[lproven]

As I understand it, neither Mandarin nor Irish have words that directly mean "yes" and "no."

Then again, half a millennium ago, English had 4 such words: 2 for yes, 2 for no. (Sir Thomas More tried to explain this circa 400 years ago, and even he got it wrong.)

Norwegian and Czech, both of which I speak very badly, preserve two forms of "yes" and I cannot keep them straight.

[sowbug]

Learning Mandarin does make me yearn for the simplicity of English "yes" and "no." But I have to admit, each word in Mandarin works a lot harder than it does in English, so you can often say a heck of a lot in just one or two syllables.