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True Language Names in Foreign Languages

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joanthemaid
Triglot
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France
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Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Russian, German

 
 Message 25 of 38
13 April 2010 at 2:31pm | IP Logged 
apatch3 wrote:
Well languages have different names in different languages! I was raised in a bilingual household and hence have two mother tongues (though my English is far better than my Pashto). There are two main dialects of pashto which (for some strange and rather amusing reason unbeknown to me say sh where the other dialect says kh and vice versa). So in my dialect of Pashto we'd call it Pakhto (kh = the same sound thats found in the German number acht).


This kh/sh difference reminds me of how the French used to call their two languages in the Middle Ages: Langue d'Oy (ancestor of today's French) and Langue d'Oc (the ancestor of Occitan). They did that because in the North, "yes" was "Oy" and in the South "Oc". So what do you say when you want to differenciate the two dialects?
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joanthemaid
Triglot
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France
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 Message 26 of 38
13 April 2010 at 2:36pm | IP Logged 
Delodephius wrote:
To a Slovak:
German -> nemčina
Hungarian -> maďarčina
Dutch -> holandčina

To a Czech:
Dutch -> nizozemština


What's the deal with German? I only know 5 languages, and I already know 4 different roots to say "German": "Allemand/Aleman", "Deutsch", "German" and "Nemetski" (related to Slovak nemčina I guess) How do they call German in, for example, Asian languages?
And another one: Kounotori wrote: German = saksa (in Finnish) (I guess it's the same origin as "Saxon")

Edited by joanthemaid on 13 April 2010 at 2:42pm
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joanthemaid
Triglot
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France
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Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Russian, German

 
 Message 27 of 38
13 April 2010 at 2:40pm | IP Logged 
tritone wrote:
hvorki_ne wrote:

German=Deutsch. (I didn't see it)


I always thought that the English word in this case should be changed to be more consistent with other languages.

my suggestions:

"german" -> dutch
"Germany" -> Dutchland
"dutch" -> netherlandish






I don't know. I'm not really for forcibly changing or simplifying languages. Then again, I come from a place where it's a national pastime for retired have-been, so I would be tired of it
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ellasevia
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Germany
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Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 28 of 38
13 April 2010 at 2:47pm | IP Logged 
joanthemaid wrote:
Delodephius wrote:
To a Slovak:
German -> nemčina
Hungarian -> maďarčina
Dutch -> holandčina

To a Czech:
Dutch -> nizozemština


What's the deal with German? I only know 5 languages, and I already know 4 different roots to say "German": "Allemand/Aleman", "Deutsch", "German" and "Nemetski" (related to Slovak nemčina I guess) How do they call German in, for example, Asian languages?
And another one: Kounotori wrote: German = saksa (in Finnish) (I guess it's the same origin as "Saxon")


In Japanese they call it ドイツ (doitsu), which is of course a derivative of the original "Deutsch."

In Chinese it's 德国 (Déguó), presumably also from "Deutsch," but I'm not quite sure.

In Korean it's 독일 (dog-il), which also looks to me like it's from "Deutsch."
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Aleksey Groz
Tetraglot
Newbie
Yugoslavia
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Speaks: Serbo-Croatian*, English, Czech, FrenchB2

 
 Message 29 of 38
29 April 2010 at 9:30pm | IP Logged 
joanthemaid wrote:
Delodephius wrote:
To a Slovak:
German -> nemčina
Hungarian -> maďarčina
Dutch -> holandčina

To a Czech:
Dutch -> nizozemština


What's the deal with German? I only know 5 languages, and I already know 4 different
roots to say "German": "Allemand/Aleman", "Deutsch", "German" and "Nemetski" (related
to Slovak nemčina I guess) How do they call German in, for example, Asian languages?
And another one: Kounotori wrote: German = saksa (in Finnish) (I guess it's the same
origin as "Saxon")


I think that in all Slavic languages, German language and German people are named
nemački jezik and Nemci (in Serbo-Croatan, in Czech it's nemčina and Nemci and so
on...). In Slavic languages that means a mute/speechless language/people. Legend says
that when Slavs and Germans met for the first time, Slavs tried to make some
communication with them. But Germans didn't reply. So, Slavs concluded that Germans are speechless :)    
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PaulLambeth
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United Kingdom
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Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish

 
 Message 30 of 38
29 April 2010 at 9:37pm | IP Logged 
hvorki_ne wrote:
Icelandic: Íslensku
German=Deutsch. (I didn't see it)
Norwegian= Norse (with bokmal & nynorsk)


Íslensku is the accusative and dative form. Íslenska is the regular nominative form that you'd use to name the language on its own.

Edited by PaulLambeth on 29 April 2010 at 9:38pm
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Tally
Bilingual Diglot
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Israel
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 Message 31 of 38
29 April 2010 at 9:41pm | IP Logged 
My natives languages are English and Hebrew.
Hebrew is 'Ivrit' in Herbew
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minus273
Triglot
Senior Member
France
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288 posts - 346 votes 
Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French
Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan

 
 Message 32 of 38
29 April 2010 at 11:57pm | IP Logged 
ellasevia wrote:

In Japanese they call it ドイツ (doitsu), which is of course a derivative of the original "Deutsch."

In Chinese it's 德国 (Déguó), presumably also from "Deutsch," but I'm not quite sure.

In Korean it's 독일 (dog-il), which also looks to me like it's from "Deutsch."

Chinese Déguó is from a transliteration 德意志 (Déyìzhì). So yes. Deutsch.

The Japanese version is written in Chinese characters as 独逸. The Korean word is the Korean pronunciation of the characters, displaying the characterisic Korean pronunciation -l of Middle Chinese -t (which becomes tsu in Japanese).

Fascinating. Isn't it.

Edited by minus273 on 29 April 2010 at 11:57pm


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