Linguistically Speaking I

In Chinese, there is no such word as "yes" or "no".

If someone asks: Have you eaten? [你吃了嗎?]
You will either answer: I have eaten. [我吃了。] or I have not eaten. [我還沒吃。]

If someone asks: Do you have it? [你有沒有﹖]
You will either answer: Have. [有。] or Don't have. [沒有。]

If someone asks: Are you Singaporean? [你是新加玻人嗎﹖]
You will go: (I) am. [(我) 是。] or (I) am not. [(我)不是。]


It seems all the romance languages (languages with latin roots?) have "yes" and "no".

Italian>>
yes: si
no: no

French>>
yes: oui
no: no

(must emphasize on the "seems", my linguistic expertise not quite there yet ><)


Yet, in Japanese:
yes: hai
no: iie


It's all in the roots, i think. Even though Japanese and Chinese both have Chinese characters (kanji) in their script, Japanese, essentially, is of a different linguistic lineage from Chinese.


[correct me if i'm wrong? =)]