Talk:Yo (greeting)

In the Japanese language, "yo" can be added to the end of a sentence for emphasis. It seems conceivable, even probable, that American teenagers picked up this word from Japanese immigrants. Could someone confirm or deny whether this is the case? --LostLeviathan 06:10, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I always thought that yo entered English slang from Italian (meaning I, as in me), when Italian immigrants' children answered roll-call in the US Army. But that's complete speculation, from watching all those American war movies. —Michael Z. 2005-06-2 04:35 Z

Yo was just a slang term among early Philadelphia immigrants. The exact roots are unsure but it was a very common word among the Irish, Polish and Italians neighborhoods in Philly. All three have historical evidence of using the word however who may have been first is unknown. The Japanese weren't known to immigrate to Philadelphia atleast not in remotely the numbers needed to have any sort of influence regional slang/dialect. --ArcheologyNut  2005-06-11 02:53 

am I the only one that thinks that yo might be a contraction of the word's "hey" and "you"? (as in hey you>heyyou>heyyo>hyyo>yo). Usage, in my mind, backs up this idea (eg. "yo, check it . . .", and, in the three examples already present in this article, couldn't "hey you" be substituted easily for "yo"?) also, its my opinion, but i think the rap part ought to be deleted out of this article. While the word is certainly prevelant throughout the hip-hop world, I don't see how it ties "the hip-hop and gangsta theme." If you want to include the words importance in hip-hip culture in this article, I think it ought to be done in a way that actually talks about why its important, what it means, etc. I hear a lot of conscious rappers say "yo", and they certainly aren't advocating gangsta-ism.