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Words for “yes” in Romance languages

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Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#91

Post by mrolla »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #81
EB-Barrington wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Albanians (like Bulgaria, Albania shares a border with Greece) also nod up and down for no, and turn their heads left-to-right for yes. As in Bulgaria, this is not universal throughout the populace - making it all the more confusing when you come across it during conversation. Related: in Albanian, yes is "po", no is "jo".

French people also nod upwards to say "no". This is just one swift nod, not an up-and-down nod, and it's usually accompanied by a quick drawn-in breath. I've never seen that anywhere else. My friends who did that were Occitan btw. so maybe it's not all of France.

In Italy, nodding upwards is a very passive aggressive and rude way of saying “no”. It’s accompanied with a quick lip smack rather than a drawn-in breath though.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#92

Post by Leherenn »

unscaled wrote: post #20
twiss wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's a superb article, it strikes me as being distinctly aimed at laypeople, and I suspect someone who studied linguistics might already know large parts of it. (I haven't, but I know parts from having had Latin in school.) (Also, it contains the words "This is not exactly what happened but it is basically what happened, please just fucking roll with it, this shit is long enough already." so I suspect there mig…

This should be pretty common knowledge to any linguist who studied historical linguistics, although if you never did any historical linguistics you could easy miss that. This should also be common knowledge to anyone who studied late-medieval Latin texts, as many of them use this feature to distinguish the 3 major Romance vernaculars of Europe, e.g. Dante's De Vulgari Eloquentia. There is even an entire region called…

Actually, funnily enough Languedoc does not exist anymore, it has been merged with Midi-Pyrénées to form a new region called Occitanie.

There were quite a few debates about the name as former Occitan-speaking territories were much larger, and Perpignan and it's area are in the Occitanie region despite being Catalan.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#94

Post by jxub »

gpvos wrote: post #55
schoen wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Paris is a muddy village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutetia#Etymology

Would the old Celtic root luto-/luteuo- (marsh, swamp) mentioned there be related to Latin lutum (mud, loam, sand, dust)?

In Spanish lodo is mud, it looks more similar to the Celtic word to me. Interesting.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#95

Post by mrow84 »

gigogkggi wrote: post #84
mrow84 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is only dismissive ironically - the author is not really belittling Slavic languages. Context and intent are important, and it is possible to be unduly sensitive. I think it is worth expecting readers to expend a small amount of effort to try and assess a writer's intent, so that we might live in a world where people can use colourful language. Teasing someone is not the same as insulting them.

In a world where pointing out that pure facts such as that Chicago has already had 200 gun homicides this year with its strict gun control laws will get you labelled as a white supremacist, I'd definitely like people to chill out, but alas, no.

As I said, context is important, and other people might perceive your intent incorrectly, depending on your choice of words, and your timing. People should not give a knee-jerk reaction without some effort to understand you, but if you ever feel you are misunderstood you should simply say so, and clarify what you mean. That way, people won't mistake you for a white supremacist.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#96

Post by nasredin »

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.

this.

times a 1,000.

[image of a text]

sorry gotta go. my raw water delivery just arrived [emoji].

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#97

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

pjmlp wrote: post #90
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French people also nod upwards to say "no". This is just one swift nod, not an up-and-down nod, and it's usually accompanied by a quick drawn-in breath. I've never seen that anywhere else. My friends who did that were Occitan btw. so maybe it's not all of France.

But in Greece a short nod up with some lip pressure is also no, right? At least that is what I am used to from my Greek friends.

Yep. I found the French upward nod very confusing the first few times I saw it.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#98

Post by craigsmansion »

mjfisher wrote: post #69
Slavic wrote: post #64

Stopped reading at "some slavic shit"

I've become increasingly interested in how people become offended recently. Offence tends to be bound up in notions of identity, and I think the way people offend and become offended is increasingly a factor in a world becoming more polarised. Would you be able to expand a little on your feelings? Would you expect people from other cultures mentioned in the article to be similarly offended? I'm not asking you to just…

It might not be cultural offence the GP is referring to, but imprecise language in an article about language.

"because they’re on some Slavic shit."

Did Romania at some point get invaded by some other Slav people, is it merely Slavic language osmosis between cross-border dialects?

If the casus belli for US entry into WW2 was referred to as "Some shit the Japanese pulled" in a piece about history, wouldn't that give you pause?

It was an opportunity to teach a reader something, but the opportunity was exchanged for a popular short-cut expression. If found that somewhat irksome as well, even though it did not offend my cultural identity.

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#99

Post by hk__2 »

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 :)

In Slovakia the word for “yes” is “ano” but people shorten it to “’no”, which makes things very confusing when you get there :)

Re: Words for “yes” in Romance languages

#100

Post by hk__2 »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #81
EB-Barrington wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Albanians (like Bulgaria, Albania shares a border with Greece) also nod up and down for no, and turn their heads left-to-right for yes. As in Bulgaria, this is not universal throughout the populace - making it all the more confusing when you come across it during conversation. Related: in Albanian, yes is "po", no is "jo".

French people also nod upwards to say "no". This is just one swift nod, not an up-and-down nod, and it's usually accompanied by a quick drawn-in breath. I've never seen that anywhere else. My friends who did that were Occitan btw. so maybe it's not all of France.

I’m French (from Paris) and I’ve never seen this. I’d be confused as well if I ever saw it.
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