Baltic Languages
As with most synthetic satem languages double negative is mandatory in Latvian and Lithuanian. Furthermore, all of the verbs and indefinite pronouns in a given statement must be negated, thus it could be said that multiple negative is mandatory in Latvian. For instance, a statement "I haven't ever owed anything to anyone" would be rendered as es nekad nevienam neko neesmu bijis parādā. The only alternative would be using a negating subordinate clause and subjunctive in the main clause, which could be approximated in English as "there hasn't ever been an instance that I would have owed anything to anyone" — nav bijis tā, ka es kādreiz būtu kādam bijis kaut ko parādā — where negative pronouns (nekad, neviens, nekas) are swapped for indefinite pronouns (kādreiz, kāds, kaut kas) more in line with the English "ever, any" indefinite pronoun structures.
Read more about this topic: Double Negative
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