Languages - Similarities

[Aight]

I often think and reflect about all kinds of things that just come to my mind. Since I'm interested in languages there are moments when I see similiarities of words in different languages, often unexpected. I don't study something like that but it's always very interesting for me. So I thought there might be other players around who are interested in this topic as well and willing to share little experiences they made, for instance when they found out that there's a word or an expression in another language that sounds similiar to another language or their mother tongue. I know at least the basics of four languages, German (mother tongue), English (first foreign language in school), French (second foreign language in school) and Persian (my father is Iranian so I know the basics), I'll give a few examples to make it clearer what I mean.

Whenever I think of the country Portugal I think of Oranges. Why? Because in Persian Orange and the country Portugal share the same word: Portugal (maybe because the first Oranges were from Portugal, I don't know...)

When I thought about MerCyKiL's nick (you can't avoid seeing it on this forum unless you use the ignore function xD) it suddenly came to my mind what it actually means, never thought of it before, the exact same word as in German (Gnadentod). Actually the meaning should have been pretty obvious but the more commom word for kill in this context is death (for Germans like me) which is why I did't get at first sight.

Brille (German, in English = glaces) and briller (French, in English = shine).



That expression in the screenshot is the exact same one in German, word by word (Meiner spricht Bände).

Tochter (German)
Daughter (English)
Dokhtar (Persian; pronounced --> Dochtar)

Katze (German)
Cat (English)
Chat (French)

Any language could be used, there might be always somebody who is able to understand and see the similiarity. I'm eager to see your responses :)

[Cemer]

I did an entire project on this type of stuff.

Most fun I've had doing homework.

[Waffles]

There are many similarities from multiple languages both in structure of entire phrases as well as structure of individual words. I'm no linguist, but I know that most people, if using their brains, can take some basic understanding of etymology and find out the general gist of what someone else is saying. Obviously languages closer in relations to each other (german-english) have greater understanding between the mother tongues.

[Ronald_Reagan]

I always found AC interesting because I always got to read different languages :D

[RCJD]

Well, from my limited knowledge of Mandarin, I find how some phrases or idioms could be directly translated to an English one.

For example "long time no see" makes sense in Chinese even if you directly translated the English phrase word for word.

Obviously most wouldn't make sense, but the few that do like the one above... I find pretty neat. And assuming these few common phrases were not "borrowed" from one another, I'm guessing it is simply a human thing, if you get what I mean!

[ExodusS]

If someone want to learn the French language, you must know that's hard even for us. :D

Français => English

un chiffre : a figure
une figure: a face

pain : bread
douleur : pain

[Andrez]

I'm amazed by the fact that my local dialect is closer to French, Spanish, English and Arabic than Italian could be.....

Some words for example:
Umbrella (ombrello).....Paràcco (Sicilian) = paraguas (Spanish)
Grapes (uva)....Racìna (Sicilian) = raisin (French)
Ferry boat (traghetto)...... Ferro a botto (Sicilian) = ferry boat (English)

I'm sure there are many others, but I can't remember atm..... Languages are truly amazing!

[RealViking]

"fart" means "speed" in swedish kkkkk

Spoiler

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

kkkkk

[Cemer]

Languages take things from other languages that have had a cultural effect on them. For example, a theory of why English is originally Germanic, yet has roots of Latin, is because of the Roman conquest of Albion. Likewise, Spanish has Arabic roots due to the Moors.

[MykeGregory]

Try translating "cherry church" from English to german.
That always confused me.
EDIT: 'Naked' and 'Night' are also very similar (UK to D translated)

[kleinkariert]

me too, because it makes no sense. ^^

[Lantry]

"fart" means "speed" in swedish kkkkk

farthack?

[RealViking]

farthack?

[Mai Mee Tur]

I've been learning Latin, so I have a basic gist of most languages.

But I'm Laosian, and the similarities between Lao and Thai is practically uncanny.

Those damn culture stealers...

No offense to Lat.

