I've noticed a lot of Americans posting on many sites type "Ya". Is this a common thing among people with German ancestors or is it common to say "ya", assuming "ya" rhymes with "bra". I only read these posts.

Just curious.

inability to spell.

Pfft!!!

It's easier to text "ya" than it is to text "yeah."

And don't get me started on "loose"

What nationality are you, out of curiosity?

so that's why the emphasis.
I think it has a lot to do with the dumbing down of American education... and, as you suggested, the whole electronic culture where young people in particular seem to have forgotten how to actually write the English language.

Dumbing down? Interesting. What exactly about lose vs loose or yeah vs ya (or yay) indicates that people are more dumb now than they were before?

guilty! I also cannot spell exercize (that thing thin, healthy people do that makes them sweat)

I think it's generally just lazy typing. Or sometimes you will hear snarky California girls with gum in their mouths say, "Ya, well blah blah blah" It adds a certain careless tone to the sentence.

But I can assure you that in the southern US we still say "yeah" and I'm pretty it takes about three syllables to do it :P

It is nothing like lazy typing. Human language changes and it makes sense given first world culture's switch to typing and texting that it would change in exactly the way it is right now.

Abbreviations and alternate spellings aren't lazy, they are natural. On the other hand, there is no benefit, morality or practicality associated with good or traditional spelling (or grammar).

Lots of Americans can't spell or just don't bother to try. I'm sure in speech they say "yeah", and not the quasi-European ya or ja, unless they're from parts of Minnesota, for instance.

It's one of my pet peeves, along with adding an apostrophe s when making a word plural, and making a verb act as a noun. Corporate jargon is so irritating.

The other day I was replying to a text using the voice to text option. I said "well, get ready because I'll be there in 10 minutes." What the phone turned it into was "well get ready cuz I'm going to be there in 10 mintues"

Cuz. Really?

I spent 4 years in Vienna, learning German, so I said "ja" for "yes" or "yeah."

Then we went to Montreal, where I was introduced to the school principal, and I said "ja" for "yes." He said to my mom, "When a student is talking to a principal, he should not say 'yeah' when he means 'yes'."

My mom was quite embarrassed, but I quickly defended myself, saying "It's GERMAN for 'yes'."

Anyway, ya is perfectly fine with me on the 'net.

And I used to think that no apostrophes were required when it was merely to designate plurality. But I learned that it's ok to use an apostrophe when there are more than one letter, such as "how many s's are there in Mississippi?"

So, some American's r lazy, but not all American's r.

:-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2013 07:23PM by PapaKen.

For the love of God people, Americans aren't anymore or less educated than the rest of the first world. The truncation of words, and traditional misspellings don't just exist in North America.

+1

And despite the way they pronounce it in some countries, there is no second "R" in "drawings."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2013 07:05PM by resipsaloquitur.

NO "r" in wash.

I hate the your/you're and they're/there screw ups. I've seen billboards in Australia with "your 5 minutes away from......". Aaaarrgh!

They don't say ya in Pennsylvania.

They do among the "Pennsylvania Dutch", the Amish folks. :)

We still say, "yeah," but sometimes you'll hear younger people say ya/ja in a playful or sarcastic way. So I'm not sure about the spelling. Spelling tends to follow reading, and I'm sure everyone sees "yeah" in young adult and adult novels.

I still type yea, instead of yay, and yeah, instead of ya, but I've noticed that I'm quite outnumbered in most places I go on-line.

Nobody says ya (rhyming with bra) in America. It is just a shortened form of yeah (/jæ/).

snb Wrote:
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> Nobody says ya (rhyming with bra) in America.

You must not hang around a lot of middle schoolers. They make a game of zinging it back and forth with one another.

I spend most every day of my life around 200+ middle schoolers. I've never heard them use ya (ie, /jɑ/) in any part of their language. Though, if they had a whip and pretended the other student were a horse... :)

I'll admit that I was a bit too quick to claim that NOBODY in America uses it. Most likely there is some group somewhere in this country that has that sound.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2013 07:53PM by snb.

True that. Colloquialisms vary even within a few dozen miles.

My son's karate teacher has a pet peeve about saying "Yeah" instead of "Yes". Her students must say "Yes" or they're on the floor doing push-ups. I say "Yeah" all the time and hope she doesn't catch me saying it!

Oh, and as for your question, I haven't heard or seen "Ya" being used in my area (NJ).

In about the same way that Americans switched from saying "yes" to saying "yeah." The language evolves toward minimalism. People texting "ya" today are no more lazy than the folks who first started saying "yeah" instead of "yes." I can guarantee that there were people saying that Americans who said "yeah" instead of "yes" were just being ignorant and lazy.

Austin Powers helped things along: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTB4Si_HiOo

But the true source of the colloquialism was the movie Fargo released in 1996: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF3z-j8o39I

After this movie came out, EVERYONE was saying "ya" and "you betcha".

Sounds Swedish or German. Lots of people do it and I can't stand it.

My mother's family were ethnic Germans who spoke German at home, and so did most of their neighbors. The midwest is full of Germans, and Scandinavians; they are the overwhelming majority in some areas. It only sounds strange if you are from an area with predominantly English ancestry.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2013 03:14PM by atheist&happy:-).