Game: words / sentences / expressions in different languages

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
I thought it could be fun to do a simple (and silly?) "game", that could give some insight in the languages we're speaking here. The reason behind this is that I find it fun to see the similarities and differences between our languages.

It goes as follows:

1. The one who starts a new word or sentence (e.g. an expression) does this in their own language and gives an English translation, in order to make the others understand which word it is, unless the word itself is already in English. E.g.: huis (house)

2. All members who'd like to join can subsequently give the translation in their own language(s).
If there are more people of the same language, the 2nd (or later) person can try to give a synonym.

I am not sure about rules for who can start a new word (ideas are welcome) but for now we can just try to do this without rules and just see how participation will be. So for now, anyone can start a new word whenever they want, and anyone else can respond by giving a translation (quoting the new word).

NOTE:
@Perun: naturally Farsi is allowed as well (but don't skip the German ;-). That goes for all people who know more languages besides English (I'm thinking of e.g. Onhell and Natalie).

I'll start with:

duisternis (darkness)

Thanks in advance for playing!
 
Anything language related works great for me. :D

Тъмнина (tumnina, stress on the last syllable) - darkness.
The sound Ъ is hard to explain. It is somewhat similar to u in hut, but narrow.
 
Nice this extra explanation Ariana! I like that word.
Also three syllables! And: ni + a letter u in the first syllable.

I have no clue how to explain how "ui" should be pronounced. As with some other diphthongs in Dutch, these sound quite different from anything I've heard in other languages.
 
I just read that the Dutch word duisternis is only West-German. Apart from that it is possibly associated with the Russian tusk, Serbian s-tuštiti se. Since the spreading is limited, one should think of a non-Indo-European sub street word (whatever that may be).


source:
http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/duisternis
duister bn. ‘donker’; zn. ‘duisternis’
Mnl. dustere (bn.) ‘donkere, droevige’ [1300-50; MNW-R], duuster (bn.) ‘donker’ [1375-1400; MNW-R], Vten duustren ‘uit de duisternis’ [1375-1400; CG-R], duyster (zn.) ‘duisternis’ [1400-20; MNW-R], duyster (bn.) ‘donker’ [1450-1500; MNW-R].
Het woord is alleen West-Germaans. Daarbuiten mogelijk verwant met Russisch tusk ‘donkerte, somberheid’, Servisch s-tuštiti se ‘bewolkt worden’. Gezien deze geringe verspreiding moet gedacht worden aan een niet-Indo-Europees substraatwoord. Wellicht is de -er uitgang gevormd naar analogie van het zn. → deemster ‘donker’, dat wel Indo-Europees is.
Os. thiustri (mnd. düster en wrsch. nhd. Düster), ofri. thiustere (nfri. tsjuster), oe. ðēostre, ðīestre, ðȳstre (ne. obsolete thester); < pgm. *þiustria-.
duisternis zn. ‘afwezigheid van licht’. Onl. thiusternussi ‘duisternis’ [10e eeuw; W.Ps.], mnl. duusternis ‘id.’ [1470-90; MNW-R], duysternis [1400-20; MNW-R]. Gevormd uit duister met het achtervoegsel → -nis.
[/quote]
 
What's the adjective that translates as dark?

The Russian tusk is very similar to the English dusk.
 
a non-Indo-European sub street word (whatever that may be).

The word "street" is a bit misleading here, because it's not a street in the sense of a road, but a stratum. Philology sometimes works like archaeology, even identifying a language stratigraphy. Obviously, the best known examples are Latin-Vulgar Latin-Italian, Old, Middle and Modern English, German etc. But the history of a language can, to a certain extent, be deduced from traces within the language even if the older forms are not attested.
In that sense, it is a word that came from an "underlying" native language to a new, dominating language. That would mean that the word was part of a language that was originally spoken in Central Europe by a non-Indo-European population (of which no textual attestation exists) in an area that was later dominated by Germanic and Slavonic groups who both adopted the word from the subjugated population, while the rest of the language became extinct.

Back to the original word: Etymologically, Dutch and German are pretty much the same language. So most words that exist in Dutch also exist in German, like duisternis, which is German Düsternis. However, this sounds very antiquated (like much of Dutch does to German ears), and people here say Dunkelheit instead. However, the adjective düster is a common word, although it has a different nuance than the also common adjective dunkel. It's hard to explain what exactly the difference is, though.

In Persian, the word is târikhi, the adjective is târikh (Modern Persian has a very simple morphology). The â is pronounced like Norwegian å, the kh (always, always) like Scottish loch. The stress is on the final -i in the noun, and the -i in the adjective. The Middle Persian is barely different: tārīgīh and tārīg respectively (although varying forms exist). Right now, I'm not sure on the root of the word, not even if it's Indo-European or a loanword, but I'll look it up.[/quote]
 
Back to the original word: Etymologically, Dutch and German are pretty much the same language. So most words that exist in Dutch also exist in German, like duisternis, which is German Düsternis. However, this sounds very antiquated (like much of Dutch does to German ears), and people here say Dunkelheit instead.
Donkerheid is a word we have as well, but that is a rare term. If it used then it means "blackness", "depression", "turpitude", "hypogondria", "wickedness".

Would you give some more examples of antiquated sounding Dutch words?
I'd like to stress that duisternis is a bit of an old fashioned word. When people say the sky is dark, they don't use it.

Figuratively speaking, it's still used e.g. "a bad (evil/sinister) business" can described as "een duister zaakje".
And there are expressions as "in het duister tasten" (groping in the dark).

However, the adjective düster is a common word, although it has a different nuance than the also common adjective dunkel. It's hard to explain what exactly the difference is, though.
I know what you mean. I think this is the same in both languages.
In Persian, the word is târikhi, the adjective is târikh (Modern Persian has a very simple morphology). The â is pronounced like Norwegian å, the kh (always, always) like Scottish loch. The stress is on the final -i in the noun, and the -i in the adjective. The Middle Persian is barely different: tārīgīh and tārīg respectively (although varying forms exist). Right now, I'm not sure on the root of the word, not even if it's Indo-European or a loanword, but I'll look it up.
Again 3 syllables. Just a coincidence(?)
 
Donkerheid is a word we have as well, but that is a rare term. If it used then it means "blackness", "depression", "turpitude", "hypogondria", "wickedness".

That is roughly what "Düsternis" would mean in German.

.Would you give some more examples of antiquated sounding Dutch words?

Uh, I don't speak Dutch, so no ;) I just tend to notice that, when I see a Dutch text.

Come to think of it, I'm fairly positive that târikh is etymologically related to English "dark"
 
Out of curiosity I looked up dark in an online etymology dictionary:
http://etymonline.com/?term=dark

dark (adj.)
Old English deorc "dark, obscure, gloomy; sad, cheerless; sinister, wicked," from Proto-Germanic *derkaz (cf. Old High German tarchanjan "to hide, conceal"). "Absence of light" especially at night is the original meaning. Application to colors is 16c. Theater slang for "closed" is from 1916.
dark (n.)
early 13c., from dark (adj.). Figurative in the dark "ignorant" first recorded 1670s.
 
In Turkish darkness is "karanlık". Word "kara" means dark, the affix "lık" is a derivational affix. In Turkish, two vowels can't be in a juxtaposition therefore we use an harmonization letter (y, ş, s, n) but this word commonly creates confusion because there's no juxtaposition of two vowels and still an harmonization letter seems to be used. But in reality that's only a transfiguration, in Old Turkish the word was "karanku", the letter "n" is derived from there.
 
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