Celtic Languages
The Celtic languages also primarily employ echo answers. Irish and Scottish Gaelic lack the words "yes" and "no" altogether. In Welsh, the words for "yes" and "no" ("ie" and "nage") are restricted to specialized circumstances. Like Finnish, the main way in these languages to state yes or no, in answer to yes-no questions, is to echo the verb of the question. In Irish, the question "An dtiocfaidh tú?" ("Will you come?") will be answered with "Tiocfaidh" (" will come") or "Ní thiocfaidh" (" will not come"). Similarly, in Welsh, the answers to "Ydy Fred yn dod?" ("Is Fred coming?") are either "Ydy" (" is") or "Nag ydy" (" is not"). In general, the negative answer is the positive answer combined with "nag". As in Finnish, this avoids the issue of what an unadorned "yes" means in response to a negative question. Whilst a "yes" response to the question "You don't beat your wife?" is ambiguous in English, the Welsh response "nag ydw" has no ambiguity.
Read more about this topic: Echo Answer
Famous quotes containing the words celtic and/or languages:
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