The word 'Vrede' jumped out at me from this 'Peace' installation.
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@CiaraNi The expression that springs to mind is ‘false friends’, but I’m not sure that covers what you mean.
I agree there should be a word for this, in English, Dutch and Danish.
@HenkvanderEijk @CiaraNi I know the concept as false cognates, which are usually only considered such within a language family, like in this case, Germanic. I quite like “eng; German: narrow, Dutch: scary, Danish/Norwegian: meadow, Luxemburgish:one. Perhaps there’s a Multilingualese phrase like: Eng eng eng eng = a narrow scary meadow?
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@CiaraNi Another example would be "rar", which means nice / friendly in Danish & scary / terrible in Norwegian. Yes, we need a word for this
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@CiaraNi Another example would be "rar", which means nice / friendly in Danish & scary / terrible in Norwegian. Yes, we need a word for this
@jwcph A fine example! I once saw this one create a tense atmosphere at a meeting for a few minutes until somebody copped that the Norwegian delegation and the Danish delegation were speaking at cross-purposes.
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@jwcph A fine example! I once saw this one create a tense atmosphere at a meeting for a few minutes until somebody copped that the Norwegian delegation and the Danish delegation were speaking at cross-purposes.
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@CiaraNi The expression that springs to mind is ‘false friends’, but I’m not sure that covers what you mean.
I agree there should be a word for this, in English, Dutch and Danish.
@HenkvanderEijk @CiaraNi I would call it false friends as well.
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@HenkvanderEijk @CiaraNi I know the concept as false cognates, which are usually only considered such within a language family, like in this case, Germanic. I quite like “eng; German: narrow, Dutch: scary, Danish/Norwegian: meadow, Luxemburgish:one. Perhaps there’s a Multilingualese phrase like: Eng eng eng eng = a narrow scary meadow?
@cassana @HenkvanderEijk Eng eng eng eng - deilightful. I didn't know 'eng' meant 'scary' in Dutch. That has an opposite feeling too, compared to the calm of the word 'meadow'. Now I'm reminded of this descriptive dissonance from Douglas Adams. I've been using the phrase 'like getting mugged in a meadow' for relevant situations ever since I first read this.
'The Galaxy, which had been enjoying a period of unusual peace and prosperity at the time, reeled like a man getting mugged in a meadow.'
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@cassana @HenkvanderEijk Eng eng eng eng - deilightful. I didn't know 'eng' meant 'scary' in Dutch. That has an opposite feeling too, compared to the calm of the word 'meadow'. Now I'm reminded of this descriptive dissonance from Douglas Adams. I've been using the phrase 'like getting mugged in a meadow' for relevant situations ever since I first read this.
'The Galaxy, which had been enjoying a period of unusual peace and prosperity at the time, reeled like a man getting mugged in a meadow.'
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@HenkvanderEijk @CiaraNi @cassana
Sometimes, you don't even need a full language shift.
'Cute' has very different meanings in British English and Hiberno-English -
@HenkvanderEijk @CiaraNi @cassana
Sometimes, you don't even need a full language shift.
'Cute' has very different meanings in British English and Hiberno-English@faduda It does indeed. That's a great example of another linguistic variety - the same word meaning the opposite (or close to the opposite) in the same language, depending on which regional variation you speak.
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The word 'Vrede' jumped out at me from this 'Peace' installation. 'Vrede' is Danish for anger, fury, wrath. I wondered if it was an artistic provocation. But it seemed too confined to chance, that someone who happens to understand Danish happens to see this German artwork. So I looked it up and learned that 'vrede' is Dutch for 'peace'.
Vrede. Peace in Dutch. Wrath in Danish. I wonder if there's a word for words like these, that mean the opposite in different languages.
@CiaraNi vrede in Serbian means "they are worth it" or "they have worth". Ti ljudi vrede, those people are worth it, worth fighting for.
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Well now I'm sitting here staring at my new realisation that Vrede is Dutch for Peace and Vrede is Danish for Wrath and Fred is Danish for Peace. Depending on your accent and how tired you are and how much you mumble, Vrede and Fred sound the same. Vrede and Fred. Wrath and Peace.
The Fediverse is lovely. I saw a nice photo on my timeline and threw out a random remark about something that struck me. And now my timeline is a delight of funny, learned, cheeky, fascinating anecdotes & knowledge. Much of it steeped in your experience from all the languages you all speak.
I haven't been able to catch up on all the replies yet. I look forward to catching up when I log back on later. Meanwhile: thanks to my neighbours here in the Fediverse for great information & entertainment.
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@fgraver @CiaraNi @rubbel Well, the word, fro-kost, literally means "early food" - as I understand it, in Denmark it did in fact also mean the first meal of the day, but at a time when most people just ate twice; early & late. Farmers, however, would start their day really early & therefore would eat another meal before the usual "frokost" time, which made "frokost" the mid-day meal, i.e. lunch, for them.
To add confusion, dinner is often called "Middag" in Danish. Which means mid-day.
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@faduda It does indeed. That's a great example of another linguistic variety - the same word meaning the opposite (or close to the opposite) in the same language, depending on which regional variation you speak.
@CiaraNi @faduda @HenkvanderEijk @cassana
Lots of examples of these in English — dependent on context, not even regional variations. “Cleave” means “join together” and “split apart.” “Sanction” means both “allow” and “punish.” “Oversight” means both “close scrutiny” and “mistaken omission.” And so on.
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@CiaraNi @faduda @HenkvanderEijk @cassana
Lots of examples of these in English — dependent on context, not even regional variations. “Cleave” means “join together” and “split apart.” “Sanction” means both “allow” and “punish.” “Oversight” means both “close scrutiny” and “mistaken omission.” And so on.
@CiaraNi @faduda @HenkvanderEijk @cassana Also interesting to see how shifts in word meanings can give a glimpse into geopolitical history. “Seguro” means “certain” in Spanish but “uncertain” or “maybe” in Tagalog (in the Philippines, a former Spanish colony). And the Spanish “mañana” (“tomorrow”) became “mamaya na” (“later,” in some undefined future) in Tagalog. It’s a fascinating window into a colonial history of broken promises.
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@iamdavidobrien @jwcph Yes, it's not quite the same, right enough. Contronyms have two opposing meanings but in the same language, like 'cleave'.
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@CiaraNi vrede in Serbian means "they are worth it" or "they have worth". Ti ljudi vrede, those people are worth it, worth fighting for.
@bojanland Interesting! And in the context of peace or anger, still in the general 'fight, make a fuss, don't fight, keep the peace' sense.
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@bojanland Interesting! And in the context of peace or anger, still in the general 'fight, make a fuss, don't fight, keep the peace' sense.
@CiaraNi part of the word vrede is the word red which means line or order also.
my favourite serbian words are police and drug which mean bookshelves and friend. Youre welcome -
The word 'Vrede' jumped out at me from this 'Peace' installation. 'Vrede' is Danish for anger, fury, wrath. I wondered if it was an artistic provocation. But it seemed too confined to chance, that someone who happens to understand Danish happens to see this German artwork. So I looked it up and learned that 'vrede' is Dutch for 'peace'.
Vrede. Peace in Dutch. Wrath in Danish. I wonder if there's a word for words like these, that mean the opposite in different languages.
@CiaraNi "стол" (stol) in Russian means table, in Bulgarian it means chair.
