted (is anything?), but it was a nice take on Snow White. I stayed up until 1:30 reading it. (Uh, you didn’t see that TGD.) May Veritas be as entertaining and even more so!
Now, for the other half of my title. How do you spell the exclamation of happiness: yeah, yah, yeh, yay, yaa? I have always spelled it “yeah,” but I feel that word could be misconstrued as the slurred affirmative as in
“Did you put the pickles on the table?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you clean up the spilled cat food?”
“Yeah.”
What say you? How is it spelled? Is my “Yeah!” acceptable?
Comments (28)
I think of “yeah” being a substitute for “yes.” I think maybe you could use “yea” or “yay.” I usually don’t use any of them because I never know which one is proper.
My daughter loves Gail Carson Levine. But I have never read any of her books. I always assumed they were for the teen crowd but now since you read them, I might give them a shot. My daughter would love it if I read some of them and we could chat about all the princessy stuff and adventures. And we too had snow. But alas, no snow day. We took too many of them in January! We actually have to bust our heinnies to work on some speeches for our speech class next week. Wahh! Snow sounds like more fun.
I’ve always thought of “yeah” as the lazy man’s “yes” (though some of us use it as an exclamation), “yah” as a noise made when startled, and “yay” as another exclamation.
Snow! I’m jealous.
God bless you.
Cynthia
Even homeschooled kids need a snow day!
Being the literary person that I am *ahem* I would construe the meaning based on context clues, but you are right, my first impulse would probably be the slang affirmative. Yay cannot me mistaken, and there’s always “Hooray!” or “Yippee!” One thing I liked about that depressing Swedish movie I posted about was the different noises Swedes use for “oops” and “eh?”, and so forth. My Harvard educated first hubby had a mug with the word “Veritas.” on it, -the Harvard motto.
I think of “yeah” to mean “yes” more than the happy sound. But I can’t help you much on the correct spelling of the happy sound. I think I would opt for “Yippee!”
We didn’t have a snow day, but we should have. Oh well, ours will be tomorrow and Friday too, since we are away on Monday.
Blessings,
Karen
I usually use “Yeah!” the way that you do…but think that it (or yea) could just be a sloppy yes. I guess that you could spell it “Yay,” but that somehow seems very improper.
Glad that you enjoyed a snow day!
I guess I’m a woo-hoo person…
I avoid the yeah thing.
I am a mean Mommy and do not give my kids snow days…Of course I tell them it is because I want to be done with their curriculum by mid-May. So if the want to be done with book work before their traditional school friends then they have to plug away even with a lot of snow.
I’m confused with the yeah/yay stuff. Yeah to me means yes, yay means yippie! Yah is Swedish for yes, Yeh is New Yorker for “Yes?” or “What?” (I have no idea what makes me think that) Yaa is. . . a word someone made up for a Science Fiction novel. Umm, yeah.
Yeah, “yeah” is fine.
I have struggled with the word as well. I have decided on yay. Oh the quandries!
:)
Here’s my self-claimed expert opinion on the word, “Yeah”: (;P)
The word “yeah” has the short vowel sound “a” and means “yes”. It shall be used to answer a question when the answer is “yes”, or in the “yes” expression of “Oh, yeah!”, as in the Kool-Aid character’s song.
The word “yea” has the long vowel sound “a” and means “yes”. It shall be used, mainly, as an expression of joy when you are glad to have a snow day (“Yea! Mom cancelled school!”), or when you are quoting KJV scripture, as in, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”.
We do not normally use “yay”, “ya”, “yeh”, or “yah”. These are the rules of AJ’s mentality. We do not know why they are there, but, we obey them!! ;P However…… we do recognize the need to be flexible and do not judge others for using the aforementioned “yay”-words. We have even used them a few times as of late, just to walk on the “wild” side! (pss-s-sss-ss!) <– that is a snicker, not a bad word…. in case you’re wondering.
I have a headache today. We did a bunch of running around today, which didn’t help. We had no milk, bread, or juice this morning, so, our first stop was McD’s for a quick breakfast! After that, we went to Aldi’s (a grocery store, if you’re not familiar with it), then, more groceries at Krogers (Aldi’s doesn’t carry everything I needed, but has great prices). We got a car wash and then stopped in at Rite-Aid for some cards & deodorant! I layed down for a few minutes when we got back while my 10y.o. fixed Taquitos for lunch! Now, I’m doing bills (& Xanga-ing!) on the computer! Yea! or yay?
