I have to get this off my chest!

I realize that facebook, texting, e-mailing and other forms of modern communication take their toll on grammar and spelling. I even find it understandable (though not excusable) when people get their "there"s, "their"s, and "they're"s mixed up. But there is one thing that has been driving me too crazy for too, too long now:

WHY am I the only one who seems to know how to spell the word "yay"? I mean, some people spell it that way one day, and like this "yeah" the next, or even this, "yea." And I am completely flummoxed by that. (I once got that word, 'flummoxed' in this word-of-the-day e-mail thing from dictionary.com. (I know. How dorky.) I had always used it, when the situation called for it, but had no idea that it was in the dictionary. And in the etymology section, which you know, usually contains a lot of old latin or french, the e-mail said simply,

"The origin of 'flummoxed' is unknown."

I am still laughing, just at that sentence, the sound of it alone, even if it didn't convey such odd information.)

Anyway, I feel that I have a complete understanding of the differences between "yay", "yeah" and "yea" (although not how to separate them with commas, apparently) but nobody else seems to get it. Not even my well-read little sister, who had read all great literature including The Iliad and The Odyssey by the time she was ten years old. I mean, sorry, I get beautifully spelled letters, cards, postcards and e-mails from a lot of you, I probably just see facebook too often. Here is what people do.

They say something that sounds exciting, like, "I made a chocolate cake today!" or "You're coming to town tomorrow!!! :) " and then, they say some sort of "yay" word, as in, yippee, yeehaw, or goody-goody-gumdrops. But they spell it in one of three ways. There is "yay" which is not the most common, but which for some reason I deem correct. The only correct one. Then, there's "yeah" which I am pretty sure is simply a casual slang for the word "yes" and nothing else, and pronounced very differently from "yay." Then, there's "yea" which I've only seen in the King James Bible and probably Shakespeare, (well, AND on everyone's careless and grammar-less facebook profiles.) "Yea" is pronounced the same as "yay" but means something different. Sort of "yes" but sometimes it's used differently. Like "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." And seeing it used to express happiness and excitement just makes me, well, annoyed, but there's also a sort of ironicness to it. ("yah" is another common variation, but I think it's way too dumb to address. How could anyone think that the vowel sound is long when there's an 'h' on the end instead of a 'y'? Yah! Doesn't that mean giddy-up?)

I am not using the international phonetic alphabet to correct any of this because I don't really know how to make some of it on my keyboard. But what person, who can't spell the word "yay" properly, could read IPA anyway? (So just in case they're reading, it wouldn't even help correct them anyhow.) "Yay" may or may not be in the dictionary as a real word. I don't know. Maybe it is. I have not looked any of this up anywhere, it is just what I think every single time I see the word "yay" misspelled. And for all I know, "yeah" and "yea" may be acceptable alterate spellings of the word, but I think they're totally different words and it annoys me to death that nobody seems to know that.

They probably do, they just don't care. I'm sure that's it. I hope. I so cannot believe that so many people would be so devoid of the knowledge of a few simple words in their own native vocabulary. I wonder why I care. I wonder why I think this through every single time I see one of those other words when I know someone means "yay." What is so hard about spelling "yay" anyway? It's spelled phonetically, for crying out loud!

So, to sum it all up:
Yeah = slang for yes
Yea = yes, if you're the Bible or Shakespeare
and
Yay = Yippeeeeee!!!

Got it?

I'm sure I make tons of grammatical mistakes; too many elipses, (elipsises?) not a strong grasp of hyphens and all that, (hyphens-and-all-that? just kidding) too many of these :) and difficulty being quite correct when quotations and puntuation have to be used after the same word, but, I don't know...

At least I actually know what I'm saying when I write or type "yeah" or "yea."

If you think this post is mean, go learn some grammar. But you can do it happily, like, while you're eating cookies or something! That's what I would do. :)