Why Do English and Spanish Both Have “No”?
Despite some similar vocabulary, Spanish and English aren’t closely related languages. Spanish is a Romance language that came from Latin. English, on the other hand, is a Germanic language and is more closely related to Dutch or German than it is Spanish.
The fact that English and Spanish share some similar words isn’t surprising. Languages are constantly borrowing words from other languages. When there’s a gap in one language, its speakers might take a word from another language to fill it.
But no isn’t a place where you’d suspect a language to have a gap. It’s a pretty basic word in both English and Spanish. It’s one that we all use every day. And it somehow has similar meanings in both languages. How did two largely unrelated languages end up with such a similar word?
The Origins of “No”
In Spanish, no came from Latin. No surprise there since it’s a Romance language. Most of the Romance languages have words derived from the Latin non. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, you probably also recognize non. In English it’s used as a prefix for words to mean…no.
So, does that mean the Spanish and English no’s are both related?
Well, no. Not directly at least. The English no ultimately entered Old English from Proto-Germanic as na. It didn’t come from Latin like the Spanish no did.
Ultimately, it’s largely a coincidence that the two languages wound up with such essential words that often mean the same thing, but the fact that it’s a coincidence almost makes it more interesting.
