Cover not available

Article published In: Old Germanic Languages and Latin/Early Romance in Contact
Edited by Carla Falluomini
[NOWELE 78:1] 2025
► pp. 97–120

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Anaphoric polar answers in Gallo‑Romance and West Germanic

ORCiD logo with link | Universität Basel
Published online: 30 October 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.00097.vaa
Abstract
In several medieval and modern varieties of Gallo-Romance and West Germanic, answers to polar questions may consist of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ followed by a personal or demonstrative pronoun with anaphoric reference. This type of answers is typologically rare, which begs the question of its origin and its possible spread via language contact. The present article reviews the dialectal evidence, especially on the Germanic side, discusses the etymology of the anaphoric responsives, and evaluates the possibilty of their contact-induced origin and spread. In passing, I propose a novel etymology for English yes.
Article outline
  • 1.Anaphoric polar answers
  • 2.Anaphoric yes and no in Gallo-Romance
  • 3.The origin of anaphoric yes and no in Gallo-Romance
    • 3.aInternal origin
    • 3.bLanguage contact origin
  • 4.Anaphoric yes and no in West Germanic
    • 4.1High German
    • 4.2Low German
    • 4.3Dutch
    • 4.4English
    • 4.5Frisian
    • 4.6The etymology of ja
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Gaulish substrate in both languages
    • 5.2Transfer from West Germanic into Gallo-Romance
    • 5.3Transfer from Gallo-Romance into West Germanic
    • 5.4Truncation?
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (74)
References
Adams, James N. 2003. Bilingualism and the Latin language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ascoli, Graziadio I. 1882. Lettere glottologiche: prima lettera. Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 101. 1–71.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Behagel, Otto. 1897. Die Syntax des Heliand. Leipzig: Greytag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berr, Samuel. 1971. An Etymological glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand. Berne/Frankfurt: Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Breatnach, Liam. 2020. The demonstrative pronouns in Old and Middle Irish. In Elliott Lash, Fangzhe Qiu & David Stifter (eds.), Morphosyntactic variation in medieval Celtic languages. Corpus-based approaches. Berlin: de Gruyter, 115–141. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Paul H., Brian D. Joseph & Rex E. Wallace. 2009. Questions and answers. In Philip Baldi & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), New perspectives on historical Latin syntax. 1: Syntax of the sentence, 489–530. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Bo, Leonard L. 1892. Westvlaamsch Idioticon. Reedited by Joseph Samyn. Ghent: Siffer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dunkel, George. 2014. Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme. Vol. 11: Einleitung, Terminologie, Lautgesetze, Adverbialbildungen, Nominalsuffixe, Anhänge und Indices; vol. 21: Lexikon. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
EWA = Lloyd, Albert L., Otto Springer & Rosemarie Lühr (eds.). 1988–. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferri, Rolando. 2012. How to say No in Latin: Negative turns, politeness and pragmatic variation. In Martti Leiwo, Hilla Halla-aho & Marja Vierros (eds.), Variation and change in Greek and Latin, 115–138. Helsinki: Suomen Ateenan-Instituutin Säätiö. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
FEW = Walther von Wartburg. 1922–2022. Französisisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Eine Darstellung des galloromanischen Sprachschatzes, 251 vol. Leipzig/Bonn/Basel: Teubner/Klopp/Zbinden.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fleuriot, Léon. 1991. Celtoromanica in the light of the newly discovered Celtic inscriptions. Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 441. 1–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch = Robert R. Anderson, Ulrich Goebel & Oskar Reichmann (eds.). 1986–. Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goossens, Jan, Johan Taeldeman & Antoon Weijnen (eds.). 1989. Honderd jaar enquête Willems (= Taal en Tongval. Themanummer 2). Amsterdam: Meertens-Instituut.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Griffith, Aaron. 2018. Diachrony and the referential hierarchy in Old Irish. In Sonia Cristofaro & Fernando Zúñiga (eds.), Typological hierarchies in synchrony and diachrony: Typological studies in language, 191–216. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hackstein, Olav. 2021. Lat. negō* ‘not me; ich nicht’, ‘I deny; ich verneine’. Lexikalisierung von Echo-Antworten und delokutive Ableitung. In Matteo Tarsi (ed.), Studies in general and historical linguistics offered to Jón Axel Harðarson on the occasion of his 65th Birthday, 223–236. Innsbruck: IBS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hamp, Eric P. 1996. Varia II. Ériu 471. 209–211.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmberg, Anders. 2016. The Syntax of yes and no. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holtus, Günter. 1990. Französisch: Geschichte des Wortschatzes. In Günter Holtus, Michael Metzeltin & Christian Schmitt (eds.), Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, vol. V: Französisch, Okzitanisch, Katalanisch, 519–529. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howe, Stephen. 2018. Emphatic “yes” and “no” in Eastern English: Jearse and Dow. In Laura Wright (ed.), Southern English varieties: Then and now, 148–187. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Idiotikon = Schweizerisches Idiotikon. Wörterbuch der schweizerdeutschen Sprache. 1881–present. Initiated by Friedrich Staub and Ludwig Tobler […]. Frauenfeld: Huber / Basel: Schwabe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kerkhof, Peter A. 2015. ModDu. baas, Langobard. barbas and their etymologies. Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Älteren Germanistik 741. 61–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2018. Language, law and loanwords in early medieval Gaul. PhD Dissertation, Leiden University.
