Intended to represent an affected pronunciation characterized by loose articulation in which open vowel sounds predominate. Hence attrib., as sb. (= affected person) and vb. (cf. YAW int. and v., YAW-YAW v.).
1867. E. B. Ramsay, Art of Reading, 9. All reading where sounding the vowels predominates is indistinct. At Cambridge, in my time, it used to be called a ‘yaw-haw’ reading.
1876. J. Grant, One of the ‘600,’ vii. That yaw-hawing donkey, Berkeley.
