Learn English – Why do all negating words start with the letter N

etymologymorphology

Maybe this question is stupid, but I came to wonder:

Why do all negating words start with the letter n?

This is the case in all languages I know of.

Best Answer

As John Lawler has indicated in a comment, most negating words in Indo-European languages derive ultimately from the root *ne-.

In non-IE languages, negative words take other forms, eg Hebrew לֺא (lo' = "not") or אין ('eyn' = "there isn't") or Turkish yok ("there isn't") or Georgian არ (ar = "not").

And even in IE languages, there are exceptions which have arisen in other ways, eg French pas, ("not", "none") Welsh ddim (ditto), Danish ikke, ("not").