I’m probably late to this party, but I didn’t notice people answering questions, or just beginning most of their sentences, with Yeah no until about a year ago. It popped up in a lot of transcription I was doing of speakers on the West Coast.
Now I hear it everywhere.
If you haven’t noticed this figure of speech yet, watch TV and I guarantee you’ll soon hear someone say Yeah no now that I’ve poisoned your mind with it.
I found it SO annoying that I finally Googled it and discovered it’s been around at least since the early 2000s, and may have started in Australia.
So, what is Yeah no supposed to mean?
In response to a question, it may signal agreement, then introduce an afterthought, if you say it with pauses as if there are commas, like this:
“Yeah [I hear you], [but] no, I think something else.”
But that’s not typically how it’s used. These are a few ways I’ve heard it:
“Yeah no, that’s a good point.”
“Yeah no, I understand.”
“Yeah no, you’re right.”
In every one of these examples, no is superfluous because what comes after it affirms the Yeah.
And here’s my nominee for the 2023 Wishy-Washy Baffling Answer Award:
“Yeah no, definitely.”
I found an interesting article about Yeah no at the Oxford University Press blog. It gives many examples.
Here’s another article with comments at LanguageHat.com that go into great depth about what Yeah no might mean.
I’m sure these writers have more impressive English credentials than I ever will, but I’m taking the stance that the no in Yeah no is yet more linguistic garbage our minds inexplicably soak in and make our mouths spew. It adds no more meaning to any sentence than injecting like, you know or I mean every other word.
In your writing, unless you’re quoting a real-life moron who says “Yeah no,” or creating dialogue for a fictional moron, DON’T USE IT because it’s usually either meaningless or indecisive and confusing.