763 : Cross-Cultural Words

Aug 30, 2007 08:11

It is *SO* fascinating when languages that have completely NO connection have words that sound similar, and mean similar things ( Read more... )

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Comments 21

jumon_rakkyaku August 30 2007, 16:32:29 UTC
This is basically what I think in and out of every day. XD

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strawberry_snow August 30 2007, 22:54:59 UTC
Geekiness, we are. XD

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jumon_rakkyaku August 31 2007, 04:58:06 UTC
Dear, we surpassed geek back at our third languages. XD LOL

I was having severe LOL!moments today at work with the French I was looking at on our products. I'd be like "It says deux fois par semaine in French, but once to twice a week in English! LOLOL WTF???" I don't know why it was so funny, but my god, I just...I could not stop laughing.

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strawberry_snow September 4 2007, 14:41:25 UTC
XD I'd be laughing, too. WTF is with directions that don't translate? Is there something about being French that allows products to be used differently? XD

And Engrish... oh my gawd. There was a shirt that I saw-- in the U.S., I mean-- and the tag said that its side was "LAGER."

And Winco has this food item or another, and it says: ****SOLD BY THE EACH****

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ravendunbar August 30 2007, 18:18:12 UTC
well, if you think about it ... at one point all languages were the same... they all just evolved and changed drastically as people evolved... so there are bound to be some similarities in completely different languages! Either way, you're right... it is pretty fascinating!

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strawberry_snow August 30 2007, 22:54:26 UTC
Hmmm... depends on what you believe, I think. Groups of humans that were from completely different areas could still have developed language differently earlier on, and things got mixed up in and out as the years went by. :D

WHOA! Hi, Raven!! *hugs*

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nyssa August 30 2007, 20:24:40 UTC
The word for bread, in both Japanese and Latin, is "pan". I thought that was fascinating, because as far as I know, the Japanese were still almost totally isolated from the Western world during the Roman empire.

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strawberry_snow August 30 2007, 22:54:40 UTC
*glomp*

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dark_mobius September 4 2007, 22:12:04 UTC
I love that kind of stuff too. Too bad I only work with three Euro languages, so if there are any apparent relations, they're propably real relations. But who would have thought that "war" and "guerre" could have common roots?

But I think more languages are related than we know. If you go far back enough, maybe Asian languages are related with Indo-European ones. I mean until 150 years ago or so, we would never have guessed that Indian languages were related the European ones.

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strawberry_snow September 7 2007, 09:37:40 UTC
Well, I'm sure all languages are connected if you go back far enough-- the same way pretty much anything is connected if you go back far enough. ^_^

When are you coming back here??? Tiffany said that you're due back in September! ♥ ♥ ♥

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bad_habit December 9 2007, 02:59:09 UTC
Su in Turkish does mean water. There's Aksu - a common Turkish surname - that means flowing water. I've always liked that.

There's a theory that Turkish (and Fenno-Ugric languages) are related to Japanese. Go figure, right?

I like when I realise things like that about the languages I learn (hey, for me it came as a surprise that Aslan means lion in Turkish... made sense, yes!).

Ahem. So. I'll go now and... um... do stuff. Yes.

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strawberry_snow December 9 2007, 03:55:12 UTC
Aksu is a pretty name. :3

I've heard that! Specifically that Turkish may be related to Japanese. ^_^ Wonky. =3

Aslan... I've heard that name before. XD It came as a surprise to me that Simba meant lion, though. ^^; You seem to be very into Turkish. XD Are you Turkish, or do you learn the language?

XD Okay. Enjoy doing stuff.

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bad_habit December 9 2007, 03:59:40 UTC
I am sort of into Turkish. Well, that is, I've been studying Turkish in uni for three years (that's always a good reason!). I am very much Estonian myself (and I'm far more enthusiastic about Estonian. It is a wonderful, wonderful language!).

Doing stuff has been fun. I think sleep is in order next. Or should have been in order three hours ago when I got home...

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strawberry_snow December 10 2007, 04:02:24 UTC
XD Ooh, very nice. I don't know the very first thing about Estonian, to be honest. ^^; I'm much more boring and mainstream-- I've studied Japanese for years, and I started studying Spanish this past June. And I took a year of French, but that doesn't count, as I can't remember nearly anything except "What's that?" and "I forgot."

=3 Meh, there's always time to sleep in the future. I go by the saying, "I'll sleep when I'm dead." I forgot who said it, but they were a lovely person, I'm sure.

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