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Words that sound academic, but aren’t | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4628 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 13 20 January 2013 at 12:54pm | IP Logged |
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Sometimes you come across words in a foreign language that sound complex or academic yet they are used
regularly by the masses. In German, the term pedagogisch wertvoll describes a child's toy that is educational. This might sound rather high falutin to an English speaker as our use of pedagogic is largely confined to academia. It's not the sort of word that crops up in conversation with the averge man on the street. But in Germany, everyone uses it. Another one is "sporadisch", meaning now and again. English has sporadic, but this word is used, er, sporadically. Any more examples? Edited by beano on 20 January 2013 at 12:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6665 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 2 of 13 20 January 2013 at 1:12pm | IP Logged |
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Does that mean I'd sound dry talking about pedagogic toys :P?
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6603 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 13 20 January 2013 at 1:43pm | IP Logged |
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In Russian words like lexical/lexis are used for vocabulary. Even my current prof sometimes writes "study the lexis" meaning we have to learn/revise the new vocab. (#fail)
This sort of thing is very common with medical words, due to a metaphoric use of them or because the condition gets attention in the popular media. At least that's what it seems like, as in Finnish stressiniska ('stressed neck') is a well-known word although I'm sure the problem is common in ANY developed country. Can't come up with more examples yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4527 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 4 of 13 20 January 2013 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
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I have the impression that anatomic terms derived from Latin are at least commonly understood in English, like humerus, scapula, clavicles, vertebrae etc. If you would use such words in German, almost nobody would understand you. But you would probably classify them as academic in English anyway. Edited by daegga on 20 January 2013 at 2:01pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6603 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 13 20 January 2013 at 2:10pm | IP Logged |
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On the other hand, when these words consist of simple roots they might not sound academic at all.
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| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4616 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 6 of 13 20 January 2013 at 2:12pm | IP Logged |
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I read somewhere, (maybe the Loom of Language by Bodmer?) that the high-brow vocabulary
we use in English came to us via French (spoken by English ruling class) and the low-brow via Nordic influences. I'm not a linguist so I can't vouch for that but it seems to be a sensible explanation. When I think of words like spelling vs. orthography. In the Romance languages ortografia is the word in common usage whereas in English we usually say spelling. One is of Greek and Latin origin, the other... I'm guessing Nordic. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4628 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 7 of 13 20 January 2013 at 2:15pm | IP Logged |
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At intermedite level, it can often be easier to read a text full of "educated" words because many share the
same Latin roots in our own language, even though this may be classed as a fancy way of speaking by the average native. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6603 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 13 20 January 2013 at 2:25pm | IP Logged |
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...Unless your native language doesn't have that many Latin loans :-)
Sometimes the problem is that the concept is not even expressed by a single word. For example 'destination' can be translated in various ways in Russian, mostly sounding official/cumbersome/serious. It's kinda crazy to realize that in most languages it's just a normal word. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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