“Jevver” (“did you ever?”) is said to be a part of Texas speech. Indiana’s Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley used “jevver” as early as the 1890s.
Urban Dictionary
Jevver
A southern phrase for “Did you ever?”
Jevver skip school on Friday?
by Richard Black Mar 28, 2005
Onewed’s Wedding Chat
CindySue
06-06-2006, 04:14 PM
How Yawta Tawk in Texas
(...)
JEVVER – A Texanized contraction for “did you ever”.
Google Books
Rhymes of Childhood
by James Whitcomb Riley
Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company
1892
Pg. 73:
Jevver hear sich talk as that?
Google Books
A Guest at the Ludlow, and other stories
by Bill Ney
Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merill Company
1897
Pg. 268:
Jumbles like “jevver” for “did you ever?” and the like can hardly be spelled otherwise than phonetically, but a glossary should be appended as in Lowell’s “Bigelow Papers,” for the poems are eminently worth even lexicon-thumbing.
[The Ambrosia of James Whitcomb Riley—ed.]
This Dog’ll Really Hunt:
An Entertaining and Informative Texas Dictionary
by Wallace O. Chariton
Plano, TX: Republic of Texas Press
1999
Pg. 78:
Did you ever: jevver, pronounced as one word in Texas.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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