Quoting "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>:
> On 9/25/07, Benct Philip Jonsson <conlang@...> wrote:
> > (It is strange to a Swede that _yes_ both affirms a positive
> > statement and counter-negates a negative statement,
>
> It's strange to us that you'd have separate words for those functions.
> Ain't language great? :)
>
> Of course "yes" also has a third meaning: it means "I understand and
> will comply" in e.g. military protocol. Although in English-speaking
> Naval tradition there is a separate word explicitly for this latter
> function ("aye", usually doubled as "aye-aye").
In Sw. sailors are stereotypically depicted as acknowledging orders with _aj aj
kapten!_. The dictionary tells me this is obsolete among real sailors.
But doesn't 'aye' replace 'yes' also in simple the simple affirmative function
in certain dialects?
Andreas