Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- From: Jack Campin - bogus address <bogus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:09:51 +0100
OC for the right eye and AY for the left eye allow two compounds:
OC AY and AY OC, surviving in Scottish och aye
"Scottish och aye" is extremely recent. It's an expression of
exasperated agreement. The "och" part is older, with multiple
origin: a contraction of Gaelic "ochone" or a variant of English
"oh" (it has NEVER pronounced with the "ch" sounding like "k").
"Aye" meaning "yes" is a 19th century import from English; it
first appears in English at the end of the 16th century and not
in Scots until much later, though it is now so well established
you'd think it had been around for a millennium.
The use of "och aye" you're thinking of comes from comedians
like Harry Lauder in the early 20th century. The phrase is
still current, but the standard pronunciation is "oh aye" (with
an unusually strong falling tone on both syllables).
============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- From: Franz Gnaedinger
- Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- References:
- Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- From: Harlan Messinger
- Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- From: Franz Gnaedinger
- Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- Prev by Date: Re: Wash DC
- Next by Date: Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- Previous by thread: Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- Next by thread: Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?
- Index(es):