People who can speak more than one language astonish me. I just don't seem to have the ear or the jaw memory. Some languages feel completely made up by drunk people. When you overhear a conversation in a foreign tongue and it's spewed at warp speed it feels like people are just communicating through telepathy.
Redditor u/ask-if-im-a-parsnip wanted to hear from communication experts about the different kind of sounds our mouths make by asking..... Linguists and bilingual folks of Reddit, what are some interesting quirks particular to one language that we may not know about?
"A thousand devils!"
GiphySwedish: Many mild curse words (similar to "darn") are just numbers (or old-fashioned ways to say numbers):
- Sjutton också! ("Seventeen also!")
- Tusan! ("A thousand!")
- Attans! ("Eighteen!")
Apparently, this came from expressions like "A thousand devils!", but which were then shortened and mild into just the number. "Sjujävla" (seven-deviled?) is still used as an intensifier. TypingLobster
Tapestry.
In Swahili, only three colors have "direct" words: black (nyeusi), white (nyeupe), and red (nyekundu).
All other colors are comparatives, e.g.:
green - rangi ya kijani: "the color of leaves"
gray - rangi ya kijivu: "the color of ashes"
maroon -rangi ya damu ya wazee: "the color of the blood of old people." mlimame
Traditionally.
The Navajo word for tank is "chidí naaʼnaʼí beeʼeldǫǫh bikááʼ dah naaznilígíí". Traditionally Navajo does not use foreign words and instead forms its own using simpler words, and so the word literally is "a car that crawls with a gun on which people sit".
For those asking, the word car is an onomatopoeia of a ford model T engine and the word gun from the word 'to explode'.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chid%C3%AD_naa%CA%BCna%CA%BC%C3%AD_bee%CA%BCeld%C7%AB%C7%ABh_bik%C3%A1%C3%A1%CA%BC_dah_naaznil%C3%ADg%C3%AD%C3%ADdario606
Explain Celine.
GiphyIn French French the word "gosses" means children, but in Québécois French that word means testicles, so if there's an old guy who's very enthusiastic about showing you a photo of his gosses, better pray he's French. Callalilly45
For the Love of Liver.
Something I find funny about Farsi is the saying "jeegaret-o bokhoram" which is an expression meaning "I love you" but it literally means "I want to eat your liver". Similarly "jeegare mani" means "You are my liver", though this one makes a bit more sense because it's like saying "I love you so much you're a part of me".
Edit: Looks like there are even more liver sayings. "Jeegaret besham" means "I'll be your liver"/"I'll do anything for you". There's also "kheyli jeegari" which means something like "You're such a cool person" but it hilariously translates to "You really are a liver". Apparently all this is because the liver is such an important organ, like the person is important to you. Hotrod20006
Buy a Vowel.
GiphyIn Romanian, you can build a sentence out of vowels only: "Eu iau o oaie" - "I take a sheep"
EDIT: As publicly requested, here's an attempt to pronounce this in English (just not very accurate):
Yeaw yow oh wa-ye. Vladimir-the-Great
Billions.
I learned today that a billion in Spanish isn't the same as a billion in English. sololloro
Edit: For context, I'm American and I was talking to my Colombian coworker. Apparently the "other billion" is more universal than I thought and Americans are just...wrong. Which isn't surprising!
Even in English, you get the traditional British billion (which no one really uses any more) and the American billion. FakeNathanDrake
The King's Speech.
The Korean alphabet was single-handedly invented by the King in the 15th century. He was tired of writing Chinese characters in Korean, so created a completely different writing system that was easier to learn and more adaptive to the Korean language. -__bean__-
"Ó o auê aí, ôu!"
In Portuguese....
"Ó o auê aí, ôu!" can be understood as "Hey, check out this messy situation that's going on over there". It's old slang but quite universal. Another meaning would be something along the lines of "Dude just stop, you're making a fool of yourself".
Edit: Brazilian Portuguese, that is. Enigmagico
Oh Danny Boy.
