jo
English
Pronunciation
- (Scotland) IPA(key): /dʒoː/
Noun
jo (plural jos)
- (Scotland) Darling, sweetheart.
- 1711, traditional, published by James Watson, Old Long Syne:
- On Old long syne my Jo,
on Old long syne,
That thou canst never once reflect,
on Old long syne.
- On Old long syne my Jo,
- My Jo Janet (traditional Scottish song)
- Keek into the draw-well, Janet, Janet;
There ye'll see your bonnie sel',
My jo, Janet.
- Keek into the draw-well, Janet, Janet;
- 1711, traditional, published by James Watson, Old Long Syne:
Albanian
Etymology
From Proto-Albanian *nio (“not, no”), from Proto-Indo-European *nĕ, *nē (“negative particle”). Compare Latin ne, Welsh neu, Old English na, Lithuanian ne (“not”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /jɔ/
Audio (file)
Basque
Verb
jo
Conjugation
perfect stem | jo |
---|---|
imperfect stem | jotzen |
future stem | joko |
short stem | jo |
verbal noun | jotze |
Bavarian
Catalan
Etymology
From Old Occitan eu, from Vulgar Latin *eo, attested from the 6th century in Romance, from Latin ego, from Proto-Italic *egō, from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂; akin to Greek εγώ (egó), Sanskrit अहम् (aham), all from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂.
Declension
Synonyms
- mi (after most prepositions)
Further reading
- “jo” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
Czech
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈjo]
Audio (file)
Synonyms
Dalmatian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /jo/
Danish
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Middle Low German jo. Used like Swedish ju, German ja (adverb) / je (conjunction).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [jo] (unstressed in context)
Adverb
jo
- as you know or should know; sometimes vaguely translatable as after all or obviously
- 2015, Henriette E. Møller, Jelne, Gyldendal A/S →ISBN
- Jeg ved ikke, hvad de talte om, hendes sind blev så mørkt, jeg kunne jo ikke rigtigt snakke med hende.
- I do not know of what they spoke, her mind became so dark, I could not really talk with her, as you should be able to see.
- Jeg ved ikke, hvad de talte om, hendes sind blev så mørkt, jeg kunne jo ikke rigtigt snakke med hende.
- 2009, Sven Arvid Birkeland, I krigens kølvand: danske skæbner efter 2. verdenskrig, Gyldendal A/S →ISBN, page 479
- Han gik jo ikke i krig i håb om, at det skulle blive den store sejr
- After all, he did not go to war in the hopes of achieving great victory.
- Han gik jo ikke i krig i håb om, at det skulle blive den store sejr
- 2016, Anita Krumbach, Dorte Lilmose, Hanne Kvist, Helle Perrier, Iben Mondrup, Louis Jensen, Ronnie Andersen, Sissel Bergfjord, Svend Åge Madsen, Tomas Lagermand Lundme, Det du ikke ved: Noveller for unge, Gyldendal A/S →ISBN
- Jeg mener, at selv ens eget navn eller alder KAN man jo ikke være 100 procent sikker på er Dennis/17, vel?
- I mean, one obviously cannot even be 100% sure that one's own name or age are Dennis and 17, can one?
- Jeg mener, at selv ens eget navn eller alder KAN man jo ikke være 100 procent sikker på er Dennis/17, vel?
- 2015, Henriette E. Møller, Jelne, Gyldendal A/S →ISBN
Conjunction
jo
- the
- Jo mere jeg løber, desto trættere bliver jeg.
- The more I run, the more tired I become.
- Jo mere jeg løber, desto trættere bliver jeg.
Usage notes
jo ... desto ..., jo ... des ... are common constructions.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈjɔʊ̯ˀ]
Interjection
jo
- yes (used to contradict a negative statement or negatively phrased question) (often followed by I do, he is, etc. in English to indicate contradiction rather than affirmation); identical in usage to the French si. Contrasts with ja which confirms positive statements or positively phrased questions.
- Du elsker mig ikke, gør du vel? — Jo!
- You don't love me, do you? — Yes, I do!
- Jeg har ikke gjort noget! — Jo!
- I didn't do anything! — Yes, you did!
Usage notes
Negatively phrased questions like Kommer du ikke?, Du kommer ikke, vel?, Du kommer ikke? ("Are you not coming?", "You are not coming, are you?", "You are not coming?") must be answered with jo to indicate that the speaker is, in fact, coming; they cannot be answered with ja ("yes").
Dutch
Esperanto
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Finnish
Etymology
From Proto-Finnic *jo, borrowed from Proto-Germanic *ju, compare Gothic 𐌾𐌿 (ju, “already”), Old High German ju (“already”). Cognates include Estonian ju, Votic jo, Veps jo, Ingrian jo, Karelian jo. (EES)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈjo/, [ˈjo̞]
- Rhymes: -o
- Hyphenation: jo
Adverb
jo
Friulian
Etymology
From Vulgar Latin *eo, attested from the 6th century in Romance, from Latin ego.; akin to Greek εγώ (egó), Sanskrit अहम् (aham), all from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂.
