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It's interesting that in Catalan you may say oi [0] in addition to sí. It is more commonly used in questions and to answer such questions. For example:

Plou molt, oi? Oi.

There's a construct that is very common and redundant: oi que sí? == right that yes?, which would be translated as an emphatic "right?"

[0] http://mdlc.iec.cat/results.asp?txtEntrada=Oi&operEntrada=0



"Oi que sí" in Spanish is a lot like "oy, yeah" in English. The "oi" is not "this" or "yeah", it's "oy, I already told you".

Now, "oí, que sí" is different: "hear me: yes", but maybe only in Argentina/Uruguay, where imperatives are constructed differently than elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. "Oí" deriving from "oid", which is the second person plural imperative in proper Spanish -- just drop the 'd', keep the stress on the 'i', and use it as the second person singular imperative (this is the formula for all second person singular imperatives down there).


It sounds like a calque of regular Spanish 'a que si' rather than anything else.


A calque wouldn't take such a particular word as "oi". The sentence makes sense coming from oral language, where you say oi to ask for confirmation and add the rest to specify in which direction. People do say "eh que sí", which, cal que or not, follows the same pattern, and even "a que sí", which definitely copies the Spanish expression.


Not oui in French?


If you read the article, this is a pattern in a number of languages, so there's no reason for it to come from French. It's also unlikely because the pronunciation is very different: https://forvo.com/word/oi/#ca


Catalonia borders France and has some similarities though.


Bordering with French is a newer phenomenon, though. Catalonia has traditionally bordered Occitan-speaking territories to the North so it has way more influence from Occitan than from French.




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