Ouais

[echidnas brown]

I am in France at the moment, and I am hearing a lot of people saying, "oias" rather than "oui". Is this a Provencal invasion, or a change in usage since I was young?

 

[rothbard]

Do you mean "ouais"? It's a common way of saying "yes", a bit like "yeah" in English.

 

[echidnas brown]

When I was young though it was such a characteristic Provençal expression that it appeared in asterix and obelix

 

[Pacifica]

I don't know when you were young, but "ouais" has been used by French speakers everywhere at least since I've been alive, and though I don't know when it started I'm pretty sure it did a fairly long time before that. What's the connection between Provençal and Asterix and Obelix?

 

[Pacifica]

everywhere

That may be an overstatement. I haven't quite checked "everywhere", obviously. But you know what I mean.

 

[Clemens]

So here's something I didn't know: according to my copy of Le Nouveau Petit Robert, this word isn't a slangy mispronunciation of oui, but was originally an interjection to show surprise.

 

[echidnas brown]

Nearly 50 years ago In one of Asterix books he was talking to a shopkeeper in Marseille who answered Ouais. I remember it particularly because I was at school there at the time.

 

[Pacifica]

Was there a clear indication that this "ouais" was meant to represent Provençal speech specifically, rather than simply French?

 

[Clemens]

Nearly 50 years ago In one of Asterix books he was talking to a shopkeeper in Marseille who answered Ouais. I remember it particularly because I was at school there at the time.

Was this Astérix : Le Tour de Gaule? Where they travel around Gaul getting the best delicacies from every region?

 

[Clemens]

I guess it isn't this one, because although they do go to Marseille, and the local accent is represented (*Môssieu, *Romaings), I don't see any ouais.

 

[Clemens]

In any case ouais is found in Molière, so I doubt very much it's meant as a provincialism.

 

[rothbard]

This is what my favourite online French dictionary has to say:

Prononc. et Orth.: [wε]. Warn. 1968: init. asp. Ac. 1694: oüay, 1718 et 1740: ouai, ouais; dep. 1762: ouais. Étymol. et Hist. 1464 interj. ouay! (Pathelin, éd. R. T. Holbrook, 329). Peut-être altération de oui*, sous l'infl. des parlers dial. (FEW t.4, p.444), ou à la suite d'une prononc. négligée (Dam.-Pich. t.6, p.56). Une nouvelle hypothèse a été présentée par D. Bugeanu (R. roumaine de ling., t.16, pp.53-56) qui considère que ouais pourrait venir de la forme d'impér. plur. oyez! de ouïr*, l'angl. oyez, oyes (de même orig.) étant att. comme interj. depuis 1286 (v. NED), et au plan sém. le passage de «écoutez!» à une interj. exprimant la surprise ou l'étonnement, s'expliquant aisément (cf. roum. auzi!). Fréq. abs. littér.: 99. Bbg. Lombard (A.). À propos du mot fr. ouais. In: [Mél. Rosetti (A.)]. Bucarest, 1966, pp.479-482.

 

[echidnas brown]

I guess it isn't this one, because although they do go to Marseille, and the local accent is represented (*Môssieu, *Romaings), I don't see any ouais.

Just like that, 50 years of misapprehensions have been destroyed...

It was later in the book, not in Marseille at all.