Dear Editor
For a while, there were jokes about Canadians supposedly ending every sentence with 鈥渆h,鈥� which we don鈥檛. It was called a Canadianism. 鈥楾isn鈥檛. It鈥檚 from England, particularly the Midlands and the North.
I was raised surrounded by transported English people and they used 鈥淓y鈥� (the English interjection鈥檚 spelling) in a meaningful way, not just to end a sentence. I wish everyone could hear the inflections, but I鈥檒l try to explain on paper.
I have five different meanings:
1. 鈥淭hese can go tomorrow, ey?鈥� Meaning: Is that acceptable?
2. 鈥淓y!鈥� said short and sharp. Meaning: You uncouth person who has stood on my toe and not apologized.
3. There鈥檚 there warning, 鈥淓y,鈥� rather drawn out and rising up at the end, directed at children, and sometimes adults, with the right facial expression. It was used on me as a child.
4. The drawled 鈥淓y?鈥� coming from someone reading a book, for example when they finally realize someone is talking to them. Our family had a lot of those.
5. There鈥檚 the unbelieving 鈥淓y,鈥� rising up at the end in a startled manner coming from someone whose been told your cousin married someone quite unbelievable.
I recently re-read a mystery novel by Lorac, English, of course, in which he wrote, or I should say, had a character say, 鈥溾�� just as John Staple turned round with an inquiring 鈥楨y 鈥�?鈥� 鈥� that aggregate of vowels uttered in such varying tones by all good Lancastrians.鈥�
It鈥檚 all in the inflection.
So there, ey?
Christine Pike
Waseca
