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Languages - terms of endearment | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5928 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 9 of 13 31 May 2013 at 9:11am | IP Logged | ||
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In Afrikaans there is the word "liefling" which means "darling". "Bokkie" is also used to mean "darling", but is literally a diminuitive form of "bok". I think "bok" usually means "goat".
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| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4608 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 10 of 13 31 May 2013 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Which manifests itself in Goidelic as "cara" meaning friend? Irish has some nice terms of endearment such as "a stór" or "a mhuirnín" both meaning beloved or darling. Another nice one is "a chuisle", meaning "pulse". I think that one made an appearance in some Hollywood film? edit: It was "Million Dollar Baby", though it appears in an anglicized form as Cuishle. Edited by liammcg on 31 May 2013 at 12:17pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| pandorabrooks Newbie Japan Joined 6210 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Studies: Spanish Studies: Japanese, French | Message 11 of 13 07 June 2013 at 6:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese typically don't seem to have many terms of endearment. "Anata" is used by married women to their husbands. Recently young people have been using the English word "darling" but of course with a Japanese pronunciation.
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| tennisfan Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5364 days ago 130 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German | Message 12 of 13 07 June 2013 at 7:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I've noticed that there are at least a few other languages besides English that use the word "baby" as a term of endearment. I've heard it used both in Romanian and Hungarian, among others.
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| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4338 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 13 of 13 09 June 2013 at 5:57am | IP Logged | ||
Haha! Well, I can't speak for the rest of Latin and Central America, but I've heard "gordita" (full version of "gordi", I'd guess) in Mexico as well. It seems the most common one in here is a very generic "mi amor" ("my love"), but there's also a ton of less generic ones hailing from the north and southwestern regions (where Spanish is strongly mixed with native words). There's also one the diabetes-inducing, sickeningly corny term "cuchi". Young couples don't usually say it so I guess it's outdated (I've only heard it once or twice in my life). I heard it became part of the lingo because the Flinstones were pretty popular back in the day, and in the Spanish dub, Betty called Fred "cuchi-cuchi"... as to why THAT stuck, I haven't got the foggiest idea. RE: the article posted by the OP, I think whomever wrote that was more than slightly skewed in his judgment. I HAVE heard 'terron de azúcar', but only in old movies and as an ultra-exagerated expression of affection (more or less on the same level of exageration as "who's my poochie-poo?!"). As for Japanese, "tamago-gata no kao" isn't a term of endearment (it literally means 'egg-shaped face', which can't be too flattering in ANY language...), it's a facial beauty standard that defines people with oval faces. Like pandorabrooks said, Japanese language is naturally lacking in terms of endearment: instead, most people in a close relationship give each other nicknames based in their names or surnames, or add the suffixes -chan or -san after their names. As a note, most people studying the language think -san is too respectful and distant, but some couples still do use it; from what I've seen, it sort of depends on upbringing and region. I know a Japanese family for who the biggest sign of love and trust is to be called by your unadulterated name (without suffixes or nicknames). That said, the most generic terms of endearment are all pronouns meaning 'you' (anata/anta, kimi, and omae, which a lot of modern women hate because it is essentially equivalent to "hey, you") generally lose out to the endless variations of nicknames that people in such a relationship can give to each other. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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