Italian 'sì', Spanish 'sí' and many more Romance words for "yes" come from Latin 'sīc' (so; like that). French 'oui' doesn't. It comes from Old French 'oïl', a univerbation of 'o il', literally "yes, it (is/does/has etc.)". 'O' stemmed from Latin 'hoc' (this), which in Occitan became 'òc' (yes): - ThreadSky

yvanspijk.bsky.social • 173 days ago

Italian 'sì', Spanish 'sí' and many more Romance words for "yes" come from Latin 'sīc' (so; like that).

French 'oui' doesn't. It comes from Old French 'oïl', a univerbation of 'o il', literally "yes, it (is/does/has etc.)".

'O' stemmed from Latin 'hoc' (this), which in Occitan became 'òc' (yes):

Comments

fidelioscabinet.bsky.social•173 days ago

📌

kacemlemoel.bsky.social•173 days ago

Thanks, full of new stuff for me as usual. Contemplating adding "ouan" to the list of words-I-use-in-my-head-but-can't-say-out-loud-because-issues.

kacemlemoel.bsky.social•173 days ago

A note though : in Occitan afaik the pronoun "o" (

yvanspijk.bsky.social•173 days ago

Ah, thanks!

cerishields.bsky.social•173 days ago

As an aside, I have heard it said that Richard I, ‘the lionheart’, was also nicknamed ‘oc-e-non’. The explanation of which being his supposed reputation for terseness: ‘his yes meant yes and his no meant no.’

yvanspijk.bsky.social•173 days ago

Interesting!

messirenicolas.bsky.social•173 days ago

The interesting thing is we also have si. I don't think many languages have a three-word system like oui/non/si.

kacemlemoel.bsky.social•173 days ago

Well some do (German "doch", Hungarian "de" come to my mind) but French seems to be particular in that we have a word specifically dedicated to contradicting a negation.