Maybe it’s not just Aussies, because I’ve seen them do this on Orphan Black which is a Canadian show.
But anyway, someone will make a statement and then follow it with a “Yeah?” prompting a response from the person being addressed. For example: “You’re going to have to study harder if you expect to get your grades up. Yeah?”
Is this “Yeah” thing relatively new or have I just been oblivious to it until now?
I was being given a breakdown of an upcoming tour by an Australian tour guide and she said “Yeah?” after every sentence, about 15 times in a row.
It’s not that new. A decade or so at least, yeah?
In Canada the classic “eh” is going away, being replace by “right?”.
A lot of English people do this as well. Just watch a few old episodes of The Bill.
Gordon Ramsey does this on Kitchen Nightmares. He’ll make a statement and end it with “yes?”
An Aussie girl who I had a massive crush on was doing it 15 years ago so…yeah.
I have honestly never noticed it, and I think I would, in the circles in which I move. I will now be vigilant.
Definitely a British thing as well.
Was it done much on Orphan Black by people who didn’t have an English accent?
That’s weird, I have never noticed it, but I tried a couple of sentences and it rolls off my tongue very naturally. So maybe I do say it all the time, without realising:eek:
It’s an alternative to saying “amiright?” at the end of sentences (and equally as irritating, IMHO).
Not particularly a Melbourne thing: I thought maybe it was an NZ / Islander thing, but I guess maybe it’s a Q’ld / NSW thing?
And of course probably a younger thing, but the High School /University / Graduates I know personally aren’t using that construct either.
One day in, not one person I have spoken to today ended even one sentence with “yeah.”
Definitely not new, and as others have noted, it is something UK people do as well.
I don’t hear that much in the circles I travel in. Maybe it’s only certain social groups, or a regional thing. I’m not sure what motivates these vocabulary tics and phrases to arise, but it seems to be all part of the standard way dialects develop.
I have also noticed this on Orphan Black but only the character of Sarah does it I think. I assumed it was an affectation used to identify Sarah specifically (for those that don’t watch the show has several characters that are clones of each other).
I heard this more when i lived in England than i did in Australia, although i know some Aussies who do it. I don’t remember ever hearing it in Canada.
I’d never heard of it before. The usual ending of a sentence in rural Queensland was always “,hey”.
This. I grew up in small towns in North Queensland, and took me a long time to get the ‘hey’ off the end of my sentences after moving to the ‘big smoke’
I personally would have attributed a ‘yeah’ ending to be a British thing.
I noticed this when Ricky Gervais did it as David in the British version of The Office. It was particularly noticeable in the episode here at the very start, though he throws in a few “hey’s” as well.
After watching a few of his episodes I found myself saying it while teaching (in the US) and it’s a hard habit to break.