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Did you know that...? (language trivia) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Smart Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5340 days ago 352 posts - 398 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French Studies: German | Message 9 of 90 23 May 2010 at 8:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii.
"Polish" is the only word in the English language that when capitalized is changed from a noun or a verb to a nationality. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ember Triglot Groupie CyprusRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5404 days ago 63 posts - 101 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, German Studies: Spanish, French, Greek, Polish | Message 10 of 90 24 May 2010 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There's a word in Russian that contains three *e* vowels together:
длинношЕЕЕ (which means 'long-necked', neut. sing.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 11 of 90 24 May 2010 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Estonian has a word that's not an exclamation which consists of the longest string of the same vowel.
jäääär = ice-edge (jää "ice" + äär "edge") 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Wise owl chick Senior Member Ecuador Joined 5319 days ago 122 posts - 137 votes Studies: English | Message 12 of 90 24 May 2010 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
What a wonderful and funny word!! It's like the keyboard's broken and you can type only ä now. Mermarina, those infos are great. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6473 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 13 of 90 24 May 2010 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
That might technically be true, but "turkey" is very similar -- only that it's a country name rather than a nationality. "Chad" (a country in Africa) also qualifies. I wonder if there are any others? Edited by furrykef on 24 May 2010 at 10:43pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6143 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 14 of 90 24 May 2010 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
A similar example to the Turkey/turkey in English is in Portuguese in regards to the country of Peru. "Peru" in Portuguese means "turkey", so seeing the name of that country for a Portuguese-speaker would be like seeing the country Turkey for an English speaker. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ember Triglot Groupie CyprusRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5404 days ago 63 posts - 101 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, German Studies: Spanish, French, Greek, Polish | Message 15 of 90 25 May 2010 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
This reminds me of Russian words for nationalities - some of them change their meaning when you change the gender: Polish - поляк is a man, полька is a dance (although the correct word for a Polish woman is полячка) Turkish - турок is a man, турка is a coffee-pot (турчанка is correct) Finnish - финн is a man, финка is a type of knife Spanish - испанец is a man, испанка is the 1918 flu pandemic Czech - чех is a man, чешка is a soft-sole shoe American - американец is a man, американка is a billiard game Scottish - шотландец is a man, шотландка is tartan fabric Panamanian - панамец is a person, панамка is a summer hat Russian - русский is a man, русская is another word for vodka :))) And there is only one exception: Moscovite - москвичка is a woman, while москвич is an old car brand. Edited by ember on 25 May 2010 at 5:46pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Person1235 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5350 days ago 16 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Sign Language | Message 16 of 90 26 May 2010 at 3:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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In ASL:
the sign for "milk" is the same as the sign for "cream" as is the case with... "Cool" (as in neat, or interesting) and "nice" "British" and "On" (like "on the table") The sign for "clean" is part of the sign for "cool" (as above) "Pink" and "sample" are the same There are four signs for the word "door", depending upon how said door operates "Egg" and "omelette" are the same "Bird" "chicken" and "twenty" are all the same The letter F and the number 6 are the same The above is also true with 9 and W Most people think they know how to count in ASL, whenever I ask someone to do such- they usually don't make it past the number 3. In Spanish: The verb "to hope" is the same as "to wait" The plural of the word wife- wives, is the same as the word for handcuffs There are only two contractions in Spanish: "Del--- de + el" (of/from the) and "al--- a + el" (to the) That's all I can think of for now. :) Scott 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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