OH! And a snow day sounds soooo fun!!!! You good momma, you!
How about “Woot!”?
According to Dictionary.com, “yeah” is a derivative from “yea”, and therefore is a synonim for yes or as an affirmation (the biblical “Yea(h) though I walk through the valley…).
That being said, I have always thought of “Yeah” as the truncated way of saying “Yes”. This was the response that generally prompted my parents to say, “Say yes or no, yeah sounds too much like ‘nah’”. Hmm, wonder if that’s the correct way to spell nah…
Anyway, my reasoning has always been that “yay” is quite clear as to what is intended: “yayyy”. Also, if “yeah” doesn’t mean a lazy affirmative, how would one spell that word? BTW – Yah is an exclamation of impatience, according to Dictionary.com.
High School musical…yeah!!! We, of course, own the DVD and have watched it many times. Some of the high schools in this area are actually doing it for their “spring musicals.” Snow days…too much fun! Enjoy the remainder of yours! Blessings…Susan
Well, I’ve always used “yeah” as a substitute for “yes” . . . when I’m online I use it more casually (saying “yes” in a conversation sounds almost too formal — I use “yeah” for more serious stuff and “yep” for more light-hearted things). But, Mom prefers “yes” in normal face-to-face conversation . . .
So, when I’m happy, I use “yay!” However, when you use “yeah!” with the exclamation point, I think of it as you saying “yay” . . . it works with your personality better, I think.
Hope you’re feeling better!
I like yay. Yay! As in, “Yay! I just had a surprise birthday party.” Hence my cryptic post.
Snow days are fun, but little dude is still sick so we haven’t been able to enjoy it. Are you feeling better?
We´re right in the middle of Summer! Snow day!!!!! That´s sounds good specially when It´s sooooo hot!!!
I vote for YAY.
Since there is no standard, I usually derive the meaning from context. Personally, I use “yeah” as the lazy “yes” and “yay” for the expression of happiness. The grammarian in me objects to “yay” on some levels, but the need for clarity wins out in the end.
I’ve never been to sure of the spelling either. I do know that “yeah” would be equivalent to yes. Sometimes I spell it “yay,” but I think it doesn’t look right, so I will often just use “hurray” to be on the safe side.
I wrote a response to you in my comment box! Why? I hvae no idea!
Anyway I think it would be yeah as in would you like more coffee? yeah! And Yay! As in do we have a democratic majority? yay! Although I’m sure I have used yeah for both.
I keep looking at those books and wanting to check them out. My sister likes them.
Have you read Peter Pan in Scarlett?
Snow day sounds fabulous! You are a fun mom!
I never really thought about it, until now. LOL! Maybe we should just use words like cool, groovy, or (for you) peachy.
Mary,
RYC: One Night With the King was very good. I was surprised. I enjoyed it immensely. How was the book?
God bless you.
Cynthia
I LOVE the high school musical!!! i got it for my B-Day and i’d never seen it. Can’t wait til the second one!
I must be sick. It started yesterday afternoon, just a feeling of being tired along with my headache. It lasted throughout the evening until I fell asleep on the couch around 9:30pm, which, for me, is almost unheard of (the 9:30 part AND the sleeping on the couch). I woke up at 11:30pm and went in to bed with snoring husband. I set my alarm for 7:30am thinking, “Yay! (notice new, more creative spelling!) I’ll actually be able to get up on time with all this extra sleep!”. When the alarm went off, I hit the snooze button a couple times and must have hit another button that turned it off altogether, because it didn’t go off again and I woke up at 9:00am! I woke up tired & I’ve been tired and groggy all day. I took a nap around 1:30pm and slept while the kids ate their cheese & crackers lunch and played quietly in their rooms (what wonderful children I have!
). I thought I was all better after my nap, but, as soon as I ate something, I felt bad again.
My 10 y.o. made her first casserole last night! It was so cute to see how excited she got over it! I love the fact that she loves to cook!
In answer to your questions, my middle name is Jo (I was named after the characters in Little Women!) and I’ve been reading in Numbers lately with the girls. Recently, my alone time with Jesus has been just prayer & worship. I’d like to get back into my “Streams in the Desert” devotional book, but, I’ve been bad about setting aside a specific time of day to do that. You’re question is a good prodding to remind me to do that! Thank you!!
Sorry not to be as “bubbly” today. I’m hoping to feel better tomorrow. I’m off to go have some of D.s leftover casserole that she heated up! Yumm! Nothing like somebody else cookin’ for ya, is there!!?