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"a grey area between" in other languages | ||
Tags: Idiom | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5647 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 1 of 10 01 July 2012 at 2:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am curious whether other languages use a more or less literal translation of "a grey area between" to mean something that doesn't have a clear black or white answer, but something in between.
In Dutch, it seems that "een grijs gebied tussen" is widely used. In German: "eine Grauzone zwischen" In Spanish: "una zona gris entre" In French: "une zone grise entre" Are there any languages where such a literal translation is not used? Edited by tommus on 01 July 2012 at 3:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4911 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 2 of 10 01 July 2012 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've never come across "black and white" and "grey area" in Thai. They would probably express it with "not very
clear", "complex", "difficult to understand/assess" or something to that effect. (I might be wrong, my Thai is not super advanced, but a google search seems to confirm that.) Edited by Bakunin on 01 July 2012 at 4:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| balou67 Triglot Newbie France Joined 5013 days ago 15 posts - 31 votes Speaks: French*, Esperanto, English Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese | Message 3 of 10 01 July 2012 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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In french, we'd say « tout n’est pas noir ou blanc » (everything is not black or white).
Then we could add « c’est plus compliqué que ça » (it's more complex than that). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5647 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 4 of 10 01 July 2012 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | ||
And that is why I thought that many languages would also use "grey". So would you say "une zone grise entre" and expect to hear others say it? There are a lot of hits for it on the Internet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4911 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 5 of 10 01 July 2012 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Italian can use "zona d'ombra", or shady area, as well as "zona oscura'.
@Bakunin: While exact translations of phrases like this doesn't always happen, there's usually some cultural equivalent. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4911 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 6 of 10 01 July 2012 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm not sure if I understand what you mean. If you mean that it's usually possible to approximate a thought or phrase in one language with a thought, phrase or explanation in another, then I agree. This post got me thinking a bit. My gut feeling is: there is not a single metaphor that is universally used in all languages. I may very well be wrong, of course, but it's an interesting question. Many expressions and idioms in Thai are based on the Thai natural environment, culture and religion, all of which are very different from their German counterparts. Also the symbolic use of colors, as in the phrase discussed here, varies substantially from culture to culture. Languages of more primitive cultures (I'm thinking of hunter gatherer tribes in Papua for example) may not even have the concept of black, white and grey, because these colors don't really exist in their natural environment. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4609 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 7 of 10 02 July 2012 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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According to Google translate:
Danish: "en gråzone mellem" (and very similar in Norwegian and Swedish) ...but I have no idea if this is idiomatic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4438 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 10 02 July 2012 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Czech, the answer is complicated.
The term "gray area / šedá zóna" does exist but its definition is used almost exclusively for the gray area between clearly legal and strictly illegal. It has very strong subtext of shady. And it is a "modern" term - perhaps 20-30 years old. I did see it used in general sense, for neither black nor white (ani bílé, ani černé which does exist in Czech) but the problem is that such use comes from wrong/lazy translation of idioms. The same as the literal translation of "it is not my cup of tea" is nowadays almost common in written language (books and newspaper) but still sounds very wrong to me. And I suspect my nieces will use it as often or instead of the correct / traditional Czech idiom. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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