Date:  Wed, 11 Oct 1995 12:26:10 -0400

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: Re: Who's got the right one, baby (UH-HUH)?



re: uh-uh



i really wonder about that etymology (from africa). i think the

characterization of it as a "grunt" is part of what makes me

suspicious. "grunting" is a frequent stereotype of african languages

by americans who've never heard them.



my west african knowledge is almost all second hand, but none of the

sounds here seem right--the glottals and the central vowel.

agreement and disagreement sounds i know from africa are "ee"

and "oo". in beng (southern mande lg of cote d'ivoire--dictionaries

now available from indiana u. ling. club, plug plug), agreement is

"ee" with low tones, but the negative "not" is "E" with a high tone.



but then again, all these long vowels might be susceptible to

separation by glottalization in a non-tonal language, maybe.

one thing beng does have that might be related to an uh-uh is "n`n'"

(that is, low-high tones) for agreement. (the same tone pattern used

with "oo" is also agreement.) i'm, of course, not saying this came

from beng--i don't think they figured greatly in the slave trade--but

this is the type of thing that is likely to be an areal, rather than

genetic feature, don't you think?



so, after a defensive start, i'd say maybe uh-huh and uh-uh do have

african origins.



lynne



---------------------------------------------------------------------

M. Lynne Murphy              104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-4199

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA