# Language Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821 "2000-12-15T23:56:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/1 "2000-12-15T23:56:43Z")
Reading the thread about Gaelic and Hindi word relation put two questions in my mind, and not wanting to hijack the thread I thought I would start a new thread. > [@](#): > > **Enderw23** said: Mother in Hebrew is Ema (or spelled close to that, pronounced ee-mah). Mother in Spanish is madre. Mother in German is mutter. > > Many many languages give mom the “mu” or “ma” sound. Same with dad. Languages develop the way they do for a reason. In this case, those are very easy sounds for a child to make. So it’s quite possible that those words evolved independently, but it’s not a coincidence that they sound the same. Languages have logic to them. So is this the reason that no has just about the same sound in most languages? Also, why would the Gaelic people not have developed a specific word for yes or no? ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/2 "2000-12-16T02:46:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mongrel\_8 \* > \*\*So is this the reason that no has just about the same sound in most languages? Also, why would the Gaelic people not have developed a specific word for yes or no? \*\* Just out of curiosity, how does “no” sound in other languages? I mean besides the romantic languages, where it’s essentially the same word – no, no, no, no, non, no. For example I don’t think “nein” sounds like “no” but it’s not a romantic language (it being German). ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/3 "2000-12-16T07:08:02Z")
_No_ in French, Spanish, and so on all come from _non_, Latin for “not”. Both the English word “no” and the Latin _non_ ultimately come from the Indo-European root _ne_; I suspect the German _nein_ and Russian _nyet_ could be traced back to this same root as well. If so, then “no” has the same sound not necessarily in “most languages”, but rather in Indo-European languages, because they’re using cognate words which ultimately have a common origin. In non-Indo-European languages, I doubt that the word for negation would necessarily sound anything like “no”; in Japanese, for example, “no” is _iie_ (pronounced “ee-eh”). ---
**Author:** ![melchizedek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@melchizedek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melchizedek)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/4 "2000-12-16T07:23:39Z")
I remember going to a Greek Island many summers ago and getting terribly confused by their ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The reason being, I forget the word for ‘yes’, but ‘no’ was OKI, which sounds like a bit of an affirmative to me. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/5 "2000-12-16T08:01:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mongrel\_8 \* > \*\*Why would the Gaelic people not have developed a specific word for yes or no? \*\* You might just as easily ask why would the Germanic and Romance languages _have_ developed a specific word for yes or no. It’s far from a universal feature. Apart from all six of the Celtic (not just Gaelic) languages, Chinese, Finnish, Swahili and Hungarian also don’t have these words. If I had time to track them down I’m sure I could find a long list of others. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/6 "2000-12-16T08:27:12Z")
No in Vietnamese is “khong”. Yes is “vang”, but only in the Northern dialect. Southerners don’t have a specific word for yes, but just echo part of the question back. ---
**Author:** ![SkinnyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@SkinnyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkinnyGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/7 "2000-12-16T15:46:14Z")
In Arabic the word for ‘no’ is pronounced as ‘leh’. (The word for ‘yes’ is something like ‘ah-you-wah’.) So the ‘no’ sound is definitely something Indo-European. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/8 "2000-12-16T16:30:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SkinnyGuy \* > \*\*In Arabic the word for ‘no’ is pronounced as ‘leh’. (The word for ‘yes’ is something like ‘ah-you-wah’.) So the ‘no’ sound is definitely something Indo-European. > \*\* Ahem, from my not terribly strong knowledge: no. La is no. Leh is why. (in some dialects) Yes is naam. (except in egyptian in which case its the version you mentioned.) ---
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/9 "2000-12-16T18:29:16Z")
