What are the names for common animals in your language? I'm speaking of the most common household pets or barnyard animals. I know Dutch for horse is Paard, right? And I know the names of common animals in French as well. But provide yours anyway for us all.
English:
Horse
Cow
Chicken
Dog
Cat
Espanol:
Caballo
Vaca
Pollo
Perro
Gato
Et Francais, en Nederlands, e Italiano, und Deutsch, etc........ (please provide)
fish vis Fisch
ape aap Affe
bear beer Bδr
wolf wolf Wolf
rat rat Ratte
mouse muis Maus
fox vos Fuchs
ox os Ochse
frog kikker Frosch
I always find the word for 'guinea pig' in various languages interesting:
German: Meerschweinchen lit: 'sea piglet'
Dutch: proefkonijn lit: 'test rabbit'
French: cochon d'Inde lit: 'pig from India'
Spanish: conejillo de Indias lit: 'Indians' bunny'
Pauline
Benjamin wrote:
pig varken Schwein (i.e. swine)
in dutch exist also zwijn what I think is usually for the boar i.e. wilde zwijn.
Quote:
I always find the word for 'guinea pig' in various languages interesting:
German: Meerschweinchen lit: 'sea piglet'
Dutch: proefkonijn lit: 'test rabbit'
French: cochon d'Inde lit: 'pig from India'
Spanish: conejillo de Indias lit: 'Indians' bunny'
Do you mean the literal or figurative name? I think the dutch one, you've written how it's called when it is the figurative signification. I doubt that someone will tell you such a thing as ik heb twee proefkonijnen als huisdier (I've two proefknonijnen as domestic animals) but in the other languages those names would be used this way. this dutch word is for something used in a test, not usually a guinea pig in fact- it can be any animals or anythings. I'm sure that I knew this word in dutch, but I can't remember right now. When I get my dictionnary I will look up.
Akoni
Guinea pig (the real animal) = Cavia, Huiscavia
Guinea pig (as in testsubject) = Proefkonijn
Benjamin [inactive]
Oh, I see!
Akoni
lol, would be fun to call a "Cavia" a "Proefkonijn" as it looks like a small rabbit. Rabbit v0.5
Andrι in Zuid-Afrika
Benjamin wrote:
I like comparing the words for animals between English, Dutch and German:
fish vis Fisch - vis
ape aap Affe - aap
bear beer Bδr - beer
wolf wolf Wolf - wolf
rat rat Ratte - rot
mouse muis Maus - muis
fox vos Fuchs - jakkals (vos)
ox os Ochse - os
frog kikker Frosch - padda
Andrι in Zuid-Afrika
Guinea pig (the real animal) = Cavia, Huiscavia (marmokkie, marmotjie)
Guinea pig (as in testsubject) = Proefkonijn (proefkonyn)
Why is it that the English word for "horse" is so different from that of the other W. Germanic languages? I mean, a "horse" was such an integral part of peoples' lives during the dark and middle ages. Did English originally have another name for "horse", and borrow one from Old Norse later on?
Benjamin [inactive]
Porthos wrote:
Why is it that the English word for "horse" is so different from that of the other W. Germanic languages? I mean, a "horse" was such an integral part of peoples' lives during the dark and middle ages. Did English originally have another name for "horse", and borrow one from Old Norse later on?
The Old English word for 'horse' is actually 'hors', so no, it's not different at all. However, there is actually another word in German which sort of means 'horse' Ross, which is derived from the Old High German 'hros'.
Andrι in Zuid-Afrika
Benjamin wrote:
Andrι wrote:
frog kikker Frosch - padda
So what's the Afrikaans for...
toad pad Krφte ?
Padda... Padda is the collective word for both frogs and toads. A toad is also know as brulpadda, landpadda or skurwepadda.
fish vis Fisch - vis - fisk
ape aap Affe - aap - ape (apekatt)
bear beer Bδr - beer - bjψrn
wolf wolf Wolf - wolf - ulv
rat rat Ratte - rot - rotte
mouse muis Maus - muis - mus
fox vos Fuchs - jakkals (vos) - rev
ox os Ochse - os - okse
frog kikker Frosch - padda - frosk
toad - pad - Krφte - ...padda - padde
That the word for cat is so similar in both Romance and Germanic languages shows that it spread northwards quite recently (from Egypt). It reached Norway as late as the Viking Age (ca. 1000).
The Nordic words for fox (rev, rζv, rδv) is very different from the West Germanic ones. But like most other Europeans, Nordic folks also named it after its large tail (rev = rζv/rψv = tail or ass).
Julian
Porthos wrote:
Why is it that the English word for "horse" is so different from that of the other W. Germanic languages? I mean, a "horse" was such an integral part of peoples' lives during the dark and middle ages. Did English originally have another name for "horse", and borrow one from Old Norse later on?
