This is a very old joke.
A linguistics professor told his class “in English, a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.” To which came a Scottish voice from the back, “Aye, right.”
In the linguistics world, this caused great debate. I think the consensus was that there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative. I’m not a linguist ‘by trade’, I just love words. So I liked the joke purely on a sarcastic level, and the fact that it fits in with my birth country’s sense of humour. Language is so diverse and vast, and full of historical facts and interesting beginnings.
This is my first ever blog post. It’s short, but it’s set me on a journey to find out what else lurks in the world’s pot of words , , ,