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Falsehoods programmers believe about languages
(www.lexiconista.com)
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this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Most of these just seem like basic educational issues except this one imo:
I want to see more than like 1 or 2 counterexamples. I'm pretty interested in linguistics on an amateur level. Don't believe I've heard of that one before now.
edit: in retrospect I do think I remember hearing this about Irish and Latin and some older languages. Interesting to know there are so many. I know the theory that language is related to thought patterns is semi-debunked, but I can't help but think that things like this indicate something about the cultures associated with a language.
My wife is Vietnamese, so I have a basic grasp of it, but they don't really have a word for yes.
The verb itself is used to answer the question.
Want something to drink? Drink. Want to go to the park? Go.
They have a word for no, but as you can probably ascertain, it's only for the negative.
Can they answer “not no”?
I don’t know any Vietnamese, but I suspect it would be as awkward of an answer as “not no” in English.
I’m sure it would. But in many languages a double negative just reinforces the negative. Hence the question.