[lit-ideas] Re: vocative particles
- From: Michael Chase <goya@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 10:12:30 +0100
Le 29 janv. 05, =E0 16:32, Robert Paul a =E9crit :
> Mirembe:
>
>> Forgot to ask:
>
>> What troubles me about Mirembe's list of 'English' vocative particles=20=
>> is...<
>
>> Why 'English' rather than just English, O Robert?
> --------------------------------------
> Hai! Mirembe! Because it seemed to me that the examples given although=20=
> used by
> English-speakers were not especially English words. I now wonder if=20
> 'Ahoy!' Oy!
> are related to the ubiquitous O! (and if so how). Not every word used=20=
> by
> English-speakers is an English word. Sometimes words swim from one=20
> live language
> to another: noblesse oblige.
>
> Grammar can be prescriptive, but linguistics, one hopes, is=20
> descriptive. So it
> would not be an a priori truth but an empirical discovery that a=20
> word--a
> particle--was used vocatively by hipsters, flipsters, and=20
> finger-poppin'
> daddies.
>
> 1963 V. NABOKOV Gift iii. 181 His trick of garbling Russian, in=20
> imitation of a
> farcical Jewish accent as when he said..`Oy, vat a mudnik [sic]!'
>
> 1968 L. ROSTEN Joys of Yiddish 14 Two A[lteren] K[ockern] had sat in=20=
> silence on
> their favorite park bench for hours, lost in thought. Finally, one=20
> gave a long
> and languid `Oy!' The other replied, `You're telling me?'
>
> 1968 L. ROSTEN Joys of Yiddish 273 Oy is often used as lead-off for=20
> `oy vay!'
> which means, literally, `Oh, pain', but is used as an all-purpose=20
> ejaculation to
> express anything from trivial delight to abysmal woe.
>
> Now, is this Oy the Oi of David Ritchie's kinsman? I wouldn't know how=20=
> to answer
> that.
M.C. Among my list of OY's, I forgot to mention the Cockney Oy! which=20
is more or less equivalent to Hey! I suspect this is unrelated to the=20
Yiddish, but it may be the source - through 70's punk-rock groups? - of=20=
its use in the Americas.
>
>
Michael Chase
(goya@xxxxxxxxxxx)
CNRS UPR 76
7, rue Guy Moquet
Villejuif 94801
France
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