Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Are any words the same in all languages?

blog.duolingo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 511 posts

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#331

Post by timeon »

bdw5204 wrote: post #257
thaumasiotes wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The exception being the eastern part of the Roman Empire which historically spoke Greek and still speaks Greek (except for the parts of the Roman Empire that remain Islamic). Aren't there big chunks of the Eastern Roman Empire that now speak Slavic languages? Also, the parts of the Eastern Roman Empire that currently remain Islamic constitute nearly the entire Eastern Roman Empire, including the capital.

I'm much less familiar with Eastern European history but that appears to be due to another wave of migration in early medieval Europe where Slavic peoples who originally lived further east moved into those areas after the Huns drove the Germanic tribes westward.[0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs#Migrations

But still it is big chunk of Europe.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#333

Post by phreeza »

qsi wrote: post #328
phreeza wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in Austrian German (Paradeiser) so perhaps something to do with it the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Hm, that's an interesting thought which never occurred to me until now. I didn't know about the Austrian German expression, but paradicsom in Hungarian can mean either tomato or paradise! Please chime in if you're familiar with other languages of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Edited to add: According to Wikipedia [0], the original Hungarian expression was also "apple of paradise," which then got shortened to just para…

https://64.media.tumblr.com/d6de5bcddb77eae9d76d370e5f62bce7... the "paradise" area seems to roughly align with the extent of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#335

Post by jjav »

godelski wrote: post #151

These seem like very bad candidates. All are loan words, which is interesting, but we could go deeper if we're considering pineapple/ananas and coffee. And let's be real, words like robot and computer are mostly the same in this respect too, especially if we're considering taxi. But what about words that are more "native"? How about "mama" and "papa"? There are variations, but these seem to be pretty small and mostly…

> How about "mama" and "papa"?

And then finnish is (of course) quite different. Mom = äiti, Dad = isä

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#336

Post by aequitas »

godelski wrote: post #151

These seem like very bad candidates. All are loan words, which is interesting, but we could go deeper if we're considering pineapple/ananas and coffee. And let's be real, words like robot and computer are mostly the same in this respect too, especially if we're considering taxi. But what about words that are more "native"? How about "mama" and "papa"? There are variations, but these seem to be pretty small and mostly…

> My understanding is that these are pretty early words and need to be pronounceable by infants.

Anecdata, but one of my infants was able to “speak” papa at a really early age (it was more a continuous repeated use of the sound ‘pha’). I don’t think she learned the word per se or we taught it to her but it was a sound that she was able to reproduce easily. As regard for mama. Both my daughters don’t really say that word yet but they mumble a lot of ‘m’ sounds when they are hungry. Which can easily shift into ‘mama’. (Or ‘memmen’ which is a Belgian word for breasts) So my theory is as well that some of these words derived from their use by infants when they desire attention or breastfeeding and were not “invented” by adults.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#337

Post by Ekaros »

jscipione wrote: post #230

Orange is also fairly universal, something similar to naranja or portokáli. In English we say the word with a hard g but with a soft g as in German it sounds closer to naranja - oran-ja.

Fruit or colour? In Finland the fruit is appelsiini. Chinese apple...

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#338

Post by bobthepanda »

eru wrote: post #201
Eliah_Lakhin wrote: post #193

Perhaps, it would be more useful for students if foreign language courses start with explaining one thing that is well known to linguists, but maybe does not have enough recognition by a wide audience. Most European languages are at some extent just dialects of the same common language[1]. And most of the words we use in distinct languages are (at some extent) just different pronunciations of the same vocabulary. Thi…

> [...], but because centuries ago these nations speak one single common language that has diverge in centuries into different dialects. It's more complicated than that. First, it's more than just 'centuries ago'. Second, there weren't any nations back then. Third, it wasn't necessarily the case that a common language, proto-Indo-European, was spoken over a large area. There was just as much, and even more, diversity…

Yes, language standardization is relatively recent with the advent of mass education and mass media (radio/tv/etc.)

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#339

Post by _8j50 »

There are exceptions I know of for sure to their winner words. I would have told you duolingo except you wanted an email!

But my winner words are the two words all humans learn without being told: abba and umma which what babies actually say universally us ba or da and ma when referring to their father and mother. Adult languages take these words and add to them like with english it is pa or pappa or dad for father and mom or mommy or momma for mother. But I challenge anyone to find me babies that don't use those words or languages without an evolved form of those root words.

Post reply on HN