We have no word for thank you

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Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,433
629
Knowhere
It might be the idiom which I think means come in peace dewch yn (t) awel. I am probably wrong.

I have certainly heard saxon swear words in spoken welsh.

As have I too, it is amusing to hear them punctuate the Welsh.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,996
4,650
S. Lanarkshire
I think you'll find that was common in education of the time.
In Scotland we were belted (leather strap lashed across the palms of the hands) for speaking Scots or Gaelic. Children in England were caned (whippy stick beaten across the backs of legs and buttocks) for using 'slang' regional variations of English.

Different times, different world really. Thankfully it's now a much more encompassing world, yet still languages languish and die while the vocabulary of English grows daily.

In it's time, so did Latin, so did French, so did Russian, so does Chinese and Indian (of many varieties, and I mean the sub continent).
Language is only as alive as the people who use it, but the way things are going everyone'll end up speaking Spanglish :rolleyes:

Keep yours alive Joe :) use it often, use it to talk to children too, and for heaven's sake write it down, write it down often, even if your culture has no indigenous written dictionary, it's not beyond mortal wit to write your words as they are spoken. Set up youtube channels, talk on them, explain things on them, put it on news programmes, reports, get the words out there where they can be found, be apart of this world wide conversation and not a shrinking dialect.
There are people trying to keep the Cree language alive elsewhere too.
http://art.mt.gov/folklife/hearthand/writing.asp

atb,
Toddy
 
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Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
While I agree with what Toddy says, and I do try to keep the Doric alive - we are an English speaking Nation. So while I love slipping into Scots with other folks where appropriate I do find myself getting slightly tetchy at how badly English is spoken and written by it's supposedly native speakers.

I don't correct folk on-line as it's considered rude, but when I was an employer if your CV and covering letter were pants you more often than not didn't get a chance to prove me wrong at the interview stage.

I whole heartedly agree that certain cultures have words that cant quite be put into English, Scots has many words that don't quite translate. But often the folk shouting about it don't know English well enough to really make a comparison, there are some beautiful and sometimes obscure words that can have such an ethereal yet finite meaning that they have only one very specific use.

I suppose I was lucky, though my parents forced me to "speak properly"; we were ignored otherwise - we were allowed to used our native way of speaking out of the house with our friends.
 
Feb 21, 2015
393
0
Durham
Don't ever say that to a Swede! A Swede told me a joke about how the Norwegions got their language. He said that when the world was made every country was given a language, except Norway. So the Norwegians asked God why they had no language. God replied that he only had one language left, but he had been intending to give it to the seals, but since they asked he gave it to the Norwegians instead. Which is why Norwegians sound like seals when they speak.

Hmmmmmmm, if they didn't have a language , then how did they ask god for something in the first place?
 

vestlenning

Settler
Feb 12, 2015
717
76
Western Norway
I'm reliably informed that Sweden had an empire at one point....did they get into Norway? And if so, is that why the languages are similar?

They did, but we got rid of them. Nice neighbours though...

English is the international language (dispite what the French would like), it is the language of business and of a lot of governments, particularly places like India that have so many languages and dialects spoken. So it makes sense that is would be treated as a base line.

English isn't better than any other language, I think it's so common because of the late empire...
 

vestlenning

Settler
Feb 12, 2015
717
76
Western Norway
So the Norwegians asked God why they had no language. God replied that he only had one language left, but he had been intending to give it to the seals, but since they asked he gave it to the Norwegians instead. Which is why Norwegians sound like seals when they speak.

Like seals? Want to know what Norwegians think the English sound like? No, this is a nice forum...

PS) I love seals!
 
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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,996
4,650
S. Lanarkshire
That's a good point…..fun's fun, but when it cuts close it's no longer funny.

Scots joke about English, the English joke about the Welsh, the French and Scots, the Irish joke about all of us :rolleyes: The French joke about the Belgians, the Americans joke about Mexicans…..it's the way of the world unfortunately.

M
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
That's a good point…..fun's fun, but when it cuts close it's no longer funny.

Scots joke about English, the English joke about the Welsh, the French and Scots, the Irish joke about all of us :rolleyes: The French joke about the Belgians, the Americans joke about Mexicans…..it's the way of the world unfortunately.

M


We make fun of our own too! http://youtu.be/hUFL2GT1-2g
 

Martti

Full Member
Mar 12, 2011
919
18
Finland
Swedes have no word for please.

Finnish also has no word for please, then again we have:

- 3 words for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris),
- 7 words for different kind of wetlands,
- A few dozen words for forms of frozen water (but no word for "snowing"!),
- etc.
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
78
Cornwall
Thank yous and an acknowledging wave from drivers is very very common in England and there is no sign that they are declining.
 

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