yes(used to contradict a negative statement or negatively phrased question) (often followed byI do,he is,etc. in English to indicate contradiction rather than affirmation); identical in usage to the Frenchsi. Contrasts withja which confirms positive statements or positively phrased questions.
Negatively phrased questions likeKommer du ikke?,Du kommer ikke, vel?,Du kommer ikke? ("Are you not coming?", "You are not coming, are you?", "You are not coming?") must be answered withjo to indicate that the speaker is, in fact, coming; they cannot be answered withja ("yes").
^Itkonen, Erkki, Kulonen, Ulla-Maija, editors (1992–2000), “jo”, inSuomen sanojen alkuperä [The Origin of Finnish Words][1] (in Finnish) (online version; note: also includes other etymological sources; this source is labeled "SSA 1992–2000"), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland/Finnish Literature Society,→ISBN
^“ju”, in[ETY] Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat [Estonian Etymological Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation),2012
“jo”, inKielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki:Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland),2004–, retrieved2023-07-02
From the respective dialectal words foryes in about half of Northern and Central Germany and all of Western Germany (compareLow Germanja,jo). Possibly fromProto-Germanic*ja(“yes, thus, so”), possibly from an unrecorded root. The form with /oː/ must have existed in theMiddle Ages already, since the word often partakes in the same sound shifts as words with /oː/ from other sources, cf.Swedishjo,Middle Englishyo (>Englishyo).
Perhaps borrowed fromLatvianjau(“yet, already, after all”). However, compare alsoFinnishjo(“already”), thus ultimately a common Finnic borrowing fromProto-Germanic*ju that has likely beencontaminated by the more figurative senses of Latvianjau, with the latter ultimately a distant cognate of the initial Germanic borrowing.
LĒL only listsjo without listing any instances ofjuo.Livonian-Latvian-Livonian dictionary, in turn, only listsjuo for the comparative forming preposition sense.
LĒL doesn't explicitly list the second sense that seems to exactly mirror Latvianjau (including the more figurative applications.) Such a function, however, is inferred from the many usage examples available in the dictionary. As a translation of Latvianjau (strictly in its temporal sense) LĒL listsjõbā(“already”),cf. Estonianjuba.
Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017)A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.[5], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page127
Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008),Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages[6], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
Ja can be interpreted as an agreement with the person replied to.Jo is used instead ofja if this agreement could cause ambiguity. In example 1, agreement with the person asking the question would be the opposite of a confirmation that one actually did brush the teeth. As suchja would be ambiguous. The answerjo removes the possibility of agreement with the speaker.
Please seeModule:checkparams for help with this warning.Polański, Kazimierz (1971) “jo”, inSłownik etymologiczny języka Drzewian połabskich [Etymological Dictionary of the Polabian Drevani Language] (in Polish), number 2 (ďüzd – ľotü), Wrocław, Warszawa etc.: Ossolineum, page225
Polański, Kazimierz, James Allen Sehnert (1967) “jo”, inPolabian-English Dictionary, The Hague, Paris: Mouton & Co, page75
Olesch, Reinhold (1962) “Je”, inThesaurus Linguae Dravaenopolabicae [Thesaurus of the Drevani language] (in German), volumes1: A – O, Cologne, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag,→ISBN, page374
Antoni Krasnowolski (1879) “jo”, inAlbum uczącéj się młodzieży polskiéj poświęcone Józefowi Ignacemu Kraszewskiemu z powodu jubileuszu jego pięćdziesięcioletniéj działalności literackiéj (in Polish), Lviv: Czytelni Akademickiéj Lwowskiéj; "Gaz. Narod." J. Dobrzańskiego i K. Gromana, Słowniczek prowincjalizmów zebranych w ziemi chełmińskiej i świeckiej, page303
Ja(“yes”) can be interpreted as an agreement with the person replied to.Jo is used instead ofja if this agreement could cause ambiguity. In the example above agreement with the person asking the question would be the opposite of a confirmation that one actually did brush the teeth. As suchja would be ambiguous. The answerjo removes the possibility of agreement with the speaker. In Swedish dialects spoken in northern Sweden and Finland, it is however not uncommon for the wordjo to be used in place ofja in all cases, at least in spoken language.
This postposition also infrequently occurs without-nno, in which case it is not clear whether it inflects at all and its meaning is difficult to determine.
