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Did you know that...? (language trivia) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5960 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes  Studies: French | Message 49 of 90 02 June 2010 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
The use of "orange" to describe the fruit in English apparently arose as early as the 14th century, whereas the use of "orange" as a colour was not until the 17th century, or so I am led to believe. Not sure what word was used to describe the colour orange prior to the 17th century (particularly if as I assume the French word for that colour prior to the 17th century was the same as it is now - ie. "orange" but pronouned in some odd French fashion). Regardless of whether the timeline is correct, English still lacks a word that rhymes with it - drives poets completely insane. Most other nouns in English have been deliberately fashioned in a manner designed to confound those attempting to learn this blasted language. Yes, I am not afraid to finally reveal to the world the truth of this secret cabal. Started with Francis Bacon, I believe, or perhaps Isaac Newton. See as examples the following English words, wholly designed to be confusing: - eggplant (no egg actually invoved here) - buttermilk (no butter) - strawberry (no straw, unless you shop in the wrong shops) - grapefruit (no grapes, no matter how hard you look) - pineapple (a real tour de force: neither pine nor apple to be found within or attached thereto) - and in something that is both confusing and, from a public safety perspective, potentially dangerous, the oddness associated with "parkway" (which one drives on at full speed) and a "driveway" (on which one really should be careful driving very fast or far). Edited by Spanky on 02 June 2010 at 11:10pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5312 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 50 of 90 03 June 2010 at 12:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Polish, you can have a conversation with words that consist of not more than 2-letters.
- O, a co to? - To? - No. - To ul. Al mi go da. - Hm, i po co ci on? - Al mi da ów ul, a ja mu mą oś. - A na co mu oś? - Im ją da! - Woah, and what is this? - That? - Yeah. - It's a beehive. Al will give it to me. - Hm, and what do you need it for? - Al will give me the beehive, and I will give him my axis. - But what does he need an axis for? - He will give it to them! Edited by Derian on 03 June 2010 at 1:13pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6476 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 51 of 90 03 June 2010 at 7:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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In English, we prepend an "n" to "ever" to negate it: "never".
In Latin, likewise, you prepend an "n" to "umquam" (ever) to negate it: "numquam" (never). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6065 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 52 of 90 03 June 2010 at 11:35am | IP Logged | |||||
There is a connection between the two words I mentioned. Edited by Luso on 03 June 2010 at 11:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5324 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 53 of 90 04 June 2010 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Arabic, most female nouns and adjectives end in a. E.g. ابن ibn (=son) ابنة ibna (=daughter) & zawj زوج (=husband) and زوجة (=wife) zawja etc.
But both mother (أم) umm and pregnant (حامل) ḥāmil don't, so they look like masculine forms. On the other hand, the word for Caliph (خليفة) khalīfa ends in a and looks feminine. There are also a handful of nouns that can be either masculine or feminine. For example ṭarīq طريق (=way), روح rūḥ (=spirit) and حال ḥāl (=status) can be used with either masculine or feminine adjectives. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Veedo Newbie United States Joined 5425 days ago 12 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 54 of 90 06 June 2010 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
From what I understand the phrase konnichiha means "as for today?" and is basically asking, depending on context, "what are we doing today", "what's happening today" etc. konbanha has a similar connotation, ie "what are we doing this this evening". Some japanese words have some interesting origins though. Ie wife meaning "someone in the house", husband meaning "master", and some words for "I" and "him/them" meaning "wheat worker" or "slave". This is probably because Japanese grammatically doesn't have pronouns so when they use a word like "I" or "wife" they have to generalize what kind of an object they're talking about. Edited by Veedo on 06 June 2010 at 7:52pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Veedo Newbie United States Joined 5425 days ago 12 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 55 of 90 06 June 2010 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
Technically Japanese doesn't have words for "yes" and "no" so they say "that's right" and "that's wrong". Using 違う (chigau) to mean "that's different" is just another way to say "no" in Japanese, with a slightly different connotation. Ie if someone were to ask if you're wearing black because you're going to a funeral you might say 違うよ （chigauyo）, "no it's something different [, I'm wearing black because I'm goth]". That point is interesting in and of itself though; Japanese lacks words for "yes" and "no". I wonder how many other languages have that feature? Japanese also lacks pronouns which are seen in most languages... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Taalmeester Bilingual Triglot Newbie South Africa Joined 5290 days ago 23 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans*, Japanese Studies: Spanish | Message 56 of 90 06 June 2010 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just found out that Afrikaans is the youngest natural language. Didn't know that.
Some of the languages on this list makes me sad. So few speakers... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_ native_speakers LOL, link was removed to stop spamming. Just type in Wikipedia 'list of languages by number'. ;) Edited by Taalmeester on 06 June 2010 at 10:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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