Any person who engages ancient languages with curiosity soon discovers that the word “yes” isn’t available. For me, it was in studying Biblical Hebrew that I came across this fact. Seriously, look up the word “yes” in your OT concordance and then search the Hebrew (or Aramaic) word behind any “yes” you find. The semantic domain will be “right” “true” “honest”, but not what we mean or do with “yes”.

You’ll find the interwebs and AI’s explain that “yes” is a late development due to its “conceptual abstractness”. Okay, Boomer.

How does it work then, I wondered? How could people ask and answer questions without such a simple word?

Then, today, it occurred to me.

And, as you’ll see, I cannot commend enough to study the Bible through the lens of children talking—if you’re undertaking the task as a native English speaker in 2026.

So I ask my daughter, 6 yrs old, “Did A- go to school with you yesterday?” (See where I’m going?)

My daughter replies, not with “Yes” or “No”, but how? She replies, “Sometimes A- goes to school with us.” Or whatever similar seeming method to withstand interrogation.

And the engagements with my kids (and Ethiopian family members—who incidentally tell me they do have “yes” in their native tongue, but which I have come to believe cannot possibly be what we mean by “yes”) are always like this. I ask a yes or no question, and they answer without yes or no.

It’s all clear now.

I can actually calm down. To me, I am doing them a favor with a yes or no question. But from their perspective, they don’t have an option with which to reply other than narrative answers.

Kinda fascinating, if frustrating.

You’re welcome.