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jay-shi
Joined: 09 May 2004
Location: On tour
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 Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject: Amazing Coincidences in Linguistics |
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For those of you out ther interested in this sort of thing :
Amazing Coincidences in Linguistics
http://members.aol.com/yahyam/coincidence.html
Enjoy! |
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Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Nice, thank you. |
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HapKi
Joined: 10 Dec 2004
Location: TALL BUILDING-SEOUL
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| Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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Interesting site.
Off the top of my head-
간 mean liver, and 강 means river. Not the same as what the site's about, but still..
기부 하 다 means "to donate," Kinda pronounced like Koreans pronounce "give.' |
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chaz47
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:12 am Post subject: |
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| Ma and Pa for Mother and Father respectively seem to have near misses in several other languages. In Korean you have EOMA and APPA. I've heard the Chinese words are similar too. |
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out of context
Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:12 am Post subject: |
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For yin/yang reversals within Korean:
방화 (banghwa): means both "fire prevention" and "arson"
실업 (sireop): means both "business" and "unemployment"
수업 (sueop): means both "giving lessons" and "taking lessons"
Then again, English has "raise a building" and "raze a building". |
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icnelly
Joined: 25 Jan 2006
Location: Bucheon
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| Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:26 am Post subject: Re: Amazing Coincidences in Linguistics |
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When using a colon to introduce something, you should place it next to the last word and NOT one space further away.
Edit: if anyone wonders why this grammatical nazism, check this thread:
Are any dentists honest here? |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:32 am Post subject: |
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There is at least one mistake
Arabic ard 'earth' Dutch aard 'earth' --> should be 'Aarde' |
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potin14p
Joined: 04 May 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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| here's one that I found fascinating: the word for sport shoes in both South Africa AND Ireland is 'takkies'. i always thought this was a pure South Africanism, apparently not. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:44 am Post subject: |
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That was fun.
One that I have always liked:
Transpose the i and t in 'united' and you get its opposite, 'untied'. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:34 am Post subject: |
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I've been terribly fascinated (but not to the extent some famous cubofuturists might have been) with the relationship of alphabetic form and meaning.
That language as Pound so properly told it, refers not only to image and sound but also to language itself - his logopoeia (ABCs of Reading).
An example - fit / fat (the i denotes thinness and a fatness) or
slit, slot, *beep* if you can get the powerful allusions to which vowels can lead us and sometimes consonants.
I love how in most languages the gutteral "U" denotes vulgar things (sorry can't write them here!).
Klebnikov (Alphabet of the mind) and a very unknown William Blood are two long forgetten thinkers on this topic and the relationship between sign and that signified.
I also love how inside words is the definition itself....and usually never recognized by the speaker. For example, forest -- a good place for rest.
DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:47 am Post subject: |
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| HapKi wrote: |
Interesting site.
Off the top of my head-
간 mean liver, and 강 means river. Not the same as what the site's about, but still..
기부 하 다 means "to donate," Kinda pronounced like Koreans pronounce "give.' |
"gan" is also "liver" in Chinese. I believe it's first tone (high musical). Funny thing is "gan", fourth falling tone (like the tone in "damn") means "f#$k."
I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Obviously it's derived from Mandarin. |
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diver
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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| chaz47 wrote: |
| Ma and Pa for Mother and Father respectively seem to have near misses in several other languages. In Korean you have EOMA and APPA. I've heard the Chinese words are similar too. |
While the words for 'mother' and 'father' in other languages sound quite different, the terms of endearment for 'mother' and 'father' such as "mama" amd "papa" are very similar across languages and cultures. It is not a coincidence. It is because the bilabial sounds are the easiest to make and are, therefore, the first sounds that babies in all cultures start to make. It is the parents that have attached meaning to "mama" and "omma"...the babies have no idea what they are saying. |
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bluelake
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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| diver wrote: |
| chaz47 wrote: |
| Ma and Pa for Mother and Father respectively seem to have near misses in several other languages. In Korean you have EOMA and APPA. I've heard the Chinese words are similar too. |
While the words for 'mother' and 'father' in other languages sound quite different, the terms of endearment for 'mother' and 'father' such as "mama" amd "papa" are very similar across languages and cultures. It is not a coincidence. It is because the bilabial sounds are the easiest to make and are, therefore, the first sounds that babies in all cultures start to make. It is the parents that have attached meaning to "mama" and "omma"...the babies have no idea what they are saying. |
I was an exchange student to Greece back in the 70s; the words there are m'ma and p'pa.
Many years ago, I heard some interesting theories. One had to do with ma, mom, m'ma, etc. It had to do with babies breastfeeding and making a Mmmm sound and relating that to their mom. Likewise, as breastfeeding was an enjoyable event, the nodding up and down of the baby's head while doing so eventually became the nod meaning "yes". Conversely, when a baby doesn't want to eat something, it laterally turns its head away, becoming the negative (shaking one's head "no"). I have no idea how true the theory is, but it's interesting. |
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