Re: Breton (WAS: first try at conlanging)

On Tue, 8 Jan 2002, erwan ar skoul wrote:

> Elliott Lash a écrit :
>
> > Surely you meant: Er, ya.
> > Actually, I just had an epiphany last night. In Breton the word for yes is Ya. Now,
> > this might be taken immediately as a Germanic Loan word (c.f. German Ja,
> > English Yeah, so forth). But then again, maybe it's a Celtic Cognate of this
> > word. I say this because it also appears in Welsh: ie "yes" (only used in
> > some circumstances). Or maybe we're just dealing with one loan word, borrowed
> > from the Anglo-Saxons, and then brought to France by the
> > Bretons...hmm..wonders.
> >
>
> I doubt it purely germanic loanwords (that is not passed down by
> French) are few in Breton and the use of ya does not parallel yes or
> ja. It is used only to affirmatively answer affirmative questions
Isn't that what `yea' (the true cognate to `ja', or so I understand) was
used for, at least in ME? (Or is it gea(sp?) in OE that I'm thinking of?)

Tristan