GiphyIrish people (particularly older generations) have their own version of English where they say sentences in an order that makes no sense grammatically but it makes perfect sense to any other Irish person. This is because the sentences are directly translated and word order is strange in Irish. Also as a result of this we say certain phrases that make no sense to anyone (I'm irish living abroad and I keep forgetting this).
Also just the fact there's 3 different ways to say the number two depending on context
A Dò (a doe) is if you're counting numbers as in one, two, three
Dhá (gaaww) is if you're counting things
Beirt (birch) is if you're counting people
Edit: There's a fourth way to say two
You use the word "dara" to say the second thing. The_Confession_Box
"What is a fact or statistic that seems fake but is real?"
And You Thought Sharks Were Dangerous...
"Horses kill more people every year in Australia than all the other beasties combined."
"Everyone thinks it's the spiders and snakes that'll get you, but it's the horses you've really got to watch."- Gingerbread_Cat·
The Dangers Of Scientific Advancement
"It took us more time to go from bronze swords to iron swords than it did for us to go from iron swords to nuclear weapons."- IMJUSTABRIK
Frightening People For Generations!
"Sharks have existed longer than trees have."- Capital_Indication_4
Discovery Sharks GIF by Shark WeekGiphyThe Great Unknown
"I saw a scale model of the earth, moon and sun in a museum."
"The sun was about the size of a basketball, and the earth was on the opposite side of the room, the size of a small marble, I'd guess about 30 metres away."
"The moon was the size of a tiny pinhead, about 10cm away from the earth."
"On this scale, the nearest star to earth, Proxima Centauri, wouldn't be in the same building, or even in the same city."
"It would be 10,000km away."
"And that's just one star, the nearest one to us, in a galaxy containing billions of stars, which is just one of billions of galaxies."
"The scale of the universe really is mind bogglingly big."
"Far bigger than we can begin to comprehend."- Qabbalah
Zero Points To The Lost World For Authenticity...
"We live closer in time to Tyrannosaurus Rex than the T Rex did to the Stegosaurus."- reiveroftheborder
stegosaurus GIFGiphyFrom Bad To Worse?
"After the British made head protection mandatory in WW1, the amount of head wounds increased."
"It's due to they were no longer KIA, but 'only' a head wound."- WouldUKindlyDMBoobs
Sarah Palin Can Confirm...
"USA is only 2.4 miles from Russia."
"2 islands in the Bering Strait, the body of water in the Pacific Ocean that separates Alaska from Russia, are 2.4 miles from each other at the narrowest point; one island is owned by Russia, the other is owned by USA."- Qabbalah
But Where Did "Ginger" Come From?
"In English, the color orange was named after the fruit."
"Before that, orange was just considered a shade of red."
"That's why gingers are called redheads."- I_might_be_weasel
redhead wink GIF by KobieGiphyAt Least We Can Be Sure He Didn't Lie About It
"George Washington didn’t know dinosaurs existed."- Silver34
But What Did They Want To Do With Those Cobras?
"New Delhi hired people to hunt cobra snakes which led to people having Cobra Farms to earn money, then the government stopped the project which led the Cobra Farmers to release their snakes, causing twice as many snakes than they first started."- cathabit
The Truth Lies Between The Lines...
"Barcode scanners scan the white lines, not the black ones."- the_blast_radius
Scream Bar Code GIF by joelremygifGiphyBut Does It Make It Easier To Avoid?
"Wombat poo is cube shaped, to stop it rolling away."
Perception Can Be Dangerously Misleading
"The Oxford University in England existed centuries before the rise and fall of the Aztec civilization."- RefrigeratorStatus96
"Time Is The Longest Distance Between Two Places..."
"A million seconds is 12 days."
"A billion seconds is 31 years. "
"A trillion seconds is 31,688 years."
"People have a lot of trouble comprehending numbers that big."- sunbearimon
Loop Time GIF by PsyklonGiphyOne thing that makes science so remarkable is how difficult it can be to believe.
