{"id":46228,"date":"2014-11-04T16:19:38","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T23:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/04\/translating-words-across-europe.html"},"modified":"2014-11-05T08:16:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T15:16:10","slug":"translating-words-across-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/04\/translating-words-across-europe.html","title":{"rendered":"Translating words across Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a very spiffy little site. Enter in an English word, and see the most common translated word in a variety of European nations.<\/p>\n

Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Here's an interesting site, via +<\/span>Laura Gibbs<\/a><\/span>: it uses Google Translate to show you the translations of any word across Europe. This is a great way to see the major linguistic groups in Europe, especially the Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages. Very "modern" words, like "microprocessor," are nearly identical in all countries, having been borrowed from a single source.<\/p>\n

Words which represent things that would have been present when the speakers of various other languages invaded their current homes, such as "cow" instead break up along language family lines; you can see all the variations on Latin "vaca" in Romance-speaking areas, variations on "korova" in Slavic-speaking areas, and variants on proto-Germanic "kwon" in Germanic-speaking areas. <\/p>\n

With very old words, you start to get into the subject of historical linguistics, and in fact these deviation patterns turn into a way to know where and when various people split up: if they have the same word for "cow," for example, you can reasonably believe that they were in contact with each other at a time when cows were common enough things to get a common name. However, this is a subtle business: you have to understand how word-sounds evolve over time, and deal with the ways in which sometimes a less-common word for something becomes the dominant word in an area. For example, the word for "dog" in almost all Germanic languages is a variation on "hound," coming ultimately from proto-Germanic "hundas" and proto-Indo-European "kuntas." But English took the word "docga," a name for a particular kind of dog, and by the 16th century this had become the general word for the species.<\/p>\n

If you want to learn more about historical linguistics — it's a completely fascinating subject — John McWhorter's lectures, "The Story of Human Language" (http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/3328218-the-story-of-human-language<\/a>) can be a great place to understand not only that, but the basic ideas of all of linguistics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nEuropean word translator: an interactive map showing “cow” in over 30 languages<\/a><\/span>
\nTranslate any word from English to more than 30 other European languages, on a map\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a very spiffy little site. Enter in an English word, and see the most common translated word in a variety of European nations. Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger: Here's an interesting site, via +Laura Gibbs: it uses Google Translate to show you the translations of any word across Europe. This is a great … Continue reading “Translating words across Europe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136826,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/23\/letters-and-alphabets.html","url_meta":{"origin":46228,"position":0},"title":"Letters and Alphabets","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 23-Jun-18 4:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We take writing and language for granted, but there's remarkable history and variability in how it's all constructed across time and space with humanity, and even large variation today -- not just in language, but in how we convey it in writing. Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger: This is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DgM74CBV4AE3cXb.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DgM74CBV4AE3cXb.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DgM74CBV4AE3cXb.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":139130,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/06\/09\/red-light-blue-light.html","url_meta":{"origin":46228,"position":1},"title":"Red light! Blue light!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 9-Jun-19 1:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"We assume everyone groups colors the same way as we do. We assume wrongly.","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/japan-traffic-signal.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/japan-traffic-signal.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/japan-traffic-signal.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/japan-traffic-signal.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/japan-traffic-signal.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6132,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/13\/re_flections.html","url_meta":{"origin":46228,"position":2},"title":"Re-flections","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-May-04 11:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"Take a company with people in both US and Europe. Add in mail systems that don't recognize other languages' reply prefixes (\"Re:\" and \"R\u00e9f:\") and so omit adding a new...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12051,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/01\/word_dude.html","url_meta":{"origin":46228,"position":3},"title":"Word, dude!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Dec-07 12:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A list of linguistic coincidences -- words that mean the same things in completely unrelated languages....","rel":"","context":"In "Writing and Language"","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23684,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/13\/tweeting-across-the-globe.html","url_meta":{"origin":46228,"position":4},"title":"Tweeting Across the Globe","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 13-Nov-11 9:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"Cool set of maps analyzing the language that folks are tweeting in. Some interesting anomalies and differences between \"official\" languages and \"true\" languages. #ddtb Embedded Link 539 - Vive le tweet! A Map of Twitter's Languages | Strange Maps | Big Think","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131273,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/14\/when-languages-change-do-they-decline-or-just-evolve.html","url_meta":{"origin":46228,"position":5},"title":"When languages change, do they decline or just evolve?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 14-Aug-16 7:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I come from what might be called an \"English privilege\" position, where most of the cross-contamination in languages that are changing over time is coming from English words creeping in.On the other hand, English itself is deeply a blend of foreign language, well beyond being a Germanic tongue heavily overlaid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46243,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46228\/revisions\/46243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}