So why was there suddenly a freakin’ snowbank in the middle of my side of the road?! A car was passing as I approached, no swerving possible, too late to stop. It hadn’t snowed for a week, it was warm, all the ice had melted. Flirting with the 55 mph speed limit, it would have been a little wild of me to go much faster since there were a lot of deer enjoying their a la carte dinners at dusk next to the road. I was happily thinking or singing with a song on the radio or something. Last week, I was driving down a two-lane road just beyond town, before dark. My search for the ‘Yup’ or ‘Yep’ meaning brings me to a story about the ‘dark side’ of living here in Bozeman. I have noticed that ‘Yup’ is more guttural, as if to say “Oh, I am in definite agreement with you.” ‘Yep’ seems more independent, like “Yes, I agree but I may have some more to add.” ‘Yup’ seems like it’s used for a deeper conversation, and ‘Yep’ seems more useful for day to day activities. I would like to formally thank the horses and cattle who are helping to preserve our linguistic heritage.Īs I am writing this article I am getting confused – is it a ‘Yep’ or a ‘Yup’? Sometimes it sounds like one, and other times like both versions.
So we can assume that ‘Yep’ or ‘Yup’ truly are an indigenous piece of American lingo, and that the Western lifestyle involves many four legged animals, namely horse and cattle, all of who respond well to ‘Yep’ or ‘Giddy-yup’. The word ‘Yep’ was first seen in print in 1891 in Harper Monthly in a fictional story, “He gently and peacefully murmured, ‘Yep.’” “Yup” was first seen in 1906 in Centennial Magazine in another piece of fiction: “Will you go-if I swear?’ ‘Yup,’ said Pinchas, airing his American.” The first time that a version of ‘Yep’ was seen in print, was in 1689 England as a command to a horse, spelled ‘Yeap.’ It’s easy to trace that ‘Yeap’, ‘Yep, or Giddy-yup,’ down to the old Hollywood Westerns when cowboys smack their horses’ butts and take off into the sunset. Within its terse delivery, there was the sense that there was really nothing to panic about, nothing to worry about. I noticed a lot of stability in that ‘Yep’ or ‘Yup’. When I first moved here and heard ‘Yep’, or ‘Yup’ used in place of an entire conversation, it made me nervous, threatening my fast moving ‘city ways.’ But then, after a month or two, I decided to observe, instead of push the issue. If I were to have a contest of the words I hear most used in the months since I moved to Bozeman, the winner would, yes, you guessed it, be ‘Yup’ or ‘Yep’. But what really tips me off that I’m in Montana, is that signature ‘Yup’. Unfortunately the most I could realistically achieve to be an exemplary Montanan, would be to trade in my car for a pick up truck.
These ‘lies’ tell me a lot about living here that to be valued I may need to learn to ride a horse and win a rodeo. 2.) Yup, I won this here belt buckle at a rodeo in high school. Two of the most common lies told in Montana are: 1.) Yup, this here pick up’s paid for.
0 kommentar(er)
