# why does French have two ways to say "yes"? do other languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2008, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227 "2008-11-24T08:54:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/61 "2008-11-25T09:21:02Z")
Just thought of something else: the regionalism may explain why “si” is not used in Quebec. Since “si” became the general affirmative in both Italy and Spain, could it be that it entered French from southern France? if so, since most of the forebears of québécois and acadians came from Normandy, it may be that “si” was not commonly used in the northern part of France, so wasn’t carried across the Atlantic? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/62 "2008-11-25T09:22:07Z")
Thanks for all your comments, everyone. Most informative. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2008, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/63 "2008-11-25T09:40:07Z")
It’s possible that the “oui/si” distinction in French arose from borrowing from Spanish or Italian, or it may be that it came from different dialects within French. It’s also possible that there were always two (or more) words for “yes” in French, and at some point the use of these two words split and “oui” began to only be used in positive contexts and “si” only in negative contexts. I answered the OP the way I did because you didn’t ask at what point in history this distinction arose. You asked why French has this distinction. It’s possible to answer questions about the history of a language if one has enough data about previous periods of the question. I was assuming that you wanted some deeper answer to the question because you also asked if other languages have this distinction. As has been made clear by the answers in this thread, English is actually in the distinct minority in that it has exactly one usual word for “yes” and exactly one usual word for “no.” Other languages often have more than one word for each of them. Still other languages have no word for “yes” or “no.” One indicates “yes” or “no” by repeating the verb of the question, using a “not” if the answer is “no.” I apologize for not answering the question in the way you wanted, but it makes a difference when you ask “Where did this distinction arise?” as opposed to “Why does this distinction exist?”. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/64 "2008-11-25T10:19:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I apologize for not answering the question in the way you wanted, but it makes a difference when you ask “Where did this distinction arise?” as opposed to “Why does this distinction exist?”. I think the fact that the OP asked specifically about other romance languages fitting this pattern was a sufficient clue. And even if the broader question stands of “why is it this way”, I for one still find it an interesting discussion from e.g., the standpoint of cognitive semantics. No need to shut it down by throwing up our hands and exclaiming, “who knows!?” ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/65 "2008-11-25T10:20:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Classical Latin also usually just repeats the verb. This leads to the amusing situation that, if you were to ask Michael Phelps in Latin whether he swims, the answer would be “no” (that being the Latin word for “I swim”). > > You can also use “maxime” or “minime” for an emphatic “yes” or “no” (approximately, “absolutely” or “not at all”). When I took Latin in high school they taught us to say “ita vero” (“truly so”) for “yes”, and “minime” for no. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2008, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/66 "2008-11-25T10:33:07Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > \*Naam \*is classical and \*aiwa \*is Egyptian dialect. I think many other dialects use \*naam \*in modern colloquial. In Egypt, \*naam \*is used the same way we would say “Yes?” when someone calls your name, or “Pardon me?” as in, “What did you say?” but not usually a straight “Yes.” In Classical Arabic, _na‘am_ corresponds to _oui_, while _balá_ corresponds to _si_. I think the etymology of _aywa_ is from a contraction of the phrase _ay wallāh_ ‘yes, by God!’ ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/67 "2008-11-25T10:41:12Z")
Although there are words for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in Irish we were always thought in school to answer using the verb from the question. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2008, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/68 "2008-11-25T10:48:54Z")
Koxinga writes: \> I think the fact that the OP asked specifically about other romance languages \> fitting this pattern was a sufficient clue. And I think the fact that he asked “Why do they do this?” and not “Where does it come from?” made it look like he was asking about some deep reason for it, not just the historical origin. \> And even if the broader question stands of “why is it this way”, I for one still \> find it an interesting discussion from e.g., the standpoint of cognitive semantics. \> No need to shut it down by throwing up our hands and exclaiming, “who \> knows!?” O.K., answer the question from the viewpoint of cognitive semantics. That’s still not really an answer to the “Why?” question. I’m not sure what you mean by cognitive semantics, but that would only tell us how the various words for “yes” and “no” work in various languages. That wouldn’t tell us why there are different structures for yes/no answers in different languages. What do you mean by cognitive semantics in this context anyway? (I have a master’s degree in linguistics, so you can go into detail.) In my experience, when someone asks the question, “Why does language X have form Y for the way that they say something?”, what they’re asking is really “Why are the speakers of language X so crazy that they use a different structure than us normal speakers of English?” There’s no answer to a question like that except that languages have the form they do just because they do, and English is just as idiosyncratic in its own ways. Northern Piper was asking a different question that that, but I couldn’t tell that from the OP. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227/69 "2008-11-25T17:24:25Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > … If somebody asks, “Does it **‘feel’** cold outside?” (_Waimian **hui** leng ma?_), you’d answer “ **feels** ” (_hui_). … [nitpick] hui is closer to ‘does it/it does’ than ‘feel’. personally i would phrase it as : If somebody asks, “Is it **cold** outside?” (_Waimian hui \*\*leng \*\*ma?_), you’d answer “ **very cold!** ” (_leng a!_). > [@sailor](#): > > … In English and in Spanish it would be: > > - You haven’t had breakfast yet? > - No (I have not had breakfast) > > In Chinese it would be “Yes” (your statement is correct, I have not had breakfast). > > So when I am speaking to Chinese people I never know if they are speaking correct English or “Chinglish” and I have to ask for clarification. nope. the chinese way would be to reply “haven’t”, which isn’t ambiguous at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-french-have-two-ways-to-say-yes-do-other-languages/474227.md?page=3)