| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Linguistic Curiosities Thread poster: Paul Dixon
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Jack Doughty 
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:15
Russian to English
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In memoriam | Russian word with five consonants in a row | May 6, 2009 |
Бодрствовать (bodrstvovat)
Multitran definition:
be awake; wake; watch; keep vigil; sit up; keep awake; to be awake; to be up
Russian tongue-twister:
Он бодрствовал в Пскове (On bodrstvoval v Pskove); he kept vigil in Pskov.
| | | | | Tongue twisters when translated (just a try) | May 6, 2009 |
The story of grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badgers (boz ala boz başlı boz tüylü başıboş pis porsuk in Turkish)
A grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunts an acre of cabbage. Another grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunts another acre of cabbage. The grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the acre of cabbage asks the other grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the other acre of cabb... See more The story of grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badgers (boz ala boz başlı boz tüylü başıboş pis porsuk in Turkish)
A grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunts an acre of cabbage. Another grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunts another acre of cabbage. The grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the acre of cabbage asks the other grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the other acre of cabbage: How long have you been the grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the acre of cabbage? The other grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the acre of cabbage tells the grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger; I’ve been the grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the acre of cabbage ever since you are the other grey headed, grey feathered, grubby vagrant badger haunting the acre of cabbage. ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Jory
Germany
Local time: 00:15
English to German
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| German pangram | May 6, 2009 |
There are quite a few German pangrams, most containing Bayern or Sylt for the 'y', but not all of them make sense.
AFAIK the most widely known pangram with a real sentence is:
Franz jagt im komplett verwahrlosten Taxi quer durch Bayern.
| | | | Tim Drayton
Cyprus
Local time: 01:15
Turkish to English
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Paul Dixon wrote:
Word with most umlauts: kääntäjää (Finnish for translator - I came across this one by chance the other day - could also be the word with most repeated letters)
I would have to correct you on that one. The combination of agglutination and vowel harmony in Turkish means that it is possible to make many words with more umlauts.
For example:
öldürücü - lethal
öldürücülük - lethalness
öldürücülüğü - its lethality
öldürücülüğünün - of its lethality
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Paul Dixon
Brazil
Local time: 19:15
Portuguese to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Longest place name in the world | May 6, 2009 |
The longest place name in the world is:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.
It is a small village in Anglesey, Wales, on the main Crewe to Holyhead railway line.
The translation is:
"The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave".
You can hear the w... See more The longest place name in the world is:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.
It is a small village in Anglesey, Wales, on the main Crewe to Holyhead railway line.
The translation is:
"The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave".
You can hear the word pronounced at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNN3Cpnur1k. Or you can say it yourself by using the step-by-step tutorial available at http://llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk/say.php
Thousands of visitors each year visit this small village, made internationally famous through its tongue-twister of a name. Be sure to visit the restored Victorian railway station which contains a huge selection of woollens and craft items for sale and be photographed beside the longest place name in the world.
It has been suggested that the correct pronunciation of the name should be used as a citizenship test for English people intending to move to Wales. (For further information see http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/sep/04/wales)
(Its official site, www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk, is also the longest domain name in the world). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 00:15
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| A few examples | May 6, 2009 |
I've always found the French word "cacahuète" ( peanut) extremely funny. Perhaps because it's peanut beginning with " ca ca " heh.
Apparently, the only English word that doesn't rhyme with anything is " orange".
| | | | | Fruit trees in French | May 6, 2009 |
The words for most fruit trees are formed as below:
pommes(=apples) come from a pommier(=apple tree)
poires (=pears) come from a poirier (=pear tree)
citrons (=lemons) come from a citronnier (lemon tree)
but peuple(=people) doesn't come from a peuplier (poplar), and fromage(=cheese) doesn't come from a fromager (=kapok tree)
Kathryn
| | | | | That theory gets worse in Portuguese | May 6, 2009 |
Kathryn Sanderson wrote:
The words for most fruit trees are formed as below:
pommes(=apples) come from a pommier(=apple tree)
poires (=pears) come from a poirier (=pear tree)
citrons (=lemons) come from a citronnier (lemon tree)
but peuple(=people) doesn't come from a peuplier (poplar), and fromage(=cheese) doesn't come from a fromager (=kapok tree)
Who sells what in Portuguese (BR)?
peixes (fish) are sold by the peixeiro (fishmonger)
leite (milk) is sold by the leiteiro (milkman)
... but carne (meat) is not sold by the carneiro (lamb)
and banha (lard) is not sold by the banheiro (bathroom)!
(FYI banho is bath, and açougueiro is butcher)
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David Moore (X)
Local time: 00:15
German to English
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[quote]Tim Drayton wrote:
[quote]Paul Dixon wrote: The longest place name in the world is:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWY* *NDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.
Oh dear... the letter "r" is missing from your initial post - between the asterisks. See their site...
I once read that a place name in Maori was invented to snatch the title away from Wales, but I don't think it caught on, somehow.
Best wishes
David
| | | | Word_Wise
Local time: 23:15
English to Romanian
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| plural for "blood" | May 7, 2009 |
Romanian - no plural form for "blood" ?!?!?!
Does it have a plural form in your languages?
| | | | | Blood: in Spanish, plural in theory yes | May 7, 2009 |
Alla Sion wrote:
Romanian - no plural form for "blood" ?!?!?!
Does it have a plural form in your languages?
Hi Alla,
I just checked my latest edition of grammar in Spanish and, although "blood" (sangre) is basically a "non-countable" noun, it says that you can actually apply the plural even to non-countable nouns, so in theory you could say "sangres" (see http://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/sangre ).
Furthermore, I tried to check if "sangre" is among the "singularia tantum" cases (meaning, nouns that can only be used in singular), and "sangre" was not one of the examples given.
Still, I can't remember having ever read any text containing "las sangres" (plural), but maybe it's just that me in particular never happened to find such an example.
On a more "stereotyping"/fun/literary note (just kidding...), I find it intriguing that there is no plural for "blood" in Romanian. Maybe it has to do with the old vampire tradition of blood and Romanian Count Dracula?
Cheers,
Ivette
P.S.: just editing to add that, as usual, you can always find examples of everything in Google. So I searched for "las sangres" and found:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=es&safe=active&q="las%20sangres"&btnG=Buscar&lr=
[Edited at 2009-05-07 10:32 GMT]
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Jack Doughty wrote:
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev's surname in Russian is Хрущев (six letters - the "e" is actually pronounced "o"), in English Khrushchev (10 letters), in German Khruschtschow (12 letters), and in French Khrouchtchov (12 letters) (If I'm wrong about the French or German, I'm sure someone will let me know).
The German has 13 letters
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David Moore wrote:
I once read that a place name in Maori was invented to snatch the title away from Wales, but I don't think it caught on, somehow.
Best wishes
David
There's a short article that mentions the Maori name here http://www.thailandlife.com/ericshackle/placename.html
It also says (and there was a program about it on Japanese TV too some time ago - it's on TV so it has to be true, right? ) that the official name of Bangkok, Thailand is actually the longest place name in the world.
| | | | lauraest
Local time: 01:15
English to Estonian
| Estonian word | May 3, 2011 |
Spencer Allman wrote:
There is a word in Estonian that has four a's with two dots over them (umlauts) in a row
can't remember what it is, though
The word is "jäääär" or "jäääärne" - it means '(near) the edge of ice'.
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lauraest wrote:
The word is "jäääär" or "jäääärne" - it means '(near) the edge of ice'.
Near on which side of the ice?
From what I guess it may sound like, not speaking Estonian, I'd interpret this word as:
"Help! I'm slipping past the edge of the ice!"
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