Strange and Interesting Language Occurrences

[4RM3D]

ough is a strange letter combo, i agree
Rough = 'uff'
Though 'Oh'
Through 'Ew'
Cough 'Off'
Dont know how people learn it as a foreign language.
German is odd but very straightforward and you pronounce every letter so I like it.

'ough' is a clusterfuck of combinations. I forgot there were that many.

"ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cumry wgah'nagl fhtagn"

That is an actual language? Sounds like someone trying to speak with a foot up his mouth. That or it's an alien language of a long lost civilization.

Welsh, you say?

I have been learning some japanese lately. the word for sea is umi and the word for cat is neko but the word umineko means seagull which is kinda strange. The japanese for drink and lick are really similar as well(1 or 2 characters of difference) and I once mispronounced drink as the word for lick instead to my japanese teacher which was a bit embarrassing.

Oh, now I have a reason to post this:

Dutch: stofzuiger | stof zuiger
English: vacuum cleaner | dust sucker

Dutch: wentelteefjes | wentel teefjes
English: French toast | spiral bitches

The Dutch word for 'office' is pronounce as '**** whore'.

 

[tseroff]

I'm a big fan of completely coincidental occurrences, one of my favorite being the Japanese and Spanish words for "Look!" In Japanese, it's "miru" and in Spanish, it's "mira." Since neither language pronounce the last syllable in its entirety, they sound eerily similar.

 

[DirgeNovak]

In Russian, two, three and four are considered singular. Not the same type of singular as one, mind you, but still singular. Same goes for numbers that end with one, two , three or four (i.e. 21, 32, 43, 1,000,000,002, etc). And zero is plural.

One table: один стол
Two tables: два стола
Five tables: пять столов
Twenty-one tables: двадцать один стол
Zero table: ноль столов

It's... it's fucked up.

 

[DoPo]

Fun fact, "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cumry wgah'nagl fhtagn"

That is an actual language? Sounds like someone trying to speak with a foot up his mouth. That or it's an alien language of a long lost civilization.

Welsh, you say?

I was joking, but Welsh, does seem similar. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Lovecraft in Welsh

Roedd Howard Phillips "H. P." Lovecraft (20 Awst, 1890 ? 15 Mawrth, 1937) yn awdur yn yr iaith Saesneg o'r Unol Daleithiau.

Wedi ei gredydu fel creawdwr traddodiad y nofel arswyd fodern, ailgreuodd H. P. Lovecraft y ffurf lenyddol honno yn yr ugeinfed ganrif gynnar, gan gael gwared o ysbrydion a gwrachod a rhoi yn eu lle byd lle mae dynoliaeth yn agored i niwed gan rymoedd aml-ddimensiynol mewn bydysawd maleisus.

 

[Lieju]

I have been learning some japanese lately. the word for sea is umi and the word for cat is neko but the word umineko means seagull which is kinda strange.

It's not so weird if you think how they sound like.
On the countryside I mistook the screech of a gull several times to my cat asking to be let in.

Interesting: palindrome [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome]

I'm Finnish and our language is excellent for palindromes because the letters are almost always pronounced the same way. There's a comedy-group Alivaltiosihteeri that has a comedy radio-show where they have made up the official palindrome for twenty years.

They have also written two books of palindrome-poetry : Retki ? Dikter (1991) ja Aito idiotiA (2002).
(Note the years of publication)

Palindromes were also popular with kids when I was at school (or maybe that was just our class).

"Naku sika haki sukan" -> A naked pig fetched a sock.
"Neulo taas niin saat oluen" -> Knit again and you'll get a beer.

EDIT: Also I should probably mention that according to Guinness World Records, the Finnish word saippuakivikauppias (soapstone vendor), a 19-letter word, is claimed to be the world's longest palindromic word in everyday use.

 

[Dags90]

Discounting all the old Norse words (sword, egg, house, ship and so on), the only contribution to the english language from swedish that I know of is the term "gauntlet".

I think smorgasbord counts. It counts for Chrome's English spellchecker anyway. Pretty sure it counts for Scrabble, too. We don't use any of the funny letters, so we probably pronounce it wrong. Plus there's all that Ikea furniture.

 

[ADDmuse]

I once found a poem that talks about the strange parts of the english language.
It's really tough to say, but it gets its point across.
http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/12/23/english-pronunciation/

 

[snappydog]

My friends and I have developed an odd little dialect that basically does away with normal verb formations, for example, so 'Can I have this?' becomes 'I cans have?'
I actually tried to do an analysis of it in essay form, since it developed completely unintentionally and is just about understandable to outsiders but takes a bit of deciphering. So that's an odd and interesting thing that happened naturally for some reason.

 

[Esotera]

I just find it really fascinating that English is essentially a combination of four main languages, and how class/authority is intertwined with our vocabulary. For example, if I say something Latin/Greek based like acute, it makes me sound far more educated than saying sharp.

It's also massively interesting studying the etymology of words and how they've changed over the years. A good example is 'aweful' which used to mean 'awe-inspiring'.

 

[4RM3D]

It's also massively interesting studying the etymology of words and how they've changed over the years. A good example is 'aweful' which used to mean 'awe-inspiring'.

On that note: extraordinary vs extra ordinary

One little change does a 180 on the meaning. Weird, just weird...

 

[GenuineCounterfeit]

I find it very strange how "I couldn't care less" changes to "I could care less" in America, yet they mean the same thing. Though I try not to get picky about it, as you don't want to be THAT GUY... http://xkcd.com/1108/

 

[Esotera]

On that note: extraordinary vs extra ordinary

One little change does a 180 on the meaning. Weird, just weird...

