The language thread

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Witch is close to old English wicca (=sorcerer).

And wicca is close to low German Wickewief = sorceress [wief =Weib= woman]
"wicken" is a verb in low German which means "to use magic".

I didn't know that Low German was still in use as a spoken language, now I know after consulting Wikipedia. I also learned that there are many variants of (spoken) German, and that for instance Swiss German is largely unintelligble for Germans (so, why is it called German?) Which makes sense - I've been in Switzerland a couple of times, and been spoken to in what sounded like German, but I couldn't understand anything.

pibbuR who knows that there are Norwegian dialects he has problems understanding, partially.

I'm a speaker of Westphalian Low German (Märkisches Plattdütsch). Contrary to Northern Germany Platt there are not many native speakers left.

With my Low German knowledge it is much easier for me to read Dutch, Danish, Frisian, Old English, English …

Originally Posted by HiddenX
With my Low German knowledge it is much easier for me to read Dutch, Danish, Frisian, Old English, English …

Yes, but I often hear that people say that anyone who knows / speaks a "low german" dialect understands English, Dutch and surrounding languages much better than with "high german".

Originally Posted by pibbuR
In Norwegian "heks" is a female. The male is called "trollmann" (magic man). But we have the term "heksemester" (master of witchery) which is male. The corresponging word for "hag" would be the derogatory term "trollkjerring" (magic bitch).

pibbur who FYI is a no-magics male.

Norwegian "heks" is similar to German "Hexe", which is female, too.
The male term would be Hexenmeister. (Witch-Master).

Originally Posted by HiddenX
The male term would be Hexenmeister. (Witch-Master).

Or, rarely, "Hexer".
As I wrote above.

We also have ’heks’ in Dutch, which is often used for female witches, although it can be used for male witches as well. The word heks has a negative connotation and is used as such, but only for women.
It is also the name of a town in Belgium

From Couches' RPG NEws thread :

Sword of the Stars: The Pit 2 Announced

"A deadly plague ravages your world. Your last hope: a legendary alien facility dug deep into the Feldspar Mountains a massive Pit, built by the ancient Suul'ka."

Fun fact : The word "Feldspar" comes from the German word "Feldspat", which means a certain kind of mineral. That word was coined at the early forming of modern Geology.

"Feld" means "field", but I don't know what "spat" means; it most certainly has nothing to do with the "Spaten", which is a certain form of a shovel.

Edit : Wikipedia has - as so often - the solution to this tiny riddle :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldspar#Etymology
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldsp…und_Geschichte

Any time I read "Denuvo" , my mind wants to change it into "Danube".

The original "Star Wars" movie has been translated into the language of the Navajo : https://www.starwars.com/news/navajo…ars-a-new-hope

… Seemingly nonsense words … : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee-fi-fo-fum

Language - word game - sillyness :


The Idea ! (Or no ! … My dear …)

Person : „I’ve got an idea !“
Bystander „An idea is always good !“
Jester : „I’ve got an nodear !“
Everyone else : “???“

The word "stark" means "strong" in German language.

I speak English, Russian and Ukrainian. Mother tongue Russian and Ukrainian English became a second mother tongue after the family moved to the United States

People knowing several languages are imho among the most important people, as they are able to cross bridges between cultures - hence I call them "bridge people". Being able to translate is imho a VERY important ability. It avoids not only confusion, but perhaps even wars.

Besides, in the Dungeons & Dragon setting of "Ravenloft", withes are often called "Baba", which means "grandmother" as far as I know.
Can you confirm that or explain it ?

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
People knowing several languages are imho among the most important people, as they are able to cross bridges between cultures - hence I call them "bridge people". Being able to translate is imho a VERY important ability. It avoids not only confusion, but perhaps even wars.

I'm not sure it works like that. Being able to speak a language doesn't mean you also understand the culture. It is very possible to get a good feeling of the cultural differences between countries without being able to speak the language of those countries. What it requires is being able to see your own preferences and prejudices and seeing that of others and adapting yourself. This isn't an easy thing to do, but being able to speak a language does not automatically make you understand the culture of those speaking that language any better.

I think it depends. People might grow up in a country, but being taught both languages of father and mother, or from the place they formerly lived and where they live today, like with immigrants.

The letter R apparingly transports some kind of information through languages : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-04311-7

To put a little bit of more fun into this thread, I have a challenge for you :

Write into this thread what's the word for "jellyfish" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish
in your native language ! (and more, if you happen to know them).
Please with notice from which language the word comes from.

German : Qualle





( Inspired by a local newspaper article sying that the "Würfelqualle" (which would literally be "cube jellyfish") are among the most dangerous jellyfish, and that some appears only recently in Australia, where they, acording to the article, don't belong. )

Netherlands: Kwal

Plattdütsch (Lower German): de Quall
(pronunciation similar to Dutch)