Yet even fairly recently, some subcultures of American society functioned without those very two words.
Some archaeological evidence from the late 20th century:
Teen girl #1: Jason Priestly is sooo cool!
Teen girl #2: Luke Perry is so much hotter!
Teen girl #1 : Is not!
Teen girl #2: Is too!
Teen girl #1: Is NOT!
Teen girl #2: Is TOO!
Evidence that conversations can exist without yes or no and without substance.
Cantonese is one of those yes-less languages (but not substance-less). When Cantonese speakers want to affirm something, they usually say hai, which means 'is' (or if you want to sound more Oriental, 'is so').
A: Are you an earthling?
B: Hai (am)
A: Do you like coffee?
B: Hai
To say no, just negate the hai. Computer scientists will recognise the construct and perhaps admire the elegance. In many modern computer programming languages for example, to negate something, you put a '!' (read as 'not') in front. Thus, !true is false. !Yes is No. !Fat is thin.
In Cantonese, you use m instead of !.
A: Are you Chinese?
B: M Hai (am not)
Some readers familiar with Japanese will recall that the Japanese also say hai when they mean yes.
The Cantonese hai and the Japanese hai sound different. The Japanese hai stops abruptly, as if the final sound gets swiftly sliced off with a samurai, immediately rendering it silent (say hai and then just after you pronounce a little bit of the 'i', stop and constrict your throat to prevent any further sound). [I'm not Japanese so don't take that as authoritative].
In contrast, the Cantonese hai fades out softly, almost like a sigh: haiiii... It sounds like the English greeting 'Hi' if said droopily.
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Next: I keep asking for tea. Why does every waiter in Hong Kong keep giving me a fork?
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Footlinks:
Footlinks:
- Jimmy Akin has a decent coverage of languages that don't have Yes or No.
1 comment:
Doesn't sound quite right to answer 'is' when asked if they want to drink coffee does it?
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