Which word from another language do you need in your language?
- Thread starter The_J
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Kurdish has separate words for audible and inaudible farts.
The separate words for maternal and paternal uncles in Kurdish and paternal/maternal aunts and uncles in Turkish, I just can’t keep them straight even after years of speaking the languages, I just didn’t grow up with the idea of thinking of them separately. I also have some cousins who I call aunts because they’re old enough to be my aunts. My father is the youngest of his siblings and had children relatively later than them.
It seems weird to me that Sorani Kurdish doesn’t have a present continuous or even differentiate between the future and present tenses but Kurmanji Kurdish does, at least with the present tense. I can’t remember if there’s a separate future.
Does eniste in Turkish mean aunt’s husband? I’ve heard the word but I can’t remember.
The separate words for maternal and paternal uncles in Kurdish and paternal/maternal aunts and uncles in Turkish, I just can’t keep them straight even after years of speaking the languages, I just didn’t grow up with the idea of thinking of them separately. I also have some cousins who I call aunts because they’re old enough to be my aunts. My father is the youngest of his siblings and had children relatively later than them.
It seems weird to me that Sorani Kurdish doesn’t have a present continuous or even differentiate between the future and present tenses but Kurmanji Kurdish does, at least with the present tense. I can’t remember if there’s a separate future.
Does eniste in Turkish mean aunt’s husband? I’ve heard the word but I can’t remember.
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GinandTonic
Saphire w/ Schweps + Lime
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What words do people feel are missing in English? Generally English adopts words where there is not an equivalent, but what's been missed? The difference between manana/ bookra (sp?) and tomorrow for example.
Manana, ciao, bon Appetit, uber, kitsch and their like are all part of American English now.
Yes it is. It is old school from a time when eating foreign food meant eating French cuisine.
Actually, English-speakers, subjected to a sense of linguo-cultural inferiority regarding the French since 1066, have continually been replacing words of their own with French imports. But also the older words return, such as butterfly and king replacing papillon and roy.
The Basques, in one of their many shows of inevitable independence, complicate it further with words such as arreba for the sister of a man only and worse.
You're edging awfully close to reinstating the discredited strong form of Sapir-Whorf there.
Not necessarily, actually.
There's actually a few ways to say the same thing. First of all, the language's more complex verb structure allows you to never use pronouns in such situations. E.g. ‘nos vemos’ (lit. we (will) see each other). Also, switching grammatical genders in Spanish is natural and anyway the grammatical gender of a word does not necessarily agree with the biological gender of the entity that the word represents.
Wiktionary states that it was indeed so.
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
Nos vemos doesn’t carry that sweet alpha space cowboy connotation
Snowygerry
Deity
But surely they must have had a word for the hair that grows under your nose before the Normans imported the "Moustache" - what was it ?
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I bet it would have been related to the German Schnurrbart, which sounds like a Simpsons character to me btw
In Russian, there are special words for natural red and gray hair colors (рыжий, седой).
Word for "natural red" also applies to animals, e.g. cats or foxes. We only say hair color is red if a person dyed her hair in actual red.
There is also a shortcut name for "hair color which everybody has, somewhere between blonde and brunette"
Word for "natural red" also applies to animals, e.g. cats or foxes. We only say hair color is red if a person dyed her hair in actual red.
There is also a shortcut name for "hair color which everybody has, somewhere between blonde and brunette"
Spoiler :
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I was @ my parents' for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and asked them about the Polish words for "siblings" and "grandparents".
So, okay, we do have a word for siblings, although right after my mom confirmed that it exists my dad said: "Huh?" or something similar, and we started talking about it more. My dad seemed to imply that this word can be at times used to include more than just siblings, but my mom was adamant that it only ever means "siblings". So go figure.
We also do have a word for "grandparents", although this word is exactly the same as the plural of "grandfather". It's a similar situation to "mankind" referring to both genders even though "man" obviously refers to males only. Not a perfect comparison though since nobody says "mankind" to refer to malekind. But you get the idea
So, okay, we do have a word for siblings, although right after my mom confirmed that it exists my dad said: "Huh?" or something similar, and we started talking about it more. My dad seemed to imply that this word can be at times used to include more than just siblings, but my mom was adamant that it only ever means "siblings". So go figure.
We also do have a word for "grandparents", although this word is exactly the same as the plural of "grandfather". It's a similar situation to "mankind" referring to both genders even though "man" obviously refers to males only. Not a perfect comparison though since nobody says "mankind" to refer to malekind. But you get the idea
‘Whiskers’?
Ferocitus
Deity
Every language needs the Kavila word Mokita: that which everyone knows, but nobody speaks of.
Like "the elephant in the room", except Kivila realizes that only the bourgeoisie have rooms big enough to accommodate elephants.
Like "the elephant in the room", except Kivila realizes that only the bourgeoisie have rooms big enough to accommodate elephants.
Ferocitus
Deity
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