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Topic Options #35127 - 07/09/01 11:42 PM Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/12/00 Posts: 3409 Top #35128 - 07/10/01 05:34 AM Re: Aye, Ae? Hai! maverick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/15/00 Posts: 4757 My ignorance of the speculations of the meta -language brigade is almost total, Max. But from a limited study of vocal tract mechanics and early language formation I would observe it starts as the simplest full-throat sound (similar to why a baby's early sounds will often include /a/ in such vowel&consonant clusters as dadadadad, mamamamama), modified by the natural diphthong effect of closing the lips and retracting the tongue at the end of the production. Top #35129 - 07/10/01 06:50 PM Eh? AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York & [runnin'n'duckin' from the Canadians] But seriously, folks: Good question, Max. I dunno.... I'll go with maverick's idea (the bit about mamama and dadada I first heard put forth by L. Bernstein on a TV program in the 60s about sounds and music). Top #35130 - 07/11/01 06:03 AM Re: Aye, Ae? Hai! NicholasW enthusiast Registered: 12/18/00 Posts: 393 Loc: London There might be some universal tendencies, but I think you'd be hard pressed to distinguish them from chance. An open-mouthed vocable of surprise (of the ah/oh kind), a slack one of assent (ha/hm/mm), and a broken one of negation (uh-uh/mm-mm) perhaps occur more widely than can be explained as common culture. For example, glottalized m-m means 'no' in Hausa. But really, you've got quite as many counterexamples: iie in Japanese for 'no', Greek ne 'yes'. These mama effects are pretty weak. English aye 'yes' is of unknown origin, with no obvious counterpart even in German or Norse. Japanese hai points to Old Japanese pai or some such, but H < P anyway. For the Maaori, you'd want to get any other Austronesian cognates first to see what it came from. There's no way any of those groups can be connected. It's been suggested that Japanese and Austronesian are related, but if so it's at such a great depth that no single word can be held up as cognate; and there hasn't been any opportunity of borrowing in millennia either. So it's all just coincidence, I think. Top #35131 - 07/11/01 06:59 AM Re: Aye, Ae? Hai! AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York NW, I am happy to see the return of your good self and your well-thought-out philological posts. Fools® rule! hi Faldage! Top #35132 - 07/11/01 07:03 AM Re: Aye, Ae? Hai! maverick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/15/00 Posts: 4757 I'll second that, Nicholas - your contributions are always fascinating. [shakes head, muttering where does he get that breadth of experience from?!] Top #35133 - 07/11/01 02:16 PM Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/12/00 Posts: 3409 Top Previous Topic Index Next Topic Preview Hop to: General Topics ------   Information and announcements   Q&A about words   Wordplay and fun   Words and languages in schools   Miscellany   Weekly Themes   Looking for (writers, speakers, ...) (Old) Weekly themes. (have been consolidated into a single forum above) ------   Words from medicine   Beheading words   Meta-words   Words from classical mythology   Animal Safari   Words with unusual etymologies   Eponyms or words derived from people's names.   Loanwords from German   English as a global language Moderator:  Jackie  Print Topic Switch to Threaded Mode View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts Forum Stats 8431 Members 16 Forums 13688 Topics 209832 Posts Max Online: 3341 @ 12/09/11 02:15 PM Newest Members supermatthias, prabakaran, sce, Eva, sylviasuper 8430 Registered Users Who's Online 2 registered (endymion6, Jackie), 38 Guests and 1 Spider online. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters (30 Days) LukeJavan8 93 jenny jenny 62 wofahulicodoc 61 endymion6 57 Rhubarb Commando 37 BranShea 31 Faldage 16 Buffalo Shrdlu 15 zmjezhd 13 teepee 11 May Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

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