[zelda_pinwheel]

brilliant thread ! thanks for starting it, omk !

Originally Posted by omk3

I'll start with a joke. I've heard it in Greek, but it works in English too.

A linguist is making a speech about languages.
There are languages, he says, where a double negative produces an affirmative.
In others, a double negative still produces a negative.
However there seems to be no language where two affirmatives produce a negative.
And someone from the audience shouts: "Yeah, right!"

haha !!! it could work in french too, as often we say "c'est cela oui" or "c'est ça, oui" ("that's it, yes") in a sarcastic way to mean that something is false or absurd ("Alex is going to buy me ten ipads !" "c'est cela oui...") i have to remember this joke.

I would think all languages have a word for yes and no (though in Japanese you learn about them rather late, as they are not to be overused).
A very common little word that I find fascinating is the German "doch". Doch means yes, even though you were expecting a no. What a nice, practical concept!
A dialog would go like this.
-There is nothing interesting on the internet.
-Doch, check out MR for example.

we have something similar in french as well : "si". instead of "oui" (yes) or "non" (no) it means yes in reply to a negative question. for instance "Alex is never going to give away that ipad, is he ?" "si si !" (it means, "yes he is !") or "you aren't going to the bookshop ?" "si, but i won't buy anything" "yes i am, but..."

Originally Posted by omk3

I learned German before I learned English, long time ago. In an English oral exam, I wanted to say something about going to the islands in a boat. I could not for the life of me remember the English word, but I could remember the German Boot, and it sounded almost right, so I ended up saying that I go to the islands in a boot . As I got very high marks, I guess the examiner thought I was just using a mancunian accent or something!

tihi ! a friend once told me that in her english exam she managed to say something like she would cross the ocean on a "sheep" and she writes on a "sh*t" of paper.

Another word that must cause humorous misunderstandings is embarazada, in Spanish. It is the same word as embarrassed, but it seems in Spanish it is mainly used to mean 'pregnant'. I imagine there are many situations where someone innocently wants to proclaim her embarrassment and ends up getting congratulations or weird looks.

how embarassing.

Originally Posted by TGS

Excellent idea

Well it's not really my language, but my adopted language has 28 or 29 letters, it adds three extra letters to the standard Roman "English" alphabet - æ ø å. In a dictionary the come in that order after -z-. The reason that it's uncertain whether there are 28 or 29 letters in the alphabet - according to my Danish teacher - is that there are no Danish words with -w- so although you will see -w- written in Denmark all the words featuring a -w- are imported words. So Danish itself doesn't have a -w- therefore, the argument goes -w- is not part of the Danish alphabet.

You think that's complicated, you want to try pronouncing it!

we have a similar situation in french, the only uses of w are in imported words, but i'm pretty sure no-one has ever claimed that the letter isn't part of the french alphabet nonetheless !

here is my contribution. i think the czech language (which i don't actually speak...) is very elegant. one reason why :

to make certain sounds, most languages must use more than one letter. for instance,
english : ch sh
french : tch ch
polish : cz sz
german : tsch sch

but in czech they simply add a little crown to the letter :
czech : č š
what a lovely solution.