German
Alternative forms
- joa, jö
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /jɔː/
Interjection
jo
Etymology 2
From the respective dialectal words for yes in about half of Northern and Central Germany and all of Western Germany (compare Low German ja, jo). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes, thus, so”), possibly from an unrecorded root. The form with /oː/ must have existed in the Middle Ages already, since the word often partakes in the same sound shifts as words with /oː/ from other sources, cf. Swedish jo.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /joː/
Ingrian
Italian
Japanese
Karelian
Kashubian
Konabéré
Alternative forms
Further reading
- Beatrice Tiendrébéogo, Rapport Sociolinguistique sur la Langue Bobo Madaré (SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2007-005: 55), page 44
- Chiara Alfieri, Bernard Taverne, Ethnophysiologie, règles et précautions chez les Bobo Madare et les Mossi
Lashi
Latvian
Lithuanian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [jo]
Particle
jo
- (colloquial) yes
Livonian
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /jo/
Preposition
jo
- more; used with adjectives to form comparatives
- Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz, Tartu, Rīga: TÜ, LVA
- pitkā, jo pitkā
- long, longer
- pitkā, jo pitkā
- Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz, Tartu, Rīga: TÜ, LVA
Etymology 2
Perhaps borrowed from Latvian jau (“yet, already, after all”). However, compare also Finnish jo (“already”), thus ultimately a common Finnic borrowing from Proto-Germanic *ju that has likely been contaminated by the more figurative senses of Latvian jau, with the latter ultimately a distant cognate of the initial Germanic borrowing.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /jo/
Preposition
jo
- yet, already, after all
- Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz, Tartu, Rīga: TÜ, LVA
- mōnigļikizt, ne jo lǟbõd mōzõ
- bumblebees, they are already migrating to their burrows (lit. "going inside of earth")
- amād jo ītist äb peļļõt
- not everyone makes the same [amount of money] (lit. "everyone after all doesn't earn the same")
- mōnigļikizt, ne jo lǟbõd mōzõ
- Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz, Tartu, Rīga: TÜ, LVA
Usage notes
- LĒL only lists jo without listing any instances of juo. Livonian-Latvian-Livonian dictionary, in turn, only lists juo for the comparative forming preposition sense.
- LĒL doesn't explicitly list the second sense that seems to exactly mirror Latvian jau (including the more figurative applications.) Such a function, however, is inferred from the many usage examples available in the dictionary. As a translation of Latvian jau (strictly in its temporal sense) LĒL lists jõbā (“already”), cf. Estonian juba.
Lower Sorbian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [jɔ]
Alternative forms
- njo (after preposition)
North Frisian
Etymology
Compare with West Frisian hja.
Northern Sami
Norwegian Bokmål
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Adverb
jo
- yes; in disagreement with the last speaker's negative statement.
- Du har ikke pusset tennene vel? - Jo, det har jeg.
- You haven't brushed your teeth, have you? - Yes, I have.
- yes or no; expressing doubt. (colloquial)
- Vil du være med? - Jo...
- Do you want to join? - I'm not sure...
Usage notes
Ja can be interpreted as an agreement with the person replied to. Jo is used instead of ja if this agreement could cause ambiguity. In example 1, agreement with the person asking the question would be the opposite of a confirmation that one actually did brush the teeth. As such ja would be ambiguous. The answer jo removes the possibility of agreement with the speaker.
Etymology 2
From Old Norse gjóðr
Noun
jo m (definite singular joen, indefinite plural joer, definite plural joene)
- a skua, seabird of family Stercorariidae.
Derived terms
Norwegian Nynorsk
Alternative forms
Adverb
jo
- yes; in disagreement with the last speaker's negative statement.
- yes or no; expressing doubt. (colloquial)
Usage notes
As for Bokmål above.
Related terms
Etymology 2
From Old Norse gjóðr
Noun
jo m (definite singular joen, indefinite plural joar, definite plural joane)
- a skua, seabird of family Stercorariidae.
Derived terms
Occitan
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʒu/, /ju/
Etymology 1
From Old Occitan eu, from Vulgar Latin *eo, attested from the 6th century in Romance, from Latin ego. Compare Catalan jo, Old French jeo.
Etymology 2
From Old Occitan (compare Catalan jou), from Latin jugum, iugum (compare French joug, Italian giogo), from Proto-Italic *jugom, from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm.
Old French
Old Frisian
Inflection
Plautdietsch
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /jɔ/
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /xo/
Etymology 2
Euphemistic clipping of joder.
Interjection
¡jo!
Further reading
- “jo” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.
Swahili
Swedish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /juː/
Interjection
jo
- yes; used as a disagreement to a negative statement or a negatively phrased question.
- Du har inte borstat tänderna, eller hur? - Jo, det har jag.
- "You haven't brushed your teeth, have you? - Yes, I have."
Usage notes
Ja (yes) can be interpreted as an agreement with the person replied to. Jo is used instead of ja if this agreement could cause ambiguity. In the example above agreement with the person asking the question would be the opposite of a confirmation that one actually did brush the teeth. As such ja would be ambiguous. The answer jo removes the possibility of agreement with the speaker.
In Swedish dialects spoken in northern Sweden and Finland, it is however not uncommon for the word jo to be used in place of ja in all cases, at least in spoken language.
Veps
Etymology
Related to Finnish jo.
West Frisian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /joː/
- (unstressed) IPA(key): /jə/
Etymology 1
From Old Frisian jū, from Proto-Germanic *izwiz, dative/accusative of *jūz, from Proto-Indo-European *yū́.
Usage notes
Though it is a singular pronoun, jo takes the plural conjugation of verbs.
Inflection
Number | Person | Nominative | Objective | Possessive | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Normal | Reflexive | Determiner | Pronoun | ||||
Singular | First | ik | my | mysels | myn | mines | |
Second | Informal | do/dû1 | dy | dysels | dyn | dines | |
Formal | jo | jo | josels | jo | jowes | ||
Third | Masculine | hy | him | himsels | syn | sines | |
Feminine | sy/hja1 | har | harsels | har | harres | ||
Neuter | it | it | himsels | syn | sines | ||
Plural | First | wy | ús | ússels | ús | uzes | |
Second | jim(me) | jim(me) | jimsels/jinsels | jim(me) | jimmes | ||
Third | sy/hja1 | har(ren) | harsels | har(ren) | harres | ||
1. Now mostly archaic and unused |
Further reading
- “jo”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
Further reading
- “jo”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011