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M. Obama: "butterfly" in 20 languages | ||
Tags: Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Abdalan Triglot Senior Member Brazil abdalan.wordpress.co Joined 5047 days ago 120 posts - 194 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: German | Message 1 of 36 19 March 2011 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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The first lady of EUA, Michelle Obama, in a discourse given few minutes ago here in
Brazil, citing the need to prepare young people to succeed through education and making excuses because she were able to say only "bom dia" in Portuguese, said to her two daughters (Malia and Sasha) that they should learn to say at least the word "butterfly" in 20 languages. Well, in Portuguese the word “borboleta” is not the most easy, but very beautiful. Looks like the Galician “bolboreta”. Although in Brazil we have the word “mariposa”, it seems this is the Spanish word for butterfly; besides, there is бабочка, (babochka) in Russian. Like the Catalan (papallona) and French (papillon) there are a similar stem in a number of languages (Haitian creole - papiyon; Filipino – paruparo; Bulgarian - Пеперуда (peperuda); Finnish – perhonen; Hungarian – pillangó and even Swahili – kipepeo [this one looks like “borboleta” again, uhu?]). Well, that sounded strange at first to me, but it seems it is a good exercise. What do you think? Edited by Abdalan on 19 March 2011 at 6:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Abdalan Triglot Senior Member Brazil abdalan.wordpress.co Joined 5047 days ago 120 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: German | Message 2 of 36 19 March 2011 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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My two cents:
I noticed that the bilabial, fricative, constrictive, and occlusive ‘wings’ of the ‘butterfly’ goes always in many syllables in a number of languages - see the Basque “pinpilinpauxa”. In addition to “borboleta” we have also the word “panapaná” (Tupy origin) – From the Tupy (Brazilian native-born) “panã” means beating (wings). From a large number of “panã”, the term “panapaná”, the collective butterfly, was born. I read it is thought that “borboleta” came from the Latin “bellus” (beautiful) and his diminutive “belbellita”. On the other side, “mariposa” appeared from “Maria + Pousa” (Mary lands, poses). "Papillon", the French word for butterfly, is of course from the Latin "papilio". I think "papilio" was the choice for Esperanto also. Edited by Abdalan on 19 March 2011 at 7:13pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5101 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 3 of 36 19 March 2011 at 9:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd rather learn twenty words in one language than one relatively useless word in twenty.
That's just my opionon however, and I know first hand that what language education a student wants to endure is often not the deciding factor. 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 4 of 36 19 March 2011 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you think that this is interesting you might find this to be as well. The Understanding Campaign wants everyone in the world to learn at least one word of Arabic to create understanding of the Arab world. Go to Understandingcampaign.org for more info.
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| anothername Triglot Groupie Brazil Joined 5062 days ago 96 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English | Message 5 of 36 20 March 2011 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
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It's certainly not a very pragmatic word choice, but probably a wise one, simply because it appeals to the poetic dimension of language.
When a child, my first multilingual experience ocurred when I made a crossword puzzle in which the word "star" was written in dozens of languages. I remember being astonished about how beautiful some of the translations were. So I know from personal experience how this kind of challenge can open a new world to a child - from an aesthetic perspective. So I understand the US first lady's perspective. It can sometimes be difficult to grown-ups to grasp, but most children (from any country) will not give a damn to very useful words like "fork" or "watch" (word that ARE fascinating in any language to my analytic grown-up mind). Instead, they will certainly be highly stimulated by anything that captures their fantastic imagination, and they will want to learn as much as they can about it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Abdalan Triglot Senior Member Brazil abdalan.wordpress.co Joined 5047 days ago 120 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: German | Message 6 of 36 20 March 2011 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | ||
You may have a point there, Darklight1216. Of course, the focus is not the very word butterfly she cited, but to know at least a little of 20 languages. فهم - to refer to CaucusWolf's hint. I started to think, however, about those "relatively useless" words you mentioned. What would be those unnecessary? Maybe 'zuchetto' would be one of them as I'm not religious, but not 'ullage' as I appreciate wine, or 'dongle' due the fact I do use the Cubase software, but of course that may be taken as kind of hogwash for most people (it's more unusual to encounter an unfamiliar verb than an unfamiliar noun). What words would you consider "relatively useless"? Probably words you expect you'll never see or hear anywhere else except the dictionary - some words are useless because they're highly specialized. I wouldn't dare list butterfly among them, would you? Edited by Abdalan on 20 March 2011 at 7:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6551 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 7 of 36 20 March 2011 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | ||
Is "jihad" acceptable? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6260 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 8 of 36 21 March 2011 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Also: Sharia, Fatwa, Imam, Sunni, Shia, Dhimmi, Fitna, Jizya, etc.! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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