Did you know that...? (language trivia) (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

Did you know that...? (language trivia)
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Language Learning Forum : Philological Room

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Scoub
Tetraglot
Newbie
Netherlands
Joined 5284 days ago
1 posts - 6 votes
Speaks: Dutch*, Afrikaans, English, German

Message 57 of 90

08 June 2010 at 5:01pm | IP Logged

furrykef wrote:

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).

In Dutch it happens too:
ooit - nooit (ever/never)
immer - nimmer (ever or always/never)
iets - niets (something/nothing)
iemand - niemand (someone/no-one)
ergens - nergens (somewhere - nowhere)

6 persons have voted this message useful

Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6440 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes

Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 58 of 90

08 June 2010 at 7:18pm | IP Logged

Scoub wrote:

furrykef wrote:

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).

In Dutch it happens too:
ooit - nooit (ever/never)
immer - nimmer (ever or always/never)
iets - niets (something/nothing)
iemand - niemand (someone/no-one)
ergens - nergens (somewhere - nowhere)

It happens a little in German too: irgendwo/nirgendwo (somewhere/nowhere).
2 persons have voted this message useful

MäcØSŸ
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5810 days ago
259 posts - 392 votes

Speaks: Italian*, English^C2
Studies: German

Message 59 of 90

08 June 2010 at 8:55pm | IP Logged

Taalmeester wrote:

I just found out that Afrikaans is the youngest natural language. Didn't know that.

This is actually a matter of definitions. Afrikaans is just an evolution of seventeenth century Dutch which has
diverged from it enough to be called with a different name, but in reality Afrikaans is as old as Modern Duch.
3 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 60 of 90

08 June 2010 at 10:06pm | IP Logged

Veedo wrote:

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".

I really wish I knew why so many people insist on romanizing the particle "wa" as "ha". (Yes, it's spelled that way in kana, but I see "konnichiha" and I find it almost impossible to read it as "konnichiwa", even though I know it's the same word!)

Veedo wrote:

Technically Japanese doesn't have words for "yes" and "no" so they say "that's right" and "that's wrong".

I dunno, "hai" and "iie" correspond pretty well to "yes" and "no". If you're asked a yes-or-no question on a form or in a video game, the choices will invariably be "hai" and "iie". The only differences that I can think of is that they aren't often used as complete sentences in conversation, and the meanings are reversed when asked a negative question.

1 person has voted this message useful

Veedo
Newbie
United States
Joined 5422 days ago
12 posts - 14 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese

Message 61 of 90

11 June 2010 at 12:35am | IP Logged

furrykef wrote:

I actually paused for a second before typing that, not knowing which way to spell it. Somehow it seemed more correct...

Incidentally, I get confused sometimes when I see a word with a long vowel written in romaji with just the single vowel. Sometimes you see those words represented with a little carrot (^) above them but that's pretty rare. It can make finding things on English google a bit difficult.

Quote:

Well all yes-or-no questions are really statements of fact followed by "is that so?" That's why sometimes you'll hear Japanese people answering a question with the positive or negative form of the verb in question (sometimes in isolation, ie just the verb).

Edited by Veedo on 11 June 2010 at 12:36am
1 person has voted this message useful

elysandler
Triglot
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5405 days ago
22 posts - 25 votes
Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English*, French
Studies: Latin, Spanish, Russian

Message 62 of 90

12 June 2010 at 3:28pm | IP Logged

furrykef wrote:

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).

You think that's good? The latin word for some ("nonulli"), comes slowely from the latin word for "any" (ulla) to
"none" (nulla), to "not none" (nonnulli).

Thus what the word really is, is "non-n-ulli" - or "not-not-any."
2 persons have voted this message useful

Sagitta_fr
Triglot
Newbie
China
Joined 5278 days ago
2 posts - 7 votes
Speaks: Mandarin*, French, English
Studies: Japanese, Korean

Message 63 of 90

17 June 2010 at 2:36am | IP Logged

There're ４ writing systems in Japanese, two sets of alphabets,the romanization for western learners, and the Kanjis, namely the Chinese characters, which are widely used by the Japanese speakers.

So, some japanese combinations of kanjis sound really funny to Chinese speakers, it's like some French words used by English speakers may sound strange to French people. For example, the word "resume" in North American English means a document listing one's qualifications for employment. But originally in French, it means "summary" only: the French people would use C.V. instead, as in "Curriculum Vitae".

Alright, here're the commonly used Japanese kanji words:

- To say "It's alright!" in Japanese, it's "Daijoubu!（大丈夫）", which literally means "BIG MACHO MAN" in Chinese.

- The word "Wound, injury" in Japanese is "kega (怪我）”,which means "It's my fault, my bad" in Chinese.

- The word "Mail, letter" in Japanese is "手紙”、which means "toilet paper" in colloquial mandarin.

So, the following conversation in Japanese kanjis is hilarious to Chinese readers.

Girl: "あ! 怪我だよ、痛いね!”    (Pronoun ciation: "A! kega dayo, ataine!")
Boy: "あっ、大丈夫ですか？!!”     (Pronounciation: "A, daijoubu desuka?!!")
Girl: "ううん、大丈夫ね!"     (Pr onounciation: "Uun, daijoubune!")

And here's the translation of the above dialog:

Girl: "Ah! I'm hurt, it hurts!"
Boy: "Ah, are you alright?"
Girl: "Hmm, I'm ok!"

now, it's what the chinese readers would make of when they read the above dialog.

Girl:"Ah! It's my fault, my bad!"
Boy: "Ah, BIG MACHO MAN ???"
Girl: "Hmm, BIG MACHO MAN!!"

So, for Chinese readers, they would go: "Urrr, what the hell...?"

5 persons have voted this message useful

Adamdm
Groupie
Australia
Joined 5438 days ago
62 posts - 89 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Dari, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written)

Message 64 of 90

17 June 2010 at 2:47am | IP Logged

DaraghM wrote:

Because of its transliteration into English, Japan's old capital Kyoto is an anagram of the current capital, Tokyo.

The "kyo" bit is the same kanji, and the same meaning - "capital".

However, the "to" in Kyoto means "city", whereas in Tokyo, "to" means "east[ern]".

1 person has voted this message useful

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