It's interesting to see how both Gaelic (and Welsh for that matter) and Latin differ in their means of getting around the lack of having a single "yes" or "no" word.

In Classic Latin they'd use adverbs like Certe ["certainly"] or Minime ["not at all"], etc. (IIRC, Sic ["thus"] eventually started getting used in Vulgar Latin as "yes", and evolved into si and its variations in the romance dialects. Same as non [lit. "not," "un-"] for "no.")

Irish and Scots (Welsh too, for that matter) as McGraw indicates, use a different technique: they re-state the question, and throw either the positive or negative form of the verb back at you.

"Do you know that song?"
"I do not."

"Are you going to get married?"
"We are."

"Have they ever been to Cork?"
"They have not."

"Is Sioned your sister?"
"She is."

Moral of the story: best not to ask close-ended questions in any of the above languages. ;)

Slán,

~Fionn

www.geocities.com/children_of_lir