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Did you know that...? (language trivia) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| mirab3lla Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom lang-8.com/220477Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5444 days ago 161 posts - 229 votes  Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Spanish, FrenchB1, Mandarin | Message 1 of 90 22 May 2010 at 8:48pm | IP Logged |
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I do not know if there exists any topic of this type, so I've decided to start one. I'm particularly interested in strange/funny things about languages, details that make a language special, or simply language trivia.
So let's start with some facts about my native language, Romanian. Did you know that... -the longest word in the '98 edition of the official Romanian dictionary (DEX) is ELECTROGLOTOSPECTROGRAFIE (25 letters) ? However, terms from science can be longer, reaching over 30 letters; for example: DIFOSFOPIRIDINNUCLEOTIDPIROFOSFATAZA (36 letters), ENCEFALOMIELOPOLIRADICULONEVRITA (32 letters), GASTROPILORODUODENOJEJUNOSTOMIE (31 letters) or DICLORDIFENILTRICLORMETILMETAN (30 letters). - the longest place name in Romania could be Statiunea Climaterica Sambata, a village in the Brasov county ? - the longest place name in Romania ( a single word) is Costinesti? (nice place if you want to go to the seaside, by the way) - the shortest place name in Romania is Ip? - the longest monosyllabic words are: STREANG, TRUNCHI, CHIOMPI, STRICTI, SCONCSI, PROMPTI, SCHIMBI, SCHIOPI, ZBENGHI ? - the longest word that contains only vowels is UIUIU? - the longest wird with only a consonant is ACIOAIEI ? - the longest wirds that contain the same consonant are CIOCOAICEI, LALAIELILE, LILIALULUI, LOAIALULUI ? -the word ULTRAREVOLUTIONAREI has all the principal vowels(a, e, i, o, u) repeated all exactly for two times? Words that have the same characteristic are: EUROOBLIGATIUNEA, SEMIAUTOPROPULSATIEI. - the only word that has the same principal vowels repeated just one time is BILDUNGSROMANESC ? - the longest word that has only two vowels is TRANSPLANT ? -the longest words that have only one vowel repeated for many times are ABRACADABRANTA, PROTOCROMOZOM, INDISTINCTIBILI, DEGENERESCENTELE ? - the longest word that begins and ends with vowels, but has only consonants for the rest of it is INSPRE? -C is the letter which most of the Romanian words start with? -Y is the letter which least of the Romanian words start with? -the most frequent consonant in Romanian is R, followed by T? -besides the letters Q, W and Y, which are not specific to the Romanian language, the least frequent consonant is X, followed by J? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5704 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 90 22 May 2010 at 9:48pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, this is a good idea, but I think you posted TOO much at once, but it was informative.
Did you know that... The letter E is the most common letter in the English Language? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| rlf1810 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6341 days ago 122 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, German, Slovak | Message 3 of 90 22 May 2010 at 11:42pm | IP Logged |
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Did you know.. that the Slovak language has approximately 33 dialects?
4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5791 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 4 of 90 23 May 2010 at 12:18am | IP Logged |
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Did you know...
...that the Italian word "ciao" comes from the phrase "s-ciào vostro", and it meant “I am your slave" in the Venetian dialect (schiavo is the word for slave in modern Italian). So, a deliriously unrestrained way of saying "at your service" has become an informal greeting and good-bye. As a greeting "ciao" is used among peers, and the word "salve" is traditionally used among strangers and for greeting elders. 10 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 5 of 90 23 May 2010 at 3:14am | IP Logged |
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...the e is the most common letter in Dutch as well. ...the n is the most common consonant in Dutch. ...the longest word mentioned in the most popular Dutch dictionary is "zandzeepsodemineraalwatersteenstralen" which means "bugger off!". 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6891 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 6 of 90 23 May 2010 at 3:50am | IP Logged |
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...that the Japanese word for "thank you" (arigatou) literally means something like, "(What you have done for me is) something rare." So it's like, "I appreciate what you've done for me, because it doesn't happen all the time."
12 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Guido Super Polyglot Senior Member ArgentinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6529 days ago 286 posts - 582 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Catalan, Dutch, Swedish, Danish Studies: Russian, Indonesian, Romanian, Polish, Icelandic | Message 7 of 90 23 May 2010 at 5:37am | IP Logged |
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Did you know that the mayority (83%) of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic; but a computerised
survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary estimated the origin of English words as follows: - Langue d'oïl, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% - Latin (including modern scientific and technical Latin): 28.24% - Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% - Greek: 5.32% - No etymology given: 4.03% - Derived from proper names: 3.28% - All other languages: less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: - French (langue d'oïl): 41% - "Native" English: 33% - Latin: 15% - Old Norse: 2% - Dutch: 1% - Other: 10% And here's another: Did you know that the word anaconda possibly comes from Tamil ஆனை கொன்றன் "aanai kondan", elephant killer. Most dictionaries give origin from Sinhalese හෙන්කන්ඩය henakaňdayā, "whipsnake". Edited by Guido on 23 May 2010 at 5:56am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5968 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 90 23 May 2010 at 7:33am | IP Logged |
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Here are a few English oddities. Did you know that:
The longest common (i.e., likely to appear in an unabridged dictionary)word: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis The two longest one-syllable words in English: screeched, strengths Longest word with no repeated letters: uncopyrightable Sentence containing seven spellings of the -ee- sound: He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas. Sentence containing nine ways the combination -ough- can be pronounced: A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed. Word describing the shape of the bubbles in beer foam: orthotetrachidecahedrons Edited by meramarina on 23 May 2010 at 7:36am 15 persons have voted this message useful |
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