The Death of Yes and the Rise of Ya

By: Elizabeth Redhead Kriston

The average toddler hears the word no 350-400 times each and every day. It’s hardly surprising that no becomes one of his earliest and most used words. In contrast, a toddler hears the word yes almost never.

Not hearing yes is not as much a function of toddlers never getting what they want. We all know most toddlers are indulged or spoiled. Not hearing yes is more a result of the fact that the people around them don’t actually say yes.

The other a day a mom I was working with asked, “Why won’t my daughter say yes?” I have fielded this question many times over the years. At first, I did not have a good answer. Then, I started to pay attention. I listened to what others say when responding in the affirmative. I observed how children start talking just like the people they are around the most.

Toddlers not only pick-up the language in which they are immersed, they assimilate the accent, the slang and colloquialisms. They use the idioms and the gestures. In essence, they become mimics who sound just like mom and dad. 

Watch what you say. Yeah you, Mr. Potty Mouth!

With the numerous ways to indicate the affirmative, it’s hard to pick a favorite.

Ways to Say Yes

all right, very, well, of course, by all means, sure, certainly, absolutely, indeed, right, affirmative, agreed, roger, aye, yeah, yup, ya, uh-huh, okay, okey-dokey, okey-doke, yea, yep, yeppers, yay, you betcha, you know it, mm-hmm, yup.

For the less chatty of us, we can use nonverbal yesses like a smile, a head nod, the okay sign, a wink or a thumbs up to indicate our agreement. We even have emojis on our devices to indicate yes so, we’re not even typing that word.

A Little History on the Origin of Yes

1.      yes (adv.)

Old English gise, gese "so be it!," probably from gea, ge "so" (see yea) + si "be it!," from Proto-Germanic *sijai-, from PIE *si-, optative stem of root *es- "to be." Originally stronger than simple yea. Used in Shakespeare mainly as an answer to negative questions. As a noun from 1712. Yes-man is first recorded 1912, American English.

2.      Here's the timeline:

Yea, circa 1000

Yes, circa 1000

Yep, 1891 (first appeared as a quotation in Harper's Magazine)

Yeah, 1905 (first described in Dialect Notes)

Yup, 1906 (first appeared as a quotation in Century Magazine)

We live in a culture and a time when we feel the need to shorten or abbreviate everything. We need instant access. We buy pre-portioned meal kits. We have next day or even same day shipping. We cook in instant pots. We have high-speed internet. Our speed limits are increasing to 70 mph or faster. We don’t even have time to swipe a credit card. We tap it or use Apple pay instead. You name it there is a faster way to do it. I even read the average person is walking faster.

We are busier than ever. There is stuff to be done. We don’t have time to say yes when a ya will do! That is one less consonant we need to produce. In the course of a lifetime, think of the minutes we will save by simply changing our yesses to yas. Think of how much ink and paper we will save. Our thumbs will last a little longer with typing one less character in our texts. This small change could potentially save millions of dollars in thumb related medical costs alone!

I say we stop trying to shame toddlers into saying yes. I say we embrace the change and move forward knowing that we are making the world a better place.

Goodbye yes and hello ya or uh-huh or mm-hmm. Even better, hello to the thumbs-up. By adopting the thumbs-up we are stretching our fatigued thumbs, exercising them to make them stronger for our next batch of snarky responses on Twitter.

Even Laurie B can't stop saying Ya in her Yes video

Sources  1. https://www.etymonline.com/word/yes

               2. https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/from-yea-and-yes-to-yeah-and-yup/