What're Words For....part 5.....

Hello, and a very happy Tuesday to all of my readers....all one of you! ha ha!

Continuing on with my words/phrases from Maine, I decided the wait was over to introduce you all to the most important word that is used back in my home state.

Word: Ayuh (Adv., affirmative, yes) A general purpose term which is considered

THE WORD

Definition: "Ayuh" is the truest touchstone of genuine Yankee speech. While its pronunciation may vary throughout the region ("eeyuh", "ehyuh"), a Mainer and a Vermonter using it know they're cut out of the same cloth. But let some rusticator from Yonkers try to render it, and the result will be as apparent as a beached whale. Listen to "The Word" a few hundred times before you try it. The most common mistake outlanders make is to render it with the same inflection, no matter what the circumstances. "The Word" has infinite shades of meaning. To attempt duplication in cold print would be useless; suffice to say that according to rendition, it can preface an extended observation or abruptly conclude one. It is comforting and it is sarcastic. Listen often to "The Word" in its sundry applications before you attempt it, and then begin very tentatively, low key----ayuh.

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

So there you have it, TFKoP visitors. It won't be long before the Maine Yankee dialect is rolling off of your tongue, ayuh.

And that will be....The Finest Kind of Pork.