An essay (or "opinion piece") in Sunday's NY Times Magazine, by the Irish journalist Marion McKeone, entitled
Learning American. A sample:
But we Irish just can’t say yes. Or no. It’s not in our genes. In Irish Gaelic, our native tongue, we don’t even have a word for them. The closest is “Is ea,” which means “It is so.” And “Ni hea,” which means “It is not so.” There are, however, about 50 different approximations that indicate various degrees of equivocation. The whole thing is a bit of fluff, i mo thuairim. But you can read it all, free of charge on the day of publication only, if you click on
On Language at
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html