Does your language say what it means ?

Sander   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 17:36 GMT
It has come to my atention that certain language have the custom to descrive what they say.Where as others don't.

An example:

A womb or Uterus,is called a "Baarmoeder" in Dutch,meaning "Birth Mother".

And Pubic hair is "Schaamhaar" ,Litt. Shame hair ,hair you should be ashamed of.


Does your language do this too?If so how often?
Mike Tyson   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 20:04 GMT
We hardly understand what you're talking about
Sander   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 20:09 GMT
Whose we?Who are you,never seen you before...
Mike Tyson   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 20:17 GMT
I will eat you
Sander   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 20:27 GMT
Shut up, Duw!
Kirk   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 21:12 GMT
<<It has come to my atention that certain language have the custom to descrive what they say.Where as others don't. >>

Well you can inform your source of information that it's incorrect. It'd be ridiculous to claim some lanaguages don't express exactly what they mean. There may be different ways of going about that, but they all end up describing what they mean just perfectly. For example, just because the Korean word for "fish" literally means "water-meat" doesn't mean other languages whose word for "fish" isn't as superficially transparent don't express the concept just as well. Same for any other example in any language.
Frances   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 23:39 GMT
yes, Macedonian and Serbian have quite a few, but none are coming to mind. Recnik (c = ch) is dictionary and rec (c=ch) is a word, but that is like Dictionary and Diction. Then there are words that use "po", like "Pomerania". "Po" kind of means "with" or "over" or "after". "More" means "sea", so "Pomerania" means "following the sea", and as we know its on the coast. Another is the Serbian "podne" which is midday, and "dne" is day, so "podne" is kind of "with the day" or "after the day". There is also "popopodne" - "after after day" which 'afternoon".

Also "public hair" is called "sramen", which means "shameful" and "uterus" is "matka", kind of sounds like "mother" (majka).

There is many other examples but I have to think about them.

Russian - "samovar" - "self -cook"
Frances   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 23:49 GMT
Another ex. I can give you : I am WOG , and in Australia a WOG is a (white oriental gentlemen)
nico   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 23:50 GMT
You're a "wog" Frances ? Didn't know that :(
frances   Monday, June 13, 2005, 00:05 GMT
"Another ex. I can give you : I am WOG , and in Australia a WOG is a (white oriental gentlemen)"

Thanks for using my name, Troll.