Yes and no "Ja", and the affirmative answer to "Snakker du ikke norsk?" ("Do you not speak Norwegian?") is "Jo", while the negative answer to "both" questions is "Nei". Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Hungarian, German, Dutch, and French all have three-form systems. Swedish and Danish have "ja", "jo", and "nej". Norwegian has "ja", "jo"/"jau", and "nei". Icelandic has "já", "jú" and "nei". Faroese has "ja", "jú" and "nei". Hungarian has "igen", "de", and "nem". German has "ja", "doch", and "nein". Dutch has "ja", "jawel", and "nee". French has "oui", "si", and "non". Swedish, and to some extent Danish and Norwegian, also has
Yes and no they actually signify agreement or disagreement with the proposition put by the question: "That's right." or "That's not right." For example: if asked, , answering with the affirmative "はい" would mean "Right, I am "not" going"; whereas in English, answering "yes" would be to contradict the negative question. Echo responses are not uncommon in Japanese. The words for "yes" and "no" in some languages originate from a process of devaluation and semantic erosion. The Hungarian strong affirmative was originally the Latin phrase , for example. German similarly is derived from the Old High German "ni ein", which means "not a