I think it's more a question of which term won out over a simultaneously existing term. As Benjamin pointed out, in German, you have Pferd and the less-common(?) Ross. In modern Dutch as well, you have paard and ros. (Compare Old Norse hross, Old High German hros, Old Frisian hors, Middle High German ros, Middle Dutch ors with Old & Middle English hors)
In Victorian-era England, the word prad, was commonly used among lower-class Londoners, but today is practically unheard of and is now regarded as chiefly an Australian term. "Prad" is most likely a metathetic distortion of Dutch paard which, along with pferd, derives from Late Latin paraverιdus:
L.L. paraveredus "post horse for outlying districts" (6c.), originally "extra horse," from Gk. para "beside, secondary" + L. veredus "post horse; light, fast horse used by couriers," from Gaul. *voredos (cf. Welsh gorwydd "horse," O.Ir. riadaim "I ride"). The L. word passed to O.H.G. as pfarifrid, where in modern Ger. it has become the usual word for "horse" (pferd). [The Online Etymology Dictionary]
Extra credit reading:
"One of the few Keltic words which the Roman conquerors adopted from their Gaulish subjects was the word rheda, used to describe a light four-wheeled carriage. Such carriages were used for posting, and the light, swift animal which drew them received a special name, made by compounding the root of veho, to draw or carry, with the name of this kind of carriage. Thus arose the word ver~dus, the drawer of the rheda, the post-horse, or couriers horse; and so veredarius was a post-classic Latin word for courier; but the name veredus was not long in becoming generalized, for in Martial we find it used for a light, fleet hunting horse. At the same time there came into general use the curiously hybrid word paraveredits, made by prefixing the Greek preposition wapa, meaning beyond, to veredus, to denote an extra post-horse for extraordinary occasions. This mongrel word paraveredus, thus oddly made up out of Greek, Latin, and Keltic elements, seems to have been a favorite name for the horse in the Middle Ages. In Ducanges great dictionary of Medieval Latin we find parvaredus, parafredus, and palafredus, along with many other forms. From palafredus came the French palefroi and the English palfrey; while the simple contraction and abbreviation of the older paraveredus resulted in the form pferd adopted by the modern German". [From "What we Learn from Old Aryan Words", The Atlantic monthly / Volume 47, Issue 282, April 1881]
fish fish fisk fisch(?)
bear beir bear bδδr(?)
wolf wowf wolf wolf
rat rattan rτt rat(?)
mouse moose mϋs muus
fox tod/lowrie foks (?)
ox owse okse oss
frog puddock frosk (?)
toad taid pod (?)
Fredrik
Interesting! Low German for fox is "vos" or "vus". I think the etymology for the French word for fox is just the cutest:
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The patrimonial French word for "fox" was goupil from Latin vulpecula. However, mentioning the fox was considered bad luck among farmers. Because of the popularity of the stories of Le Roman de Reynard , renard was often used as an euphemism to the point that today renard is the standard French word for "fox" and goupil is now dialectal or archaic.
And BTW a very funny word you Anglophones have for a female fox: "vixen"!
Deborah
Irrintzi, I like the names of the animals in Euskara, especially the word for mouse: sabu. To me, it sounds like the name of some large African animal, in some African language! (Or maybe it's just the name of the actor who played Mowghli in the old Hollywood movie of The Jungle Book...I'll have to look it up.)
So you use the French word for rabbit? (Or do the French use the Euskara word?)
Deborah
Oops! Sabu was, indeed, the name of the actor who played Mowgli in the 1942 version of The Jungle Book. And that book doesn't even take place in Africa!
Deborah
Julian, how do you say "monkey" in Tagalog?
Julian
Deborah wrote:
Julian, how do you say "monkey" in Tagalog?
Tita says it's "mono", but the Tagalog dictionary lists matsing, tsunggo (chonggo), and unggoy. Maybe they refer to different species of monkeys.
Irrintzi
Deborah wrote:
Irrintzi, I like the names of the animals in Euskara, especially the word for mouse: sabu. To me, it sounds like the name of some large African animal, in some African language! (Or maybe it's just the name of the actor who played Mowghli in the old Hollywood movie of The Jungle Book...I'll have to look it up.)
So you use the French word for rabbit? (Or do the French use the Euskara word?)
I'm happy!
Maybe many names of animals can be similar to certain African languages, that would be interesting to know it.
for the name rabbit in Basque "Lapin or Lapiρa" is the correct name, however I doubt whether it's a word taken by French (in old french the word was Conin or Conil of the latin Cuniculus, "Lapin" appear on the XV century and was officialy employed on the XVII century), my family which lives in the farm always used " lapiρa, lapinoa " but it exist a basquified version: "Untxi" (of Urtxintxa, the Squirrel).
Tita says it's "mono", but the Tagalog dictionary lists matsing, tsunggo (chonggo), and unggoy. Maybe they refer to different species of monkeys.
So did certain Filipinos adopt the Spanish word (mono), or was it the other way around?
fab
what is the difference between Apes and Monkeys ? are these words synonyms ?
Porthos
Apes are a different species. Monkeys are the small little creatures with tails, whereas apes are chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangatangs, etc.
fab
Quote:
Apes are a different species. Monkeys are the small little creatures with tails, whereas apes are chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangatangs, etc
Ah, ok. In French we have one only concept for both : "singes", which if we include human specie consist of the order of "Primates".
Gorillas, Chimpanzee, etc. are "grands singes" - humans are biologically part of this sub-group, even if we don't usually inlude ourselves in it.
Porthos
Quote:
Ah, ok. In French we have one only concept for both : "singes", which if we include human specie consist of the order of "Primates".
Gorillas, Chimpanzee, etc. are "grands singes" - humans are biologically part of this sub-group, even if we don't usually inlude ourselves in it.
Yes, that is how we do it as well. We're considered primates but I don't normally think of myself as being part of the same group along with apes. lol
Loic
Orangutan, not orangatan, Porthos. Orang is Malay for people while utan simply means the jungle.
So you're an orang amerika, Porthos.
Porthos
loic wrote:
Orangutan, not orangatan, Porthos. Orang is Malay for people while utan simply means the jungle.
So you're an orang amerika, Porthos.
Yes thank you Loic. I knew I was spelling it wrong, so I just threw some letters together bearing some resemblance to the actual word. But it's nice to know what the word means.