Keyser, Sijbrand. 1951. Het Tessels. Leiden: Brill. [URL]
König, Ekkehard & Peter Siemund. 2007. Speech act distinctions in grammar. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description. Vol. 1: Clause structure. 2nd edn, 276–324. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred. 2013. Response particles as propositional anaphors. Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 231. 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laker, Stephen. 2008. Changing views about Anglo-Saxons and Britons. In Henk Aertsen & Bart Veldhoen (eds.), Six papers from the 28th symposium on medieval studies held at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on 15 December 2006, 1–38. Leiden: Leiden University Department of English.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. British Celtic influence on English phonology. PhD Dissertation, Leiden University.
Lambert, Pierre-Yves. 1997. Gaulois tardif et latin vulgaire. Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 491. 396–413. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. La langue gauloise. Description linguistique, commentaire d’inscriptions choisies. Édition revue et augmentée. Paris: Errance.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lübben, August. 1867. Reinke de Vos, nach der ältesten Ausgabe (Lübeck 1498). Oldenburg: Stalling.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lutz, Angelika. 2009. Celtic influence on Old English and West Germanic. English Language and Linguistics 131. 227–249. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meissner, Torsten. 2009. Das Hieronymuszeugnis und der Tod des Gallischen. Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 571. 107–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Millett, Bella. 2005. Ancrene Wisse Volume 1. A corrected edition of the text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 402, with variants from other manuscripts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moignet, Gérard. 1984. Grammaire de l’ancien français. Morphologie — Syntaxe. 3rd ed. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mönkkönen, Ilkka. 2015. Old English negators as equivalents of a clause. Studia Neophilologica 881. 24–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morris Jones, Bob. 1999. The Welsh answering system. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Bodo. 1982. Geostatistik der gallischen/keltischen Substratwörter in der Gallo-Romania. In Otto Winkelmann and Maria Braisch (eds.), Festschrift für Johannes Hubschmid zum 65. Geburtstag; Beiträge zur allgemeinen, indogermanischen und romanischen Sprachwissenschaft, 603–620. Bern: Francke.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Roman. 1997. Sprechen und Sprache: Dialoglinguistische Studien zu Terenz. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Overdiep, G. S. 1935. Zeventiende-eeuwsche syntaxis. Groningen/Batavia: Wolters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paardekooper, Piet. 1993. Jaak/neenik enz. Taalkundig Bulletin 231. 143–170.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paris, Gaston. 1894. Le pronom neutre de la 3e personne en français. Romania 901. 161–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Platt Jr, James. 1884. The Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon dictionary. Transactions of the Philological Society 19(1). 237–246. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Potočnik, Tomaž. 2023. Saying yes without yes: The positive response system in Latin. Transactions of the Philological Society 1211. 65–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1971. Romanische Spachgeographie. München: Beck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rheinfelder, Hans. 1967. Altfranzösische Grammatik. 2. Teil Formenlehre und Syntax. München: Hueber.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schäfer-Prieß, Barbara. 2022. Romanisch-germanischer Sprachkontakt im späten Karolingerreich: Die Pariser Gespräche. In Roger Schöntag & Barbara Schäfer-Prieß (eds.), Romanische Sprachgeschichte und Sprachkontakt. Berlin: Lang, 91–119.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, Karl Horst. 1983. Keltisch-lateinische Sprachkontakte im römischen Gallien der Kaiserzeit. In Wolfgang Haase (ed.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Bd. 29.21: Principat. Sprache und Literatur. Berlin: de Gruyter, 988–1018. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmitt, Christian. 1997. Keltisches im heutigen Französisch. Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 49/501. 814–829. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schrijver, Peter. 