ÉsAdir accepts both [ʒɔ] and [jɔ] in Central Catalan and both [d͡ʒo] and [jo] in Northwestern Catalan. The same applies toja.
DNV accepts both [jo] and [jɔ] in Valencian.
The formal pronunciation [ʒɔ] predominates in Girona, Mallorca, and Menorca. It can alternate with [jɔ] in relaxed or syntactic pronunciation due to vowel contact.
The pronunciation [jɔ] predominates in Central Catalan below Girona, as in Barcelona, and also in Northern Valencian and Ibiza. It can alternate with [ʒɔ] in emphatic pronunciation or in formal registers.
The pronunciation [jo] predominates in southern Valencian and in La Franja in Aragon.
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").
^Erkki Itkonen, Ulla-Maija Kulonen, 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–, retrieved2 July 2023
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).
Either borrowed fromLatvianjo(“because, yet (more)”)/juo/, or otherwise an extended use ofjo(“yet”) (etymology 2) inspired by the Latvian word; a direct borrowing from Latvian is more likely.
2012–2013, “jo”, in Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits, editors,Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary][5], Tartu, Riga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra:
Probably fromProto-Finnic*jo (compareFinnishjo(“already”)), although the phonetic development is not entirely regular, so either influence or direct borrowing fromLatvianjau(“yet, already, after all”) is possible. At least semantic influence from Latvian is likely, as the original Finnic word only means“already”.
2012–2013, “jo”, in Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits, editors,Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary][6], Tartu, Riga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra:
mōnigļikizt, nejo lǟbõd mōzõ
bumblebees, they arealready migrating to their burrows
(literally, “...going inside of earth”)
2012–2013, “jo”, in Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits, editors,Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary][7], Tartu, Riga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra:
amādjo ītist äb peļļõt
not everyone makes the same [amount of money]
(literally, “everyoneafter all doesn't earn the same”)
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.
Tiit-Rein Viitso; Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), “jo”, inLīvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary][8] (in Estonian and Latvian), Tartu, Rīga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra
Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017),A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.[9], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page127
Eino Koponen, Klaas Ruppel, Kirsti Aapala, editors (2002–2008),Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages[10], 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.
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
yes; used as a disagreement to a negative statement or a negatively phrased question(has no English equivalent, but equivalent to Frenchsi and Germandoch)
–Du gillar ju inte pizza. –Jo.
–But you don't like pizza. –Yes, I do.
Du har inte borstat tänderna, eller hur? -Jo, det har jag.
You haven't brushed your teeth, have you? -Yes, I have.
yes (more generally, in a similar vein tojodå – see its usage notes)
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.
