Translations from other languages

[bcla]

I've tried learning different languages and I've always marveled at how there is different construction of words. In particular I've got some Chinese friends who tried to teach me some words/phrases and where I saw how the ways words are constructed changes the way people think about things.

For instance, "airport" is "jī-chǎng" which literally translates into "machine field". An "airplane" is "fe-jī" or "flying machine". But sometimes it's more detailed like calling it "Fe-jī-chǎng" which is "flying machine field". I believe that last character can also translate into factory, although I could be mistaken about the intonation.

I guess the oddest one is the description of bodily functions. To urinate and defecate are "xiǎo-biàn" and "dà-biàn", or literally small and big versions of bodily functions. The modified word doesn't directly translate into anything in English in that context. I guess it's more a formal set of phrases for #1 and #2.

But the interesting one for me is how important rice is to the language. They have different words for rice. Uncooked rice is "mi" while cooked rice is "fàn". And the description of having a meal is "chī-fàn" which means "eat rice".

Also - I tried using direct Chinese characters (grabbed from Google Translate) but apparently those aren't allowed, even the character for "small".

 

[BadPinkTink]

The Irish language has some interesting translations to English. One of the funniest ones is whiskey which in Irish language is uisce beatha, and the literal translation is water of life

When Ireland was invaded by the British centuries ago, they outlawed the Irish language and Anglicised many place names, town names, city names etc.

Cill Dara, literal translation = Church of The Oak, is now modern day Kildare

This is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_names_in_Ireland gives some great examples

 

[bcla]

Well, I've tried to block out nearly everything I learned in Catholic elementary school, but the one thing I remember is how to Pronounce Sister Eithne's name.

But back to my previous line of though, I guess everything in the Chinese language is some sort of machine of one type or another. Like the word for a mobile phone is "sǒu-jī" meaning "hand machine". The phrase for a computer directly translates as "electric mind/brain". It's really not all that different than when a lot of people referred to computers as "electronic brains".

 

[L&Lfan]

Eithne means kernel or grain. I loved my Catholic grammar school but I also loved my public high school. I don’t know how I’d feel about it 40 years later. Public education has changed so much.