Strange and Interesting Language Occurrences

[rodeolifant]

Which language occurrences do you find strange or interesting? (both written and spoken)
...Dutch people say numbers in 'reversed' order. For example the number forty three (43), would be pronounced as three and forty (when literally translated in English).

'Drie-en-veertig' when not translated. This is actually also the case with some numbers in English, such as fourteen and seventeen. Think that's funny? Watch the French! They say 96 as quatre-vingt-dix-six, namely "Four times twenty and ten and six." They have a 'word' for 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 - but not for 80 and 90.

The funniest thing I know in language is the word pineapple. In most European [derived] languages, this fruit is called an 'ananas', except for English, where it's a pineapple. And it doesn't really grow on pines. We Dutch call pinecones 'Denne-Appel'- Pineapple, which is shaped very similarly.

I also like to think about the etymology of the word 'Acorn' - as the Dutch word 'Eekhoorn' is pronounced exactly the same, but it means 'Squirrel'. I always imagine some Dutchman hundreds of years ago trying to learn English; "Wat is that?" "An Acorn." "No, niet the Eekhoorn, the thing it's eating!" "Yes, eating acorn, very good!"

 

[Snydeclyde]

In spanish, fingers, thumbs and toes are the same word.
Regarding the pineapple thing, in spannish its pina (with the accented n) if thats got any relavence.
Also just out of interest, a brazilian guy i met once (who spoke spanish and english) claimed that spanish has significantly more words than english, does anyone know if this is true or not?

 

[CleverNickname]

Ok, seriously people? English speakers are literally the last people on earth allowed to call German weird or strange. Hardly any other language is as fucked up as English is. English-based pidgins make more sense than English itself.
Though I can never decide what's worse, the horrible mutation of Germanic/Romance syntax, or The Great Vowel Shift.

German is pretty straightforward, has had a standard for quite a lot longer and has so much in common with Dutch (duh) and the Nordic languages, that it's a joy to run into some of those.

That is, the non-weird Nordic languages, ie the Germanic ones.

Because, fun fact, nobody knows where Finnish comes from and it only really has something in common with Hungarian, which is completely weird seeing how far apart they are. Actually, I think there have been some news on that front, but AFAIK it's still nothing major.

 

[rodeolifant]

Regarding the pineapple thing, in spannish its pina (with the accented n) if thats got any relavence.

In this context it might, as piña is also the word for pine cone. I forgot all about Spanish.

Ok, seriously people? English speakers are literally the last people on earth allowed to call German weird or strange.

To a native English speaker however, it will sound strange.

German is pretty straightforward, has had a standard for quite a lot longer and has so much in common with Dutch (duh) and the Nordic languages, that it's a joy to run into some of those.

It's not that similar. As a Dutchman, I have a harder time understanding German than say, Danish or Norwegian. And we learn German in school.

 

[4RM3D]

...I always imagine some Dutchman hundreds of years ago trying to learn English; "Wat is that?" "An Acorn." "No, niet the Eekhoorn, the thing it's eating!" "Yes, eating acorn, very good!"

That reminds me of:


Try to imagine when on holiday...

 

[CleverNickname]

It's not that similar. As a Dutchman, I have a harder time understanding German than say, Danish or Norwegian. And we learn German in school.

a lame joke I make all the time is that I don't get why Dutch people are subtitled on German TV, but Bavarians aren't. I'm sure it depends on the dialect or something, but I find Dutch to be much more decipherable than the worst German dialect.

Not that I actually understand Dutch, but knowing a little how languages work helps spotting the similarities - of which there are plenty. They're closely related, full of cognates, and it probably helps that we're close neighbors.

It's also happened that I heard Swedish friends talk and occasionally interject "oh, I understood that".

Besides, that Danish or Norwegian are easier to you just makes the same point - actual Germanic languages make sense.

English doesn't

 

[zehydra]

The way we pronounce certain letter combinations.
For example:

I like that image, but I know I for one do not pronounce "women" as "wimmen" but rather as "Woumen" like "would".

But yeah, I've studied four languages and I can safely say as a native English speaker that English is a horrible clusterfuck.

We also have the burden having more vowel sounds though than many other languages. A true phonetic alphabet would have a lot more vowels (but fewer consonants)

 

[BeeGeenie]

Which language occurrences do you find strange or interesting? (both written and spoken)
...Dutch people say numbers in 'reversed' order. For example the number forty three (43), would be pronounced as three and forty (when literally translated in English).

'Drie-en-veertig' when not translated. This is actually also the case with some numbers in English, such as fourteen and seventeen. Think that's funny? Watch the French! They say 96 as quatre-vingt-dix-six, namely "Four times twenty and ten and six." They have a 'word' for 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 - but not for 80 and 90.

The funniest thing I know in language is the word pineapple. In most European [derived] languages, this fruit is called an 'ananas', except for English, where it's a pineapple. And it doesn't really grow on pines. We Dutch call pinecones 'Denne-Appel'- Pineapple, which is shaped very similarly.

I also like to think about the etymology of the word 'Acorn' - as the Dutch word 'Eekhoorn' is pronounced exactly the same, but it means 'Squirrel'. I always imagine some Dutchman hundreds of years ago trying to learn English; "Wat is that?" "An Acorn." "No, niet the Eekhoorn, the thing it's eating!" "Yes, eating acorn, very good!"

Funny thing about Pineapple.
Pine cones used to be called Pine apples, which makes sense, since they're vaguely round and grow on pine trees. English speakers in the tropics saw a fruit (ananas) that looked vaguely like them, and decided to name the fruit after the seedpod... but then they had to come up with another name for the original, so they called it a pine cone instead.
That is why pineapples no longer grow in pine trees.