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<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 13 April 2008 - Volume 07<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">-------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).</span><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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========================================================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Diederik Masure</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:didimasure@hotmail.com">didimasure@hotmail.com</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Idiomatica" 2008.04.13 (03) [E]<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I always heard that West-Flemish (+East Flemish?) does the same, while
the east of the country uses the 'normal' system, i.e. saying "no" to
affirm a negative question. But I have never really noticed this myself
(since I don't know many persons from these tracts) so maybe our
Westflemish members could shine some light on this? </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Diederik</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <<a href="mailto:ingmar.roerdinkholder@WORLDONLINE.NL" target="_blank">ingmar.roerdinkholder@WORLDONLINE.NL</a>><br>
Subject: Culture related language use<br><br>I noticed something interesting, the different way of replying to some<br>questions by speakers of many non-European languages. I know a lot of<br>people with African (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola etc), Middle East<br>
(Arab, Irani, Afghani etc) and Far East (Chinese, Vietnamese) backgrounds.<br>If they are asked e.g. "Didn't you go to work today?" and they<br>answer "Yes", this means "No, I didn't go to work". This often leads to<br>
confusion, because a Dutchman or other European would say "No",<br>meaning "No, I didn't go to work". So they just confirm the<br>question, "yes" means "you're right, it's true what you asked", whereas<br>
Europeans would say "no" i.e. "the action you're asking about is negative".<br>On the other hand, when asked "did you go to work today" and they did not,<br>both will answer "No."<br>
I'm curious if there are European languages too with the confirming<br>system, and whether there is a difference between Indo-European languages<br>and other, how languages like Hindi etc. handle this which are I E but<br>
from outside Europe.<br><br>Ingmar<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <<a href="mailto:ingmar.roerdinkholder@WORLDONLINE.NL">ingmar.roerdinkholder@WORLDONLINE.NL</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Idiomatica" 2008.04.13 (03) [E]<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Oh, what a coincidence! I should have rather sent it with subject "fun with words" because it is a case of When No means Yes, as in Tom's message</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
about Slovak (a)no...</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <<a href="mailto:ingmar.roerdinkholder@WORLDONLINE.NL">ingmar.roerdinkholder@WORLDONLINE.NL</a>><br>
Subject: Culture related language use<br><br>
I noticed something interesting, the different way of replying to some<br>
questions by speakers of many non-European languages. I know a lot of<br>
people with African (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola etc), Middle East<br>
(Arab, Irani, Afghani etc) and Far East (Chinese, Vietnamese) backgrounds.<br>
If they are asked e.g. "Didn't you go to work today?" and they<br>
answer "Yes", this means "No, I didn't go to work". This often leads to<br>
confusion, because a Dutchman or other European would say "No",<br>
meaning "No, I didn't go to work". So they just confirm the<br>
question, "yes" means "you're right, it's true what you asked", whereas<br>
Europeans would say "no" i.e. "the action you're asking about is negative".<br>
On the other hand, when asked "did you go to work today" and they did not,<br>
both will answer "No."<br>
I'm curious if there are European languages too with the confirming<br>
system, and whether there is a difference between Indo-European languages<br>
and other, how languages like Hindi etc. handle this which are I E but<br>
from outside Europe.<br><br>
Ingmar<br></div>
•
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