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Yo is an English slang interjection, commonly associated with American English. It was highly popularized after being used commonly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since the 1940s.

Although often used as a greeting, yo may come at the end of a sentence, often to direct focus onto a particular individual or group or to gain the attention of another individual or group. It may specify that a certain statement that was previously uttered is more important, or may just be an "attention grabber".

History

The interjection yo was first used in Middle English, specifically in the 15th century. In addition to yo, it was also sometimes written io. It is often used as an affirmation, or to get the attention of another person.

From the late twentieth century it frequently appeared in hip hop music and became associated with African American Vernacular English.

Notable uses

A famous example of a fictional Philadelphian bringing notice to the expression is Rocky Balboa, where the word is used throughout all of the films, and is part of the iconic line, "Yo, Adrian, I did it!", which was ranked 80th in the AFI's list of 100 best movie quotes.

The phrase "Yo, Blair. What are you doing?" was an informal greeting that United States President George W. Bush gave to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations ("G8") in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 17 July 2006. The quote gained wide popularity across the media.

Other uses

In Japanese, the sentence-final particle yo is used to emphasize sentences as is often the case in English slang as above, but is etymologically unrelated. YŌ is also used by Japanese teens as casual greetings between friends, but is pronounced with a more drawn-out tone.

Etymology

The popularity of the interjection "yo" is believed to have grown out of Philadelphia's Italian population. During the mid 1940's, Philadelphia's adjacent Italian and African-American neighborhoods experienced significant growth, resulting in the merging of the two cultural ghettos. Tension between the two groups was notably high, which was fueled by a high crime rate, but certain cultural oddities passed between the two groups. The most influential of these transferences is the word "yo," stemming from the Italian first person plural "io."

References

1. Reference.com
2. ^ Dalzell, Tom (1996). Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam Webster. ISBN 0-87779-612-2.
3. Yo, Oxford Dictionaries
4. Yo, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
5. Susie Dent (2007) The Language Report: English on the move 2000-2007

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