Thread 213587353

Post cool language/culture facts you recently learned

this not something I lerned recently but I recently noticed
in my language the following words are gendered feminine, which means the abstract concept is associated with femininity
>death
>war
>famine
>pestilence
>fear
>misfortune
>desperation
>depression
>destruction
>poverty
>loneliness
>envy
>anguish
>agony
>meloncholy
is your language away of the femininity true nature?

English tail is cognate with Swedish tagel (horsehair, like from the tail). Often everyday words in one language will show up as quaint-feeling words in another language.

>>213587353 (OP)
Russians pronounce O as an A in unstressed vowels

>>213587532
Not meant to be derogatory or whatever, but a related thing I've noticed is that English is a bit Danish in how the pronunciation developed. "Tail" was "tæg(e)l" in Old English, apparently. Lots of cases like that.

Putting myself into the mind of a native English speaker, those consonants probably feel like ye olde stuff that we smoothed out for the better. Just remember to praise Danish too (nothing wrong with that), or you're being inconsistent.

>>213587502
War=război, and misfortune=ghinion/necaz are masculine for us but the others are feminine
for great misfortune, or very bad event we also have nenorocire which is feminine

Japanese has the word rice in every meal
>Gohan=Rice
>Asagohan=breakfast
>hirugohan=lunch
>bangohan=dinner

Comrade
>>213587502
Only fear is masculine in Spanish

>>213587353 (OP)
Spanish has a lot of words descended from Latin directly, and then another word borrowed from Latin directly. Some examples are delgado and delicado, erguir and erigir, inflar and hinchar, dehesa and defensa, and causa and cosa.
Japanese relative clauses don't mark the case of the thing being relativized.
In European languages, you generally have a relative pronoun that refers to the thing (and inflects for case if the language has it), and prepositions that would attach to the thing in a normal sentence are attached to the relative clause.
Examples:
"I was born in the year 1903." becomes "1903 is the year in which I was born."
In English, you can keep the preposition where it was.
For instance, "I went with him." becomes "He's who I went with."
In Japanese, there is no relative pronoun; the role is implied. Some romaji examples:
Ano hito wa mizu o nomimashita.
(The "o" marks "miruku" as the direct object, and "wa" marks the topic.)
"That person drank water."
Mizu o nonda hito wa ano hito desu.
"The person that drank water is that person."
(This is probably unnatural Japanese.)
It's implied that "hito" would be the subject, but this isn't said anywhere. It's just obvious.
Idk if this is that interesting, but it seems simple and elegant to just not have a relative pronoun, because it's obvious anyway the vast majority of the time what the relativized noun's role is.
I've read it's a particularly unique Indo-European thing to have relative pronouns that are the same as interogative pronouns, anyway (for instance, that the who in "Who are you?" is the same as the who in "That's who did it.")

>>213588200
>miruku
I meant mizu.
Originally I wrote miruku, then remembered cow milk is gyuunyuu, so I just changed it to mizu, meaning water.

>>213587353 (OP)
bulgarians forcibly changed the names of muslims to slavic sounding names in the 70s and 80s
during ww2, the bulgarian people protested and stopped the mass deportation of jews within their borders to death camps abroad (jews in occupied territory were actually sent to death camps, however). they used the jews to build roads instead

>>213587353 (OP)
Hungarian verbs can decline in definite and indefinite manner. It means a verb can change depending on noun definiteness.

>>213587353 (OP)
The history of Malta is incredible.

The history of the world can be told by telling the story of Malta.

It was populated by Phoenician and Greek traders.
It passed under Carthaginian and Roman control during the Punic Wars.
The Arabs conquered it with the expansion of Islam.
But the Normans recovered it and created their nobility, 32 titles that are still valid.
The Aragonese defended it from Suleiman the Magnificent, and thus the Order of Malta was born. It was key to preventing Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean.
It was later conquered by France.
Napoleon, being the great statesman he was, seeing the mixed population, abolished all feudal rights, reformed the monasteries, and guaranteed equal rights for Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
Then it came under British rule, and instead of allying itself with Mussolini and losing its own culture, they abolished the Italian language.
After the Second World War,
In 1979,
Malta found itself without foreign military bases for the first time in its history.
For the first time in 3000 years
This event is celebrated as Freedom Day.

Malta is a member of the European Union and a developed country.

>>213587704
It'll sound weird, but I had a weird experience once where two people were having a conversation - in English - but my ear just couldn't decipher a single word they were saying, so it was like listening to a foreign language. They were definitely speaking English, not code-switching or dropping in loanwords or non-English phrases, but it was the only time I've ever felt what if must be like to hear English as a non-native speaker.

The way I'd describe it is Dutch with a Swedish accent (I'm from a NORF town btw)

>>213589892
Had that once with Swedish when I was waking up. Sounded kinda German.

Hard to remember what English sounded like before I learned to speak it. Think it was kinda like "jabba rabba rabba" with exaggerated American Rs, but had probably mostly heard American English.

>>213590209
>jabba rabba rabba
lol

Some Greek lad on here said his grandma thought English sounded like a snake's hissing

>>213590252
Italians have it right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU-wH8SrFro

I was reading about the potato famine in Ireland during the 19th century. It was quite something.

>>213590349
what was your conclusion nonny

>>213591492
it was bad

>>213587353 (OP)
Sometimes I find Japanese words which sound eerily similar to Croatian or Slavic in general.
>"Ona" for woman
>"Debu" for fatty
>"Baba" for hag (although words like "mama" having the same meaning are less surprising)
There are a few more but I can't remember them right now.
I don't count obvious borrowed words like "chai" of course.

>>213591653
Koja in Swedish and koya in Japanese have similar meanings. Means hut in Swedish.

>>213587502
that's cool