YEAH, whatever.

[Dave1982]

Had a guy tonight ask me if we carried easels.

Me: Yeah, this way.

I pronounced "yeah" in a staccato fashion, so it sounded like "yeh," as many, many people do.

SC *muttering, probably thought I didnt' hear him*: It's not "yeh" it's "yes."

Yeh yeh, WHATEVER. I pretended i didn't hear him. This isn't English class, and that was far from hardcore slang. This guy needs TO BOLDLY GO get a life.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Guy that used to play in my band once wanted to change the lyrics of a Bobby Sands song about a boatload of australian bound prisoners because he felt the grammer in the chorus was incorrect.

I told him it's a boatload of convicts, not a boatload of freaking English doctorates.

Geeze, talk about needing to "boldly go". No, we didn't change it.

This is the same guy who showed up to a drum circle with a metronome. He was lucky to get out that one alive.

[Dave1982]

Oh man, if there's ANYONE who should be able to find the beat, it's a drummer......

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

Funny, I never once heard a customer in Quebec complain if anyone said "ouais" instead of "oui."

To think about it, I've never heard a customer complain about "yeah" before. What a fussbudget.

[Andara Bledin]

One of the bosses at work has mentioned that it's "yes" and not "yeah" but that doesn't really stop anyone from saying "yeah."

Plus, he (a former teacher) screws up his personal pronouns all the time. Drives me to distraction. And then he goes and repeats the whole "end a sentence with a preposition" myth.

^-.-^

[Hobbs]

Oh man, if there's ANYONE who should be able to find the beat, it's a drummer......

Oh, wait...you're serious?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Oh man, if there's ANYONE who should be able to find the beat, it's a drummer......

He was not a drummer, he was unhappy with the beat-keeping of a pack of drummers.

There was nothing wrong with the beat keeping of this particular pack of drummers, by the way. I thought they were going to tear out his liver.

[VComps]

One of the bosses at work has mentioned that it's "yes" and not "yeah" but that doesn't really stop anyone from saying "yeah."

Plus, he (a former teacher) screws up his personal pronouns all the time. Drives me to distraction. And then he goes and repeats the whole "end a sentence with a preposition" myth.

^-.-^

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which he cannot put!

[Andara Bledin]

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which he cannot put!

Yeah, I love that little gem. It wasn't until just a couple of years ago that I learned that what we think of as a preposition is actually part of a verbal phrase in the usage we are used to.

^-.-^

[BaristaTrav]

I read your post quickly and I thought for a second the guy asked if you carried "weasels."

[bunnyboy]

Ugh, I hate people like that, yeah they may be English majors/teachers/doctors/whatever, but let them try to say that to a linguistics nerd/major/doctor/teacher/whatever... and get promptly told off that unlike Latin where that rule is fixed because it's only a written/liturgical language, English is living, and well living languages change. *snerks* Yes they follow under English is a Latin based language folks... gods how I hate the major I'm choosing.

[BookstoreEscapee]

It's not "yeh" it's "yes."

Oh god it's my old boss!!!

[SailorMan]

Okay, to get a little academic here... American English is descended from British English, as we all know. And the word 'yeah' in English, meaning 'an affirmative reply,' is actually older than the word 'yes.' Here's the background:

English is a Germanic language, and the word 'yeah' is related to the German word 'ja,' and also to the related words for 'affirmative reply' in the other Germanic languages, such as in Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, etc., etc. In Old English it was pronounced 'yeh' or 'yay' (as in "Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death...")

On the other hand, 'yes' was invented later on in the history of English, by tacking on the word 'sie,' meaning 'may it be so,' to emphasize emphatically a positive reply. It was pronounced something like yeh see, and meant something like "it's definitely so," or "it's definitely true," or words to that effect. (In pronunciation, it eventually became shortened to its present, one syllable form.) This became a sort of more formal way of voicing an affirmative reply, and became the more educated word to use. But 'yeah' continued to be used by ordinary people, as it actually was the original word that in modern times we now largely use 'yes' for. And so, being the original word in our language for the concept, it was never actually slang to begin with, as some people now erroneously think!

This means that, in actuality, the jerk in the OP was in fact ignorant of the word's real history and usage. And we all know that "ignorance breeds hatred," don't we?

[Red Hand of Ulster]

I read your post quickly and I thought for a second the guy asked if you carried "weasels."

And that sounds like the beginning of a Monty Python sketch!

[CaroPhoenix]

And that sounds like the beginning of a Monty Python sketch!

Or a Weird Al Yankovic song.