And yet, scientists have been working since the beginning of time to prove that facts are, indeed, facts.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Redditor Jeffery_DahmerTV wanted to discuss the ideas that sound too crazy that they have to be true, so they asked:
"What is the most believable conspiracy Theory?"
In this day and age of alternative facts, it all seems like lies and truth.
Enlighten me.
Infection
Sick Computer Virus GIF by Achievement HunterGiphy"That computer viruses are made by antivirus companies to test their antivirus software."
astarisaslave
"Parents bought a new computer recently, the McAfee stuff was in there pretty deep to remove. The staff bogged it down, way faster afterward."
lt12765
War
"We are being goaded into waging culture wars that don't matter to keep us from waging class wars."
virgilreality
"Is this a conspiracy theory though? It would be if you assume it was engineered from the start, but this would also make it very unbelievable. But that existing conflicts had been fueled and taken advantage of by people in the position to for millennia is well evident I'd say."
Leseleff
Double Down
"Mattress Firm is a front for laundering money. There is no other reason for there to be so many. No one is ever even in there."
Free_Bingo
"Double down on this one! I have a Mattress Firm next to my job and I have never seen anyone in there ever. It’s been six years!"
cbcmama781
"I’m not convinced of this. Our local Mattress Firm is clearly baking $1k+ into their margins and then aggressively selling credit-based financing. Selling two or three a month probably covers everything."
Agloe_Dreams
Weather Issues
Climate Change Earth GIFGiphy"Those climate protestors that glue themselves to the road are hired by oil giants to make climate activists look stupid."
milanvlaman
"I feel this way about a lot of 'extremist' groups on both sides, that there are plants from the other side doing really stupid stuff just to discredit the idea."
Herr_Poopypants
The climate is changing. We have to come together. How is that a conspiracy?
That's All
Meryl Streep Pursed Lips GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"That the fashion industry purposefully doesn’t put pockets in women’s clothing so they have to carry purses."
diceunodixon
Financial Clean Up
"That the only reason that the US government doesn’t do anything with student debt loans is because then people would stop signing up for the army."
Brotastic29
"That and healthcare.
"When you join up you get healthcare fully covered for you and your family, and you can get a full college education.
If the government started providing either of those for civilians, no one would need to join the military anymore."
redF5veStandingBy
"I think so too. I know and agree with what that dude was saying but when I see or hear people use 'Army' as a way to generalize the military, it usually means that what they said is something they’re just repeating what they heard."
chefboiortiz
The Commission
"There's definitely more to JFK's assassination than the Warren commission made it out to be. Whether or not LHO was the sole killer, I find it fishy that the CIA was so desperate to hide information from the public."
Bitter-Record-3831
"There is a very well-done documentary that concludes it was an accidental discharge from a Secret Service agent in one of the cars ahead of him."
Babstana
"CIA probably considered the assassination a declaration of war against Russia. They’re probably covering up that they were about to start WW3 over it."
tangcameo
Dairy Pounds
"The Great cheese conspiracy. Each year the US government buys more and more milk to make more and more cheese. The US government is sitting on something like 2 billion pounds of cheese. Just to artificially inflate milk prices."
worfhill
"Not even a conspiracy, just an example of the government controlling the economy in favor of dairy farmers."
Glass_Pies
"I watched a documentary about this. It's actually true."
PreferredSex_Yes
They're Listening
government agent GIF by South Park Giphy"That the CIA posts questions like this on Reddit to measure their past and current work, brainstorm for future projects."
ZRX1200R
Ominous
"I have a conspiracy theory about conspiracy theories. I believe the governments and 'leaders' of the world are actually rather incompetent, so much so, that they require the illusion of them being an ominous all-powerful all-seeing entity in order to remain in power."
"And to accomplish this they allow conspiracy theories like the Illuminati and etc to spread around to add a bit of urban myth to how 'powerful' they are."
"It's probably all a bunch of garbage Europe can barely communicate within itself you expect there to be some secret global order??? Oh, stop it haha."
SparkNoJoyThrw01
Sifting through what could and could not be true, could take forever.
Life is full of mystery.