**ruadh** , the reason that I asked about Gaelic specifically is because I am studying it at the momment. When I learned some Spanish and French they both had a “yes” and “no” so I thought that gaelic was an exception. Thank you for pointing out other languages, and thanks all for answering as well. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/10 "2000-12-16T19:06:22Z")
Balthisar writes: \> a romantic language No, the term is “a Romance language.” ---
**Author:** ![Short](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Short](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/11 "2000-12-16T19:23:59Z")
In Japanese, a word for no is _iie_ (EE-eh). Yes is _hai_ (“high,” with a sharper ending). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/12 "2000-12-16T21:45:45Z")
**Collounsbury** is right that ‘no’ in Arabic is _lâ_. ‘Yes’ is _na`am_, and ‘why’ is _li-mâ dhâ_. In Hebrew, ‘no’ is _lo_ (you can see the relationship to Arabic, compare _salâm / shalom_: Arabic _a_ corresponding to Hebrew _o_). ‘Yes’ is _ken_ (which is probably related to the Arabic word _kâna_ ‘to be’; the Arabic word for ‘yes’, _na`am*, is related to the Hebrew word for pleasure and delight, also *na`am_). The Modern Greek word for ‘yes’ is _nai_, which sounds just like the English negation _nay!_ Weird, isn’t it? **MEBuckner** and **Short** correctly noted that the Japanese word for ‘no’ is _iie_. Want to know something funny? Check this out: In Turkish, the native word for ‘no’ is _yok_. But this is a very abrupt sound, as rude as a punch in the nose. Turks are very polite people, so they needed a more genteel way to say ‘no’. The polite Persian way to say ‘no’ is _na khayr_, a compound of _na_ ‘no’ and the Arabic word _khayr_, ‘good’. It’s as if to say, “I’m afraid the answer is no, but I wish the good for you anyway.” The Turks made it even more polite by deleting the negative and they just say the word for ‘good’, pronounced _hayïr_ in Turkish. So the really polite Turkish way to say ‘no’ is _hayïr_, literally ‘good’. The Japanese word _iie_ ‘no’ looks similar to the Japanese word for ‘good’, _ii_. But the Japanese word for good is pronounced exactly the same as the native Turkish word for ‘good’ – _iyi_. So ‘good’ and ‘no’ have this fascinatingly interwoven strands between Turkish and Japanese. (Japanese has been linked to the Altaic family of languages, to which Turkish belongs.) Hungarian does so have words for ‘yes’ and ‘no’! They are _igen_ and _nem_. Negatives in _n-_ are common to nearly all Indo-European languages; some examples that haven’t been mentioned are Hindi _nahîm_, Persian _nâ_, and Russian _nyet_. Verbal negatives in _m-_ are found in Classical Greek (_mê_), Persian (_ma-_), Hindi (_mat_), and Turkish (_-mi_). ---
**Author:** ![SkinnyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@SkinnyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkinnyGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/13 "2000-12-16T21:59:06Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Collounsbury_ > Ahem, from my not terribly strong knowledge: no. > La is no. > Leh is why. (in some dialects) > Yes is naam. (except in egyptian in which case its the version you mentioned.)\*\* I _was_ referring to Egyptian, my mistake. And I didn’t mean the Latin transcription of the word ‘leh’, but the way it sounds to me. Of course I’m Dutch, and that may compound the problem of transscribing phonetics. I always heard the word pronounced as the ‘lai’ in ‘lair’, but much shorter. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/14 "2000-12-16T22:06:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > **Collounsbury** is right that ‘no’ in Arabic is _lâ_. ‘Yes’ is _na`am_, and ‘why’ is _li-mâ dhâ_. But let’s give skinny the props, Leh is Egyptian (and I think shami) dialectical for limatha. (No probs skinny, transliterating the sounds is a bitch at best.) > [@](#): > > In Hebrew, ‘no’ is _lo_ (you can see the relationship to Arabic, compare _salâm / shalom_: Arabic _a_ corresponding to Hebrew _o_). ‘Yes’ is _ken_ (which is probably related to the Arabic word _kâna_ ‘to be’; the Arabic word for ‘yes’, _na`am*, is related to the Hebrew word for pleasure and delight, also *na`am_). Huh, I just felt my mind expand. Is the a/o correspondence relatively regular between the root languages (leaving aside the modern developments)? > [@](#): > > So the really polite Turkish way to say ‘no’ is _hayïr_, literally ‘good’. Do Turks import this as good in their own lexicon or is the connection lost to non-Arabic speakers? And Ish my man, you owe me some Nostratic cites bro! I’m itching to spend my vac reading some of this. Need to bore coworkers when I come back. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/15 "2000-12-16T22:13:57Z")
Forgot to mention: Arabic also has a verbal negative in m-: _mâ_. But _mâ_ is also the interrogative word for ‘what’. Note that in Turkish, _mi_ is also an interrogative particle (used for making a sentence into a question) as well as a negative. And in Chinese, _ma_ is an interrogative, used to turn a sentence into a question. In Hindi and Persian, they often use the word for ‘what’ to make a rhetorically negative sentence. Sort of like saying “What good is it?” to mean “It’s no good.” Hungarian and Finnish are the only non-Indo-European languages I can think of that have negatives in _n_. Hungarian _nem_ means ‘no, not’, while in Finnish _en_ is conjugated as a verb to make a negative sentence (sort of like the English “don’t”). Finnish and Hungarian are Uralic languages, and this is just one of many pieces of evidence that Indo-European and Uralic are related. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/16 "2000-12-16T22:34:56Z")
Coll, my man, Turks also recognize _hayïr_ as a word for ‘good’, but Arabic borrowings in Turkish are like Latin in English: a more formal register. They say _iyi_ for the everyday ‘good’, and _hayïr_ is more like ‘benefaction’. There is a fairly regular correspondence between Arabic _â_ and Hebrew _o_, especially in the active participle of the first form of the verb: Arabic _fâ`il* is the same as Hebrew *po`el_. (Hebrew grammarians got their grammar from Arabic in the early Middle Ages, as William Chomsky [father of Noam] documented in his book \*Hebrew, the Eternal Language[/]i. The best available source on Nostratic roots is probably _The Nostratic macrofamily: a study in distant linguistic relationship_ by Allan R. Bomhard and John C. Kerns. This book is a copious source of over 800 Nostratic roots, complete with descended words in daughter languages and tables of regular sound correspondences. Hours of fun! The original _Nostratic Dictionary_ written in Russian by Aron Dolgopolsky and Vladimir Illich-Svitych hasn’t been published in English translation yet, I don’t think. I searched the Library of Congress catalog [http://catalog.loc.gov/](http://catalog.loc.gov/) using the keyword _Nostratic_ and got 12 hits. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/17 "2000-12-17T02:05:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > **(Japanese has been linked to the Altaic family of languages, to which Turkish belongs.)** Ishmintingas, since when has Japanese been proven to be linked to Altaic (as in fully accepted)? Everything i’ve read says this is still very much disputed and not accepted (which is what it seems like you are implying). By the way, there’s a theory that Japanese may have Austronesian roots as well but this is not accepted fully either. Anyway, in Tagalog, the word for no his hindî (the diacritic over the i represents it is accented and has a glottal stop), the word for yes is “oo” (said like o-o), or in the polite form, “opo” ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/18 "2000-12-17T03:00:13Z")
Indications are that Japanese came from an early blend of Altaic with Austronesian. It shows affinities with both families. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/19 "2000-12-17T03:23:15Z")
Looked up some more negatives from other languages, for comparison. In Telugu, words for ‘no’ or ‘not’ are _kâdu_ (‘no’), _lêdu_ (‘not’), and _vaddu_ (negative imperative “don’t!”). However, verbs in the indicative are made negative by internal changes: _cêsainu_ ‘I do’ _cêyanu_ ‘I don’t do’ _pôtânu_ ‘I go’ _pônu_ ‘I don’t go’ Actually, _lê-_ and _kâ-_ are verb stems meaning negative action that can be fully conjugated. _lêdu_ means ‘there isn’t’ and _kâdu_ means ‘it doesn’t’. The _lê-_ is reminiscent of the Semitic _lâ_ or _lo_ negative. In Tamil, the word for ‘no’ is _illai_, literally meaning ‘it is not’. Tamil verbs are also negated by internal changes. In Lithuanian, the word for ‘no’ is _ne_ – which isn’t surprising; it’s Indo-European after all. In Malay, the word for ‘no, not’ is _tidak_ (_tak_ for short). But the word for ‘it is not’ is _bukan_, while ‘not yet’ is _belum._ In Hawaiian, ‘no, not’ is _aole_. The Chinese negative is _bu_. See any patterns yet? ---
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Phoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821/20 "2000-12-17T12:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > \*\*The Chinese negative is _bu_. > \*\* Yes, for most verbs, but they use \* mei \* for the verb yao (to have)… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-questions/45821.md?page=2)