Re: Roots of English language

From: Anti-imperialist (ai_at_anti-imperialist.net)
Date: 09/09/04 

Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 01:01:09 -0700

"M. Ranjit Mathews" wrote:
>
> Anti-imperialist <ai@anti-imperialist.net> wrote ...
> > Zim wrote:
>
> > > I think I recently read about the problems in translating Aramaic, the
> > > language Jebus and his disciples used.
>
> Disciples of Jebus would be Jebusites:-)
>
> > > It has the same problem I described in Spanish
> > > (if I was right), only a single word to describe the entire range from
> > > "bad" to "evil."
> >
> > No, I just found "malvado" which is equivalent to English "evil".
>
> What does vado mean?

Dunno, need a good Spanish dictionary for that one. I suspect it may be
cognate with English "malevolent". You may be interested that English
"evil" is related to Sanskrit "Upanishads" and "opal". Bizarre, huh?
You're Indian right?
>
> > "The apple has gone bad" (it is rotten) might wind up being
> > > translated as "Apples are evil" (as in the work of the devil himself).
> >
> > Spanish = "podrido" = bad as in rotten.
>
> The English cognate seems to be "putrid". Think so.....Related words "foul" "filth" "defile" "fog" "fuzzy" "potpourri" "pus". Language is fun huh?
>
> > Spanish is not so limited.
>
> How would one translate to Spanish:
> "The contingency, while remote, is nevertheless a possibility"?

My Spanish is bad. "La contingenicia sin embargo es un posibilidad
remota". It doesn't really translate directly. "The contingency
nevertheless is a remote possibility" is the only way it comes out. 

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