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Irish doesn't have words for "yes" and "no" -- answers must echo the verb: "Are you okay?" "Am." "Did you tell him to come over?" "Didn't tell."

DonaldFisk 6y ago
Unsurprisingly, it's similar in Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. Mandarin and Cantonese (and probably other Sinitic languages) don't either, with much the same arrangement as the Celtic languages.
- AnotherGoodName 6y ago
  No Shi? I had no idea about Mandarin.
  - lopmotr 6y ago
    Shi means "is", not "yes" in Mandarin.
    - singularity2001 6y ago
      who sais yes isn't a contraction of i'is
      - r0rshrk 6y ago
        Surprisingly, this is partially true. It's a contraction but an older one. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/yes https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/yes
  - chrischen 6y ago
    There are many yes-like words, but not exactly "yes". There's "it is", "it's correct", and "it's good" that may be used depending on context to mean yes.
- unfunco 6y ago
  In Welsh there's (Nag-)Ydw and (Nag-)Oes, and Dim.
- v-yadli 6y ago
  Enter 嗯(polyphonic)： ng1: indeed, so what? ng2: huh? ng3: what? ng4: yeah, yes. ng~: nooo.
jawns 6y ago
Amazing! I wonder about the universality of head nods (for yes) and head shakes (for no), and whether languages that lack a "yes" or "no" might still use nods.
- axegon_ 6y ago
  Not universal, a few exceptions[1] : > There are several exceptions: in Greece, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria,[2] Albania, and Sicily a single nod of the head up (not down) indicates a "no". Though for Bulgaria at least it seems it's shifting with many people who lived abroad at some point(myself included) and have picked up the correct/more universal form. Which makes it worse: Now no one really knows whether you mean yes or no... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nod_(gesture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nod_(gesture)
  - dodobirdlord 6y ago
    There's also the head bobble, common in south India, which looks a lot like an ongoing head shake but generally means something like ongoing agreement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble
    - pessimizer 6y ago
      Referring to it as "ongoing agreement" reminds me of something I think of as the "confessional no." When addicts talk about their addiction, there's often a rhythmic shaking of the head from side to side like a continual "no," but that speeds up and slows down with some relationship to the grammar of the sentences used. You can probably make yourself do it by saying out loud: "When I was young, I thought I understood everything." It's like an ongoing disagreement.

DonaldFisk 6y ago

Unsurprisingly, it's similar in Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. Mandarin and Cantonese (and probably other Sinitic languages) don't either, with much the same arrangement as the Celtic languages.

AnotherGoodName 6y ago
No Shi? I had no idea about Mandarin.
- lopmotr 6y ago
  Shi means "is", not "yes" in Mandarin.
  - singularity2001 6y ago
    who sais yes isn't a contraction of i'is
    - r0rshrk 6y ago
      Surprisingly, this is partially true. It's a contraction but an older one. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/yes https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/yes
- chrischen 6y ago
  There are many yes-like words, but not exactly "yes". There's "it is", "it's correct", and "it's good" that may be used depending on context to mean yes.
unfunco 6y ago
In Welsh there's (Nag-)Ydw and (Nag-)Oes, and Dim.
v-yadli 6y ago
Enter 嗯(polyphonic)： ng1: indeed, so what? ng2: huh? ng3: what? ng4: yeah, yes. ng~: nooo.

jawns 6y ago

Amazing! I wonder about the universality of head nods (for yes) and head shakes (for no), and whether languages that lack a "yes" or "no" might still use nods.

axegon_ 6y ago
Not universal, a few exceptions[1] : > There are several exceptions: in Greece, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria,[2] Albania, and Sicily a single nod of the head up (not down) indicates a "no". Though for Bulgaria at least it seems it's shifting with many people who lived abroad at some point(myself included) and have picked up the correct/more universal form. Which makes it worse: Now no one really knows whether you mean yes or no... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nod_(gesture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nod_(gesture)
- dodobirdlord 6y ago
  There's also the head bobble, common in south India, which looks a lot like an ongoing head shake but generally means something like ongoing agreement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble
  - pessimizer 6y ago
    Referring to it as "ongoing agreement" reminds me of something I think of as the "confessional no." When addicts talk about their addiction, there's often a rhythmic shaking of the head from side to side like a continual "no," but that speeds up and slows down with some relationship to the grammar of the sentences used. You can probably make yourself do it by saying out loud: "When I was young, I thought I understood everything." It's like an ongoing disagreement.