nur am 20.11.:
Weltderschnaeppchen
Sorry, might be of interest for geman users only :)
12C App kostenlos bei Amazon.de / Android
|
|
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
|
▼
11-20-2012, 06:56 AM
▼
11-20-2012, 07:05 AM
with Google translate, nearly every major language can be rendered into English but sometimes with hilarious or quirky translations :-)
11-20-2012, 08:24 AM
Hi; if you allow me to ask a question, is it 'gratis' used in Deutsch as it is in Dutch, meaning 'for free'? I knew 'kostenlos' as you wrote, but the add uses 'gratis'. I am curious about this because this is exactly the same word used in Portuguese and it means 'for free' as well, and when I was studying Dutch some many years ago - sadly I had to pause so far - this word and 'pagina' called my attention. Cheers. Luiz (Brazil)
Edited: 20 Nov 2012, 8:25 a.m. ▼
11-20-2012, 08:48 AM
Yes, "gratis" is "free" (as in "beer") Edited: 20 Nov 2012, 8:49 a.m.
11-20-2012, 08:56 AM
Given my past record here (and birthplace) ;-) I shall remember you that gratis is actually latin, as in "gratis et amore Dei". Edited: 20 Nov 2012, 8:58 a.m. ▼
11-20-2012, 11:03 AM
Ciao, Massimo. Thanks for adding this remind. In fact I was aware of that, I should have added that it is the same word used in Portuguese although it is not an original Portuguese word. As a matter of fact, I was told by a German teacher that Portuguese was one of the last languages/tongues consolidated in Europe, hence the influence of so many others. According to wikipedia: Quote:"Very few Portuguese words can be traced back to the pre-Roman inhabitants of Portugal. (...) Currently, Portuguese boasts in his vocabulary terms from different languages such as Provençal, Dutch, Hebrew, Persian, Quechua, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, German and Russian, and languages much closer such as English, French, Spanish and Italian. There has also been some influence from African languages" Sorry for bringing this O.T. subject again, but I must confess I love language studies... and the more I can add, the more I want! Thanks again, Massimo! Cheers. Luiz (Brazil)
Edited: 20 Nov 2012, 11:09 a.m. ▼
11-20-2012, 11:43 AM
Quote:Não esculpe, Luiz - eu também :-) (me too) BTW, there seems to be an interesting correlation between the word for 'tea' in different languages and the way these peoples got in contact with it. While Portuguese 'cha' sounds quite like Chinese, and Russian as well as Indian 'tchai' sounds at least similar, the other peoples got the boxes from anybody else and just saw an ideograph painted on them looking like a 'T'. ▼
11-20-2012, 01:22 PM
Quote: I like this kind of language trivia, especially the ones I am not aware of. Thanks for posting! http://translate.google.com.br/?hl=pt-BR&tab=wT#pt/zh-TW/ch%C3%A1
▼
11-20-2012, 01:39 PM
Ditto!
11-20-2012, 05:16 PM
Reminds me of a story a linguistics prof told about his own undergraduate days in Arizona. At a school picnic there were members of two local Native American tribes who traditionally considered each other bitter enemies. They got to swapping their names for things and discovered that their words for "sugar" were identical in what otherwise were unrelated languages. They started searching for other common words, thinking perhaps that they hadn't always been enemies. Then somebody pointed out that their word for "sugar" was identical to the Spanish word.
▼
11-20-2012, 08:33 PM
I used to think the Japanese word arigato, meaning "thanks", was an echo of the Portuguese word obrigado (despite not being formally invited, the Portuguese paid a few visits to Japan in the XV century, before eventually venturing here). However, according to what I read somewhere else, the resemblance is just a coincidence.
Quote: Judging by the pronunciations of the equivalent word in most of the languages available in Google Translator, I would say they are all variations of a single original ancient word. ▼
11-20-2012, 09:56 PM
Hi, countrymate. This is the kind of reasoning that led to the former linguistic studies, one of them originating the well known Indo-European Languages. I also found this article very interesting. BTW, Gerson, I had to delay a little bit our calculator arrangement... But it will be ready before Xmas! ▼
11-21-2012, 04:03 PM
Olá Luiz, I never get tired reading about this subject. It's interesting how languages begin complicated and become simplified over time. I wonder when the infamous "nois pega o peixe" ("we catches the fish") will become standard :-) No need to hurry about the HP-41LX. You are doing me quite a big favor assembling it for me. Thanks again! Cheers,
Gerson. Edited: 21 Nov 2012, 4:16 p.m.
11-20-2012, 09:45 PM
About two months ago we had a group of students from Buffalo visiting our university, and one of them - Bahia Ramadan - was Arabian. She told me that amongst some other words, 'açucar' and 'batata' (Portuguese for sugar and potato) match pronunciation and meaning in her native village. Wow! This is awesome reading, folks!
Thank you all! Edited: 20 Nov 2012, 9:47 p.m. ▼
11-21-2012, 04:57 AM
Quote:Quite logical - the word 'açucar' actually is of Arabian origin (like 'sugar'). There are more words like this in Spanish and Portuguese - remember large parts of the Iberian peninsula were Arabian for some centuries until end of the 15th century. It wasn't their worst era - look at the Alhambra of Granada, for example. The 'batata' must have traveled vice versa.
11-20-2012, 01:57 PM
Interesting, makes absolutely sense. |