Oranges are also a really good one. It originally came from the Spanish word, 'nuranja', which went from 'a nuranja', to 'an uranga', to 'an orange'. It shouldn't be as interesting as it is.

 

[Muspelheim]

Discounting all the old Norse words (sword, egg, house, ship and so on), the only contribution to the english language from swedish that I know of is the term "gauntlet".

I think smorgasbord counts. It counts for Chrome's English spellchecker anyway. Pretty sure it counts for Scrabble, too. We don't use any of the funny letters, so we probably pronounce it wrong. Plus there's all that Ikea furniture.

True, I forgot about that. It basically means sandvichtable, which makes it even more weird that it caught on like it did.

It's spelled Smörgåsbord natively, pronounced smeurgaussboard. Can't really say I blame anyone for leaving those out.

There is a neat trick to remember which dots mean what. An Ö is pretty much supposed to read oe, but the E has sort of been merged into the O over the centuries as some form of horrible tumour. Ä used to be an ae, and Å used to be ao. Never trust a vokal, they just eat random letters and wear the remains as silly hats! D:

Oh, and IKEA furniture... Dearie me, my theory is that they look up a random word in a dictionary whenever they're naming those things. Like Vidlyftig the table lamp or Snusker the coathanger.

Fun fact, "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cumry wgah'nagl fhtagn" is the way to wish good night in Welsh. And "Ia! Ia! Fhtagn!" is "hello, ".

I knew it... Something slumbers beneath Wales. Let's pray those coal miners keep it down a bit, I like the universe as it is!

In Russian, two, three and four are considered singular. Not the same type of singular as one, mind you, but still singular. Same goes for numbers that end with one, two , three or four (i.e. 21, 32, 43, 1,000,000,002, etc). And zero is plural.

One table: один стол
Two tables: два стола
Five tables: пять столов
Twenty-one tables: двадцать один стол
Zero table: ноль столов

It's... it's fucked up.

Oh, dear, now I remember. I walked into my Russian-class a happy, healthy man. I crawled out as a decrepit wreck with smoke coming from my ears...

It's a wonderful language, but I doubt I'll ever be able to wrap my heap around it.

 

[Dags90]

True, I forgot about that. It basically means sandvichtable, which makes it even more weird that it caught on like it did.

It's spelled Smörgåsbord natively, pronounced smeurgaussboard. Can't really say I blame anyone for leaving those out.

There is a neat trick to remember which dots mean what. An Ö is pretty much supposed to read oe, but the E has sort of been merged into the O over the centuries as some form of horrible tumour. Ä used to be an ae, and Å used to be ao. Never trust a vokal, they just eat random letters and wear the remains as silly hats! D:

We don't use the double letters in American English at all. It's a fetus, not a foetus. I know the "ö" is pronounced like the "u" in burn or the "i" in bird. I remember how to pronounce Å because of Ångstrom.

It's generally used figuratively in English. I.e., "a smorgasbord of <not-food>".

 

[Terratina.]

'Moron' in Welsh literally means 'Carrot'.

Which is why you can get away with calling a person a moron.

Rydych chi'n moron.

That does sound like something that should be engraved on a granite obelisk deep down the atlantic, overlooking a deep abyss where the Starborn Ones dwell, doesn't it? :3

Fun fact, "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cumry wgah'nagl fhtagn" is the way to wish good night in Welsh. And "Ia! Ia! Fhtagn!" is "hello, ".

Fun 'fact' there, "Nos dda" is literally good night btw. And to be honest, that sounds more like Gaelic to me. Though both Celtic languages need a fair about of throat exercise to pronounce certain letters.

Speaking of letters, the Welsh alphabet is weird. "DD", "NG", "CH", "FF", "PH", "RH", "TH" and "LL" are considered letters, just as much as "A", "B" and "C".

 

[yuval152]

In hebrew we have an slang word that sounds like maniac(maniac) that means dick/asshole.

Also german, everything about it, it sounds so strange.

 

[DoPo]

My friends and I have developed an odd little dialect that basically does away with normal verb formations, for example, so 'Can I have this?' becomes 'I cans have?'

I think you've discovered lolcats speech.

 

[BeeGeenie]

The word "do" is strange in English. as in "Do you know the muffin man?" "yes, I do."

In almost all Indo-European languages you would just say "Know you the muffin man?" "yes, I know him" (Or it's grammatical equivalent). But for some reason, English took the Celtic form of "Do" and ran with it.

Also, the fact that use Germanic word order English doesn't; when a Germanic language it is.
Enjoy talking like Yoda, I do.

 

[snappydog]

My friends and I have developed an odd little dialect that basically does away with normal verb formations, for example, so 'Can I have this?' becomes 'I cans have?'

I think you've discovered lolcats speech.

Oddly, none of us knew what lolcats were before someone pointed out that we sound a little like them. It's a bit different to that though, but too complicated for me to describe in full really.

 

[BeeGeenie]

My friends and I have developed an odd little dialect that basically does away with normal verb formations, for example, so 'Can I have this?' becomes 'I cans have?'

I think you've discovered lolcats speech.

Oh yeah, that's another thing that's interesting about English. I find it fascinating that the internet seems to be accelerating English's change from an inflecting to an analytic language.
Someday English will have grammar similar to Chinese, and the internet is helping it make the change.