Re: Names of countries and national languages

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").

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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