[ElCrema]

Portuguese has loads of cognates and false cognates with english and a few with german (I know very little german thou, so maybe there is a lot too). What amazed me is the striking similarites between portuguese and some scandinavian languages. Romenian and portuguese are surprisingly similar too (like a lot), I guess it has to do with the latin root of both, but I have no idea why the scandinavian ones have so much similarities with portugues.

[MorganKell]

I've been very interested in languages for a long time. I just never put the time and effort into actually doing what was required to not only learn them but also become fluent in them. I took Spanish in high school and Italian in college/uni and I was fascinated with them. Problem is I was the kind of kid who could ace tests but never did any homework unless I absolutely had too, much to my disadvantage I might add. I did however take with me a very cool trick that is essential for any beginning linguist. It's to "think" in the language. For instance instead of trying to memorize the word chair with its Italian equivalent sedia, picture a chair in your mind and place the word sedia there. After a while it will become second nature. I've always thought that was awesome. Recently I went out and bought myself a verb and noun index and a dictionary to Spanish with the hopes of teaching myself in the near future. I am so intrigued by languages that I actually speak my own. I call it Shimmy. It's what I use a lot when I'm drunk but usually there is a lot less cussing ;). I essentially mix and match words that make a solid ubernathica of sense and pawnslap jugganaut them into oonciliciously dynamic triplesmackslamtangbillybang reality. I like to write as well and it not only helps keep my imagination flowing but it also spices up life with a dose of spiffy awesome. :)

[Aight]

I've some more stuff:

In Persian there's a speciality called "Esafe". It means that transitions between words are made by adding vowels. Example: Sar e man (My Head; Sar = Head, Man = I or my in this case). The funny thing is in French this does not exist in general but I know one example where this Persian speciality exists in French: Match e nul (draw --> sports). Both Persian and French are melodic languages and to make it flow better Persian has the speciality "Esafe" and French as well in this one special case.

When it comes to names you can easily see similiarities. For Example the German name Heinrich (name of some major rulers in history) made its way into other cultures and countries: Harry, Hendrick, Henry, Enrico, Enrique, Rik, Ricco...
Another example: The name Karl - Carl, Charly, Charles, Carlo, Carlos, Karol, Chuck etc.
Check also: Karl der Große = Charlemagne (English and French) and Carolus Magnus (Latin).

Also cultural diversities have something to do with language. A few weeks ago I bake a cake (crumb cake) for my father, he wanted to offer it to his friends after playing volleyball. When he came back home I asked him if it was good. He answered that this was a cake to offer while drinking coffee. First I didn't know what to think of this answer but later I understood it. You have to know, Persian has another speciality called "Taarof". This means whatever you do and say you do it in a polite way. So my father was criticising me indirectly, saying it was too dry and I should have made another cake instead of this one xD

I did an entire project on this type of stuff.

Do you mind to share more?

@RCJD: Very interesting!

@ExodusS*: I knew the words and their meanings but never saw the relation like this. Thanks :)

@Andrez and ElCrema: That's intriguing.

I am so intrigued by languages that I actually speak my own. I call it Shimmy. It's what I use a lot when I'm drunk but usually there is a lot less cussing ;). I essentially mix and match words that make a solid ubernathica of sense and pawnslap jugganaut them into oonciliciously dynamic triplesmackslamtangbillybang reality.

Hahaha. I like your language, this forum is more enjoyable with your comments :)

[Atrimos]

I never could understand more than 50% of the words you type morgankell...

triple-smack-slam-tangbilly-bang

that's the reason why i never speak to you in the forum

:P

[MorganKell]

lol Atrimos. When are you joining KH anyways? :)

[DeadToMe]

MorganKell is quite the cunning linguist.

[MorganKell]

DTM you should Skype me. Do I have your Skype yet?

[Lightning]

There's a lot of similiarities between Afghani(?) and Hindi. I'd say this is owed to the fact that Afghanisthan and India have a history of heavy trade or whatever.

For example, Suraj in Hindi means Sun. (Soo+rujj)
And Suraj in Afghani(?) means..... Sun. (Soo+rujj)

Another cool thing is, Sunday in Hindi is Ravivar (Ruh+vee+vaar)
Ravi literally translated is Sun, and Var literally translated is day.