He's back! ("yes"/"no")

[Charles Doyle]

For a few months, at age 3, my little grandson did that; he would answer yes/no questions with "It is," "I don't," and the like.  As far as I'm aware, nobody else in his family, peer group, or community has the mannerism, and now that he's turning 4, it's disappeared from his speech.  Could it be a common feature in (ontogenic) language development?

--Charlie
_______________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:04:42 +0100
>From: Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
>Subject: Re: He's back!
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>--On Thursday, August 31, 2006 11:46 am -0400 "Baker, John"
><JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
>
>> we see the claim that there are no words for "yes" or "no" in Irish.  Is this really true?
>
>
>If it's like Scots Gaelic (which one presumes it is), then yes, it is true--and I don't think it's all that rare in the world's languages.  You answer a question by saying "it is" or "it isn't" or otherwise echoing the verb of the question.  Chinese does this as well, doesn't it?
>
>Lynne

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