# Yes is the word--for all you diachronic linguists **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377 "2000-05-02T18:51:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/1 "2000-05-02T18:51:46Z")
Why is our word “yes” so different from the equivalent word in nearly other Germanic language, where it is almost always “Ja” (pronounced Ya)? German, Dutch, and I think most Scandinavian languages all have “Ja”. Casual spoken english has “Yeah”, and archaic english had “Yea” and “Aye”, but the formal correct affirmative answer in English is “yes”. Where did that “s” come from? ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/2 "2000-05-02T19:15:16Z")
My wild guess is that the “s” comes from Latin. Not directly from any word, just from general influences. So I guess that’s a vague wild guess. I mean, my not-wild-but-still-a-guess guess is that the “s” entered the language about the same time as a dose of French influence… The French “oui” doesn’t have an s, but how about Norman French? Church Latin? If I were to try and prove my WAG, I would collect some other words that acquired the letter s around the same time, and try to show more direct Latin influences. ---
**Author:** ![jayron\_32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jayron\_32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayron_32)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/3 "2000-05-02T20:14:26Z")
Responding to the O.P.: IIRC, from my two linguistic classes, when linguists try to trace word origins, it is the initial sylables or sounds of words that are important. Ends of words tend to change quite randomly, but initial syllables or sounds are surprisingly reslient and tend to change only as a group. (thus, every initial /k/ sound in one language may appear as a /h/ sound in a related language). Thus we see that “Yes” could be a direct discendant of the same word that produced “Ja”, with the “s” arising quite spontaeously. (or perhaps being dropped spontaneously. It is hard to say which form is closer related to the older ancestor since no one speaks Old Germanic anymore, and it was never written down). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/4 "2000-05-02T20:16:27Z")
I thought the latin word for “yes” was “etiam”. [Merriam-Webster®’s Collegiate® Dictionary](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm) says Etymology: Middle English, from Old English gEse Date: before 12th century ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/5 "2000-05-02T20:22:21Z")
%#$ why is submit reply so close to preview reply? :mad: Medieval french words for yes were “oc” (from Latin “hoc”) and “oïl” (from Latin “hoc ille”). Hence the two traditional language names, “langue d’oc”, aka “occitan” or “provençal” for the language in the south of france, and “langue d’oïl” for the language in the north of france that was the origin of modern-day french. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/6 "2000-05-02T20:29:43Z")
Latin has a lot of words that mean “yes,” but the ones you’d usually hear in conversation are “ita” and “sane.” (Literally, “thus” and “reasonably.”) “Sic” is another word for “thus” that can mean “yes,” but it doesn’t seem to have been used as much. “Etiam” can mean “yes” in certain contexts, but it usually means “also” or “and.” “Immo” can be a sort of contradictory yes (the equivalent of saying “It is, too!”), but it can also mean “no” – you use it whenever you disagree with the last person who spoke. Confused yet? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/7 "2000-05-02T22:41:38Z")
From the _American Heritage Dictionary_ > [@](#): > > Notes: The word yes is a good example of how an ordinary and frequently used word can have a complex etymology. We can trace yes back to two Indo-European roots, ·i-, a pronominal stem, and ·es-, “ to be. ” From two extended forms of ·i-, ·y am and ·y ai, came the prehistoric Common Germanic forms ·ja and jai, which gave us Old English ge a, an affirmative particle, the source of Modern English yea. The Indo-European root ·es- is the source of our forms am and is. From the stem ·s º- used to make verb forms in the optative mood, a mood used to express a wish, came the Germanic form ·sijai-, which gave us Old English s ºe, “ may it be so. ” This form, unlike the sources of am and is, died out, but before disappearing it had combined with Old English g ea to form the compound g ese, the ancestor of our word yes. This s ºe was destined to have even more of a triumph. Until around 1600 yea was used to respond to positive expressions, whereas yes was used to respond to negative expressions. After that time yes became a response to both positive and negative expressions, yea surviving primarily in voice votes. Note: It is believed Old English “gea” was pronounced very much like modern “yeah” ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/8 "2000-05-02T23:47:50Z")
I think what the lengthy bibliophiliastic quote is saying is that in Latin, the third person singular of ‘to be’ is ‘est.’ It can also mean ‘it is!’ which is like saying ‘yes!’ est ==\> yes In the Germanic languages, the t.p.s. of ‘to be’ is ‘ist.’ Throwing an ‘it’ or ‘there’ in front of it, which would be a ‘ja’, you get ‘ja ist’. ja ist ==\> ja’s’ ==\> yes Pax & Ruhe. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2000, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/9 "2000-05-03T14:50:03Z")
‘Yes’ is one of the first words they teach non speaking deaf people in order to teach them to talk. They teach them to say it by saying each letter ‘y’ ‘e’ ‘s’ real fast… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2000, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/10 "2000-05-03T15:05:03Z")
So broadly speaking, you could say that “yes” evolved from “yea, it is”, or “yea, so it is”. Is that what you mean when you say that “yes” was used as a negative response (i.e., do you mean a contradictory “yes” as in, “No it isn’t”,“Yes it is”)? Another interesting word is “any”. The basic etymology is obvious, having come from something like “an-”, and probably from the same root as “one” and “a”. But “any” is only used in expressions of negation or uncertainty. In the following the asterisk (\*) is the lingust’s traditional symbol for an ungrammatical expression: Were there any? There weren’t any. I don’t know if there were any. There were any\* I didn’t see any. Yes, I saw any.\* ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Marini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dave\_Marini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Marini)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/11 "2000-05-04T11:13:43Z")
Maybe the British had thicker tongues?? “An enemy of my enemy is my friend, Grasshopper” ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/12 "2000-05-04T11:20:23Z")
Just out of curiosity, from a lay(non-linguist), point of view… Does this mean that since the evolution of “yes” comes from words like the german “Ja” Etc. that even though we were all told not to say “Ya” as kids by our parents, it might be more true to pronunciation? Just a WAG from a lay… ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/13 "2000-05-04T11:53:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > > Does this mean that since the evolution of “yes” comes from words like the german “Ja” Etc. that even though we were all told not to say “Ya” as kids by our parents, it might be more true to pronunciation? > > Just a WAG from a lay… > \*\* “Yes” should still be pronounced yes, but the use of “yeah” should not be stamped out by any means. “Yeah” is not a mispronunciation of yes, it’s a separate but related word. In fact it’s more closely related to the common Germanic affirmative than is yes. I say “yeah” much more often than “yes”, mainly because my teachers told me not to. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yes-is-the-word-for-all-you-diachronic-linguists/18377/14 "2000-05-04T11:59:58Z")
Biblio, I guess I can accept that explanation. I guess I was attempting to shrug off the fact that my english leans WAY toward slang more than straight english… 🙂