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Words for “yes” in Romance languages

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21–30 of 172 posts

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#21
post #4

I really like profanity laced erudite articles, for some reason. Maybe it scratches a similar hitch that Rick does in Rick and Morty. Which makes me think, man I'd love to read a scientific paper written by Rick! :)

I like the use of hip hop lingo too, like the "Slavic shit" the Romanians are "on" and the "dope" way the Gaulish moustache-boys talk.

Actually - and I don't know whether this was intentional on the writer's part - there's a parallel there, between people being attracted to how the Gauls talked (i.e. away from the very uncool "official" language of Latin), and the widespread appeal and co-option of hip hop lingo. Hip hop subculture came from a segment of society that had every reason to distrust the "official" culture, and made every effort to differentiate itself. Maybe that's how it was in the waning days of the Roman Empire too, especially in the farther outposts like Gaul.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#22
post #4

I really like profanity laced erudite articles, for some reason. Maybe it scratches a similar hitch that Rick does in Rick and Morty. Which makes me think, man I'd love to read a scientific paper written by Rick! :)

This. ;) I think what tickles me about it is that they clearly know what they're talking about, but they're also actively setting themselves apart from the Ivory Tower and signaling that their interest is one that brings them some earnest fucking joy.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#25
I love that the end of the bog on 'this' is a huge chain of people whose click of affection adds them to the list of '...x liked this' immediately after he says: I guess what I’m getting at is that when you reblog a post you like and tag it with “this,” or affirm a thing a friend said by nodding and saying “Yeah, that”: you’re not new

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#26

Great article. On a side note, I took five years of French and never learned that si is specifically for contradicting a negative. Sup with that.

As a native French speaker from Quebec, I can tell you it's much more common in France, so if you went to school in North America that might explain it.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#29
It's interesting that in Catalan you may say oi [0] in addition to sí. It is more commonly used in questions and to answer such questions. For example:

Plou molt, oi? Oi.

There's a construct that is very common and redundant: oi que sí? == right that yes?, which would be translated as an emphatic "right?"

[0] http://mdlc.iec.cat/results.asp?txtEntrada=Oi&operEntrada=0

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#30
post #12

Interesting. In (Brazilian) Portuguese, "isso" and "isso aí" ("this", "this there") is used to confirm or agree with something, so it seems the expression survived the times.

I always thought it was some kind of contraction of "isso e certo". The same expression also exist in Spanish.
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