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Are any words the same in all languages?

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Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#341

Post by bobthepanda »

klausa wrote: post #218
tmathmeyer wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine that "okej" is more akin to English's "okay".

I can’t really explain why or how and my fellow countrymen could reasonably disagree with me, but „okej” to me has slightly negative/aggressive connotation? Like in an argument I’d type „okej, but you understand why that makes me feel bad”, whereas I _think_ I’d still use „ok” in English in that case? It’s really weird to explore the subtleties of your own language use to that degree, gotta say :P

Politeness is a whole topic on its own in linguistics.

There is, for example, a divide between “Excuse me” and “Sorry” in English vs. “Bitte” and “Entshuldigung” in German. Cantonese Chinese has two different versions of “thank you”, one that is heartfelt and one that is for an expected service, and using the wrong one is a major faux pas.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#343

Post by timeon »

ajuc wrote: post #312
harel wrote: post #156

There is one word which I think is the same in all languages: Tariff. And it makes sense - it's the "how much?" that would be (and is) asked at any port and travelling hub.

Polish has cło (modern, borrowed from German) or myto (archaic, Slavic root, implies it's different in every city). There's taryfa but it's mostly used as a slang word for taxi or any kind of constant payment for a service with slightly mocking tone. There's also taryfikator which is the word for the list of fines for speeding tickets depending on the speed :)

Same in Slovak except mýto is not archaic in context of highway toll.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#344

Post by bobthepanda »

eru wrote: post #208
jononomo wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because sushi doesn't exist in any other language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbap is pretty close. An English speaker would likely use 'sushi' to things that Koreans would call 'Gimbap'.

In parts of the US with large korean communities, gimbap is its name, if only because the ingredient list is so different.

Sushi, for the most part, is seafood raw, and gimbap often has heavily marinated beef or other non-fish meat.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#345

Post by fy20 »

yakubin wrote: post #323
jim180 wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and apparently Lithuanian borrowed that from Polish: arbata. Quick Google showed, that herbata comes from Latin: herba thea

Where the “thea” part comes from Chinese. It would be bizarre for a beverage discovered in ancient China (and brought to Europe only a couple centuries ago) to be named in latin.

Herbal teas were common in Europe before camellia sinensis tea was imported, so I find it hard to believe the Latin origin is correct.

In Lithuanian 'arbarta' colloquially refers to all types of hot water infused drinks, there isn't any distinction of what kind of leaf or fruit (e.g. raspberry or buckthorn tea) is used.

On the other hand, the consensus in English is that where wasn't a word for this type of drink, you just used the herb's name itself.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#346

Post by arthur2e5 »

eloisius wrote: post #315
harimau777 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computer in Chinese is 电脑 (dian nao) literally "electric brain".

And robot is 機器人, literally machine man. Mandarin is weird about loan words. Where the Japanese will gobble up any word and incorporate it into “Japanese,” Chinese goes through some complicated hoops to come up with a word etymologically rooted in Chinese. However, in practice everyone I know says “email” instead of 電子郵件.

Japanese used to do this thing too -- back then Kanji was still the proper scholarly thing to use and scholars were the main contact to Western knowledge. In fact, a good number of Chinese words for Western concepts came from Japanese translations. 社会 society, 经济学 economy, 自由 liberty all came from Japanese translations.

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/漢語中的日語借詞

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#349

Post by denysvitali »

eru wrote: post #205
wizofaus wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, "mango" is surprisingly consistent across every language I checked, but in Bengali and possibly quite a few other similar widely spoken languages it's different. Whereas "sushi" I haven't found a language using a distinct word for so far.

> Whereas "sushi" I haven't found a language using a distinct word for so far. Actually, there is: Japanese (and Korean)! The English word 'sushi' can be translated into Japanese as 'sushi' or 'sashimi' or even 'gimbap'. (Careful English speakers also use the borrowings 'sashimi' and 'gimbap' etc, but casual English speakers will refer to all of these and more as just 'sushi'.) Similar to how Kindergarten means diffe…

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/german-english/k...

Am I missing something?

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