[Multilingual Monday] Literally
I've had a lot on my mind because of my upcoming move this weekend, and thus this particular Multilingual Monday article. Upon writing the last post about what was happening, I had a brain fart and had to look up the word "to move" in Hebrew, which I then caught when I saw "זז", zaz, listed, and went, "... wait, that's not right." Of course it's not, for English, as far as I know, is the only language that I can think of that applies the word move to also mean "relocate; change addresses," and yes, one can certainly use the two I just listed, but it's by far more common to say, "I am moving to Peoria," than to say, "I am relocating to Peoria." The aforementioned Hebrew word? It is literally "move", sharing roots with תזוזה, tezuzah, "motion".
I then remembered to use לעבור, laazor, "to cross over; to transfer" (producing the present-tense עובר, over, "I go over; cross over", which has amazingly similar but completely unrelated etymologies to the English word), and it's like this in most languages I can think of -- स्थानांतर करना, sthānāntara karanā, "to do a transfer" in Hindi; Japanese uses 移転する, ijuu suru, having the same meaning as the Hindi word. In addition, one can use 引っ越す, hikkosu, which has the idea of leaving some place -- to "pull away", and in Spanish you use mudarse, having that same meaning (and having a further meaning of removing clothes as well as one's family from a locale).
Of course, if one were to translate English literally -- say, through an automatic translator -- you'll get the wrong word used repeatedly. My ex Yuujin is a Spanish teacher and has heard more than enough of his students saying "moverse" in that spot (which is usually reserved for things like, "¡Muévete!", or "MOVE IT!!"), and not packing it up and driving away.
There are plenty of other examples that I can think of -- dizzi_d wondered about the word "Greetings" and provided me with 挨拶, which is indeed "greetings", but only as a noun, NOT as an actual greeting. Thus, I ask for you guys to provide other examples in space that show some literal translation examples here, be them to/from English or not.
NOTE : I doubt I'll have an Internet connection at the new place next Monday, so there will probably be no Multilingual Monday at all in the following week or two. So, make this one count!! :: laugh ::
I then remembered to use לעבור, laazor, "to cross over; to transfer" (producing the present-tense עובר, over, "I go over; cross over", which has amazingly similar but completely unrelated etymologies to the English word), and it's like this in most languages I can think of -- स्थानांतर करना, sthānāntara karanā, "to do a transfer" in Hindi; Japanese uses 移転する, ijuu suru, having the same meaning as the Hindi word. In addition, one can use 引っ越す, hikkosu, which has the idea of leaving some place -- to "pull away", and in Spanish you use mudarse, having that same meaning (and having a further meaning of removing clothes as well as one's family from a locale).
Of course, if one were to translate English literally -- say, through an automatic translator -- you'll get the wrong word used repeatedly. My ex Yuujin is a Spanish teacher and has heard more than enough of his students saying "moverse" in that spot (which is usually reserved for things like, "¡Muévete!", or "MOVE IT!!"), and not packing it up and driving away.
There are plenty of other examples that I can think of -- dizzi_d wondered about the word "Greetings" and provided me with 挨拶, which is indeed "greetings", but only as a noun, NOT as an actual greeting. Thus, I ask for you guys to provide other examples in space that show some literal translation examples here, be them to/from English or not.
NOTE : I doubt I'll have an Internet connection at the new place next Monday, so there will probably be no Multilingual Monday at all in the following week or two. So, make this one count!! :: laugh ::