View Single Post
(#6 (permalink))
Old
Nagoyankee's Avatar
Nagoyankee (Offline)
中庸を得るのだ~
 
Posts: 2,119
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Tokyo, Japan
12-05-2008, 05:39 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by chryuop View Post
Nagoyankeeさん、your list of kanji reminded me of a question that I've wanted to ask for a long time and always forgotten...not I will take this opportunity to do it hee hee.
Is the informal "yes" うん by any chance related to the word luck? I have always wondered if the answer yes that way could mean something like "luckily".
The answer is 100% negative. The informal 'yes', うん, is an originally Japanese phrase. It existed before we had anything to do with China, therefore way before importing kanji from it. You don't import very basic words such as 'yes' and 'no' from a language that isn't even linguistically related to your own.
Reply With Quote