1997. Studies in the history of Celtic pronouns and particles. Maynooth: National University of Ireland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. The rise and fall of British Latin: Evidence from English and Brittonic. In Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola & Heli Pitkänen (eds.), The Celtic roots of English, 87–110. Joensuu: University of Joensuu.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Celtic, Romance and Germanic along the Nether Rhine Limes. In Peter Schrijver & Juan Luis García Alonso (eds.), Celtic and Other languages in ancient Europe, 197–201. Aquilafuente: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Language contact and the origins of the Germanic languages. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schumacher, Stefan. 2009. Lexical and structural language contact phenomena along the Germano-Celtic transition zone. In Stefan Zimmer (ed.), Kelten am Rhein. Akten des dreizehnten Internationalen Keltologenkongresses: Philologie. Sprachen und Literaturen (Beihefte. Bonner Jahrbücher 58), 247–266. Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Squillacioti, Paolo (ed.). 2003. Folquet de Marselha: Poesie. Rome: Carocci.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stifter, David. 2012. Lenition of s in Gaulish? In Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead et al. (eds.), The sound of Indo-European: Phonetics, phonemics, and morphophonemics, 523–544. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stuber, Karin. 2017. The morphology of Celtic. In Matthias Fritz, Brian Joseph & Jared Klein (eds.), HSK — Comparative Indo-European linguistics: An international handbook of language comparison and the reconstruction of Indo-European (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science/Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft), Vol. 21, 1203–1218. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stucki, Fritz. 1983. Die Rechtsquellen des Kantons Glarus. Erster Band: Urkunden, Vereinbarungen und Gerichtsordnungen. Aarau: Sauerländer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tax, Petrus W. (ed.). 1986–1990. Notker der Deutsche: Boethius, “De consolatione Philosophiae”, Buch I/II–III–IV/V. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thesleff, Holger. 1960. Yes and No in Plautus and Terence. Helsingfors: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thurneysen, Rudolf. 1946. A grammar of Old Irish. Revised and enlarged edition. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vaan, Michiel. 2017. De mouillering in het Horn-, Thorn- en Weertlands. Een dialectgeografisch en taalhistorisch onderzoek. Jaarboek van de Vereniging voor Limburgse Dialect- en Naamkunde 191. 53–88.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Craenenbroeck, Jeroen. 2004. Ellipsis in Dutch dialects. PhD dissertation, Leiden University.
Vendryes, Joseph. 1925. Celtique et roman. Revue de linguistique romane 11. 262–277.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
VMNW = Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek. Woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling. 2001. Eds. W. Pijnenburg et al. Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie / Groningen: Gopher.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vogelaer, Gunther. 2008. De nederlandse en friese subjectsmarkeerders: geografie, typologie en diachronie. Gent: Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vogelaer, Gunther & Johan van der Auwera. 2010. When typological rara generate rarissima: analogical extension of verbal agreement in Dutch dialects. In Jan Wohlgemuth & Michael Cysouw (eds.), Rara & Rarissima: Documenting the fringes of linguistic diversity (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT] 46), 47–73. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wallage, Phillip & Wim van der Wurff. 2013. On saying ‘yes’ in early Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo-Saxon England 421. 183–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weijnen, Antoon. 1971. Schets van de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Syntaxis. Assen: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Willems, Pieter. 1885–1886. Dialect enquiry carried out in the southern Netherlands, Belgium, and some 60 localities in Germany. To be consulted at [URL]
Zufferey, François. 2009. Particules affirmatives. In Hans-Rudolf Nüesch (ed.), Galloromanica et Romanica. Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Jakob Wüest, 287–310. Tübingen/Basel: Francke.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue