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Words for “yes” in Romance languages

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Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#161

Post by garfieldnate »

labster wrote: post #59
davidgay wrote: post #32

My favourite on the yes/no front though is the border between Greece and Bulgaria where "Ne" (Не) means no in Bulgarian and, IIUC, yes in Greek. And then the Bulgarians also have approximately reversed vs Western Europe head movements for yes and no, to maximise confusion :)

Japanese has the native いえ 'ie' for no, but they also occasionally use the English loanword イエス iesu for yes. I haven't spent much time with Japanese native speakers, but that must have confused someone.

I was confused for a long time by the "un" (yes) and "uun" (no) in my beginner's Japanese textbook. It turned out that the spelling was more or less conventional (could have been "n" and "nnn") and that it was really the intonation that made the word (falling and dipping). IIRC this simple nasal yes/no is used in several Asian countries.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#162

Post by jxub »

acobster wrote: post #23

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.

On a similar vibe, in Catalan oi is used instead of sí in questions, like in "T'has menjat el desdejuni, oi?", which may surely come from oui or the ancient oil in French.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#163

Post by igravious »

posterboy wrote: post #122
igravious wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to wonder. The Occitan Wiktionary page https://oc.wiktionary.org/wiki/occitan says “Del latin medieval occitanus, que se tròba dins lingua occitana. Derivat de òc, benlèu sus lo modèl de aquitanus.” – the English Wiktionary page of same says “From Medieval Latin occitanus in the phrase lingua occitana, Latinization of langue d'oc. The ending -itanus perhaps after aquitanus.” And Occident https://www.etymonlin…

>Even though I didn't particularly take to the sprinkling of profanity and hip-hop lingo I think "on some Slavic shit" roughly translates to "on some Slavic thing/trip" and isn't intended to be derogatory. Am open to corrections here. Yeah, in the drive-by shootin kinda sense maybe, motherfucker. > The rest of your post I'm having a hard time disassembling. I don't think you can just free associate from one language…

Yeesh.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#164

Post by cursrs »

Slavic wrote: post #64

Stopped reading at "some slavic shit"

Reading through the comments for this submission, I can't believe how many people didn't understand the specific phrase "on some Slavic shit".

The phrase "on some shit" comes from the United States, from urban AAVE (African-American Vernacular English). There's another commenter that refers to the phrase as 'hip hop lingo', which isn't too far off, but I think it's the wrong label.

The origins of the phrase are hard to pin down, but nowadays you'll see the idiom as "on some ____ shit", where you replace the blank with just about any noun or adjective. It has a fairly wide range of meaning, but the gist is 'acting ____', 'referencing ____', 'influenced by ____', 'in the style of ____' .

In this article, writing about Romanian language, saying, "[they're] on some Slavic shit" means "[they're] influenced by Slavic" or "[they're] referencing the Slavic style".

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#165

Post by chapium »

Balgair wrote: post #146
shasheene wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A couple summers ago at the pool I heard a teenage girl exclaim “poned!” after besting her friend at something they were playing. It took me a moment to realize she’d just said “pwned” since I’d never heard it said out loud before and in my mind I’ve always read it “owned.” Now that was a “get off my lawn moment!” That pronunciation was popularized by the famous South Park episode on World of Warcraft [1] [2] which…

I'd go with the all time great Canadian Gamer show: PurePwnage, from 2004, as the popularizer of the spoken term. Though it goes back to at least 1999 with the original CounterStrike and the term in text, then read aloud. I remember the shouts of 'pone' in the afterschool computer lounge from friends to at least 1999, if not earlier. http://www.purepwnage.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Pwnage https://en.wiki…

It was definitely popular in fps games in 99’

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#166

Post by coatmatter »

hiccuphippo wrote: post #118
kleiba wrote: post #87

I personally find the use of single word "This." in reply to a comment on forums (such as e.g. HN) really annoying. (But then again, I've reached an age where you tend to find everything new awful.) I guess the reason why it pisses me off is that it doesn't do anything that "Yes.", "Exactly.", "I agree" couldn't already do, but at the same time it has this overly sweet smell of kool-aid that just makes you sick.

For me the worst offender is /thread

"non-trivial" is the one that annoys me the most but I can't fully explain why. Perhaps it's a bit like the reaction when I hear "visceral" while listening to book and movie reviews. It just seems a tad pretentious; or stuck-up. Urgh.

I understand it's all about precision but to me it doesn't feel like the type of plain English that normal people use. Perhaps it's too... formulaic?

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#167

Post by thedailymail »

cursrs wrote: post #164
Slavic wrote: post #64

Stopped reading at "some slavic shit"

Reading through the comments for this submission, I can't believe how many people didn't understand the specific phrase "on some Slavic shit". The phrase "on some shit" comes from the United States, from urban AAVE (African-American Vernacular English). There's another commenter that refers to the phrase as 'hip hop lingo', which isn't too far off, but I think it's the wrong label. The origins of the phrase are hard…

Ordinarily I would just write "This." here, but given the context, let me say that I agree with your comment.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#168

Post by posterboy »

igravious wrote: post #163
posterboy wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Even though I didn't particularly take to the sprinkling of profanity and hip-hop lingo I think "on some Slavic shit" roughly translates to "on some Slavic thing/trip" and isn't intended to be derogatory. Am open to corrections here. Yeah, in the drive-by shootin kinda sense maybe, motherfucker. > The rest of your post I'm having a hard time disassembling. I don't think you can just free associate from one language…

Yeesh.

I'm sorry, that "mofo" was purely for illustrative purposes, although I might have Turret Syndrome.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#169

Post by numismatex »

osrec wrote: post #113
js2 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me (I’m 46 so I think I’ve reached “get off my lawn” age), it’s short for “this [is the correct answer.]” So I’ve never had a problem with it and probably used it once or twice myself. A couple summers ago at the pool I heard a teenage girl exclaim “poned!” after besting her friend at something they were playing. It took me a moment to realize she’d just said “pwned” since I’d never heard it said out loud before…

It's more like "this... is the correct answer, and it so obviously resonates extensively with everyone else that I feel no need to substantiate any further, other than with an abrupt and final full stop". To me it sometimes comes across as "you made your comment, I agree, and I'll take the liberty to suggest that it's so obvious and insightful that probably everyone must agree".

Have you ever considered that you and others reading all of this subtext where none exists is more a reflection of you being contrarian rather than some cult-like attitude or other projected reason?
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