Sunday, March 14, 2021

Stationary Comprehension


5 comments:

  1. There can be more than one.

    In Czech, German is Němec, Germany is Německo. The etymology is "the non-speakers", "the place where they can't speak".

    To the east of Czechia is Slovakia, where they talk funny but you can understand it. North is Poland, where they talk _very_ weirdly but you can get a word or two. But west and south... nope, nothing. They can't talk. :-)

    Another German expression is „Das ist mir ein böhmisches Dorf“, or "it's all a Bohemian village to me."

    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B6hmisches_Dorf

    So the relationship was reciprocal.

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    Replies
    1. Hah! That's great. Could be a comic of its own, actually ^_^

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    2. About the Czech expression - Russian and Ukrainian use the similar ethymologies.
      "German" (person, not object/language) in there is "немец" ("німець" in Ukrainian) - a word of the same root as "немой"/"німий" - "a mute".

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  2. In French, you'll say of a person speaking an unintelligible language that it's all Chinese to me, but you'll say of someone speaking French badly that they speak French like a Spanish cow.

    I've always wondered why the cow has to be specifically Spanish, as if French cows are somehow more articulate in French.

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