Question for multi-lingual people, or just language buffs out there

[happyninja42]

So I was just thinking about the English language, and how it has a relatively common habit of either:

1. Using words that are spelled the same way, but are pronounced differently, and have different meanings. (ex: Bow - To bend at the waist to another person as a sign of respect, or, A string weapon used to shoot people with, the front end of nautical ship)

2. Using words that sound the same, but are spelled differently, and equally have different meanings (Ex. Bow/Bough Bow - The stuff I said above, Bough - A tree branch)

And there are tons of other examples of this that spring to mind, and I was curious, I can't think of any language that I have had a passing knowledge of (couple years of Spanish, and a smattering of French, both of which I've since forgot) that had a similar habit in it's structure.

Now, I'm not talking about the effects of slang, as that can drastically change meanings, and that happens in English too, so that's fine. Like how balls can mean round objects you play with, or testicles. Similar in Spanish to how juevos can mean eggs or testicles (something I learned after the person stopped laughing, when i told them what my favorite "spanishy food" was, and I told them juevos rancheros was a dish I liked, and she laughed, telling me I basically said that I liked salsa on my balls.

But yeah, food related fetishes aside, are there any "official" usages of words in other languages that follow the two above rules I mentioned from English? Mostly just a curiosity, but it stems from when I occasionally hear people who have English as their primary language, scoffing at people trying to learn it, and say it's really hard to learn. And I think "well...yeah, come to think of it, a language that has the same word 2-4 times, but meaning different things, and you can only make sense of it in context would make it hard to learn."

So anyone have any insight on this? Any language that will use the same word for multiple things/pronunciations (or character for the Asian languages if you are knowledgeable) that really only come into clarification based on the context they are used in? Because I'm thinking this might be somewhat unique (and annoying) to the English language, but my knowledge base is significantly limited.

 

[Saelune]

Isnt that basically all of Mandarin (Chinese)? How you say it is as important as anything.

 

[Qizx]

German does have some similar words as well, Nacht (night), Nackt (naked), and Nach (after). Those are the 3 best ones I can come up with off the top of my head right now. Not entirely the same, but depending on your dialect they can be pronounced very similarly.

 

[Sonmi]

So I was just thinking about the English language, and how it has a relatively common habit of either:

1. Using words that are spelled the same way, but are pronounced differently, and have different meanings. (ex: Bow - To bend at the waist to another person as a sign of respect, or, A string weapon used to shoot people with, the front end of nautical ship)

2. Using words that sound the same, but are spelled differently, and equally have different meanings (Ex. Bow/Bough Bow - The stuff I said above, Bough - A tree branch)

And there are tons of other examples of this that spring to mind, and I was curious, I can't think of any language that I have had a passing knowledge of (couple years of Spanish, and a smattering of French, both of which I've since forgot) that had a similar habit in it's structure.

Homonyms and homophones especially are common in most languages, I imagine, it's not unique to English. For French alone, on the top of my head, you have Ver/Vers/Vert/Verre/Vair, all pronounced the same, all meaning something else. The confusion between Vair and Verre itself is said to have led to the interpretation of Cinderella wearing glass slippers, instead of vair (fur) slippers.

Now, I'm not talking about the effects of slang, as that can drastically change meanings, and that happens in English too, so that's fine. Like how balls can mean round objects you play with, or testicles. Similar in Spanish to how juevos can mean eggs or testicles (something I learned after the person stopped laughing, when i told them what my favorite "spanishy food" was, and I told them juevos rancheros was a dish I liked, and she laughed, telling me I basically said that I liked salsa on my balls.

Quick correction, but it's "huevos", and not "juevos".

 

[happyninja42]

Isnt that basically all of Mandarin (Chinese)? How you say it is as important as anything.

I don't know that's why I asked.

 

[StatusNil]

Technically, those things are called "homonyms". Words sounding the same are "homophones", and ones written the same are "homographs". In many instances, both terms apply.

While I'm not an expert, I believe they do occur in great many languages. Here's a list of ones in Hindi:

http://blogs.transparent.com/hindi/homonyms-in-hindi/

Oh, and Mandarin is a tonal language, so that the intonation itself carries distinctions in meaning. What speakers of non-tonal languages perceive as the same cluster of sounds means different things depending on whether the tone is, say, rising or falling.

The confusion between Vair and Verre itself is said to have led to the interpretation of Cinderella wearing glass slippers, instead of vair (fur) slippers.

I find things like this oddly fascinating. Is that weird?

 

[Saelune]

Isnt that basically all of Mandarin (Chinese)? How you say it is as important as anything.

I don't know that's why I asked.

I didnt really mean it as snide or anything. I just didnt want to sound sure of something I am not. Language fascinates me though. I think most languages are more similar than alot of people think. I remember trying to learn Japanese which, while more different to English than say Spanish, my teacher said many things did not really have an english equivalent in concept, but I dont think thats true. Its just not 1 for 1.

 

[Sonmi]

I find things like this oddly fascinating. Is that weird?

It's not weird, those widespread mistranslations/misinterpretations really are fascinating, though I oddly can't recall another at the moment, I'm pretty sure the Bible is rife with them.

Now that I think about it, the whole passage about the Camel going through the eye of a needle is somewhat similar. The Eye of the Needle was one of the entryways to Jerusalem (iirc) that was especially narrow, and which forced camels to crawl if they wanted to pass through, but it later got generally interpreted as the literal eye of a needle due to people forgetting what "the Eye of the Needle" was, a bit the same way most French speakers imagine Cinderella wearing glass slippers because "vair" isn't exactly commonly used anymore, it fell out of the popular vocabulary.

 

[Queen Michael]

Sweden's got tons of words like that.

The word "man" can either mean "male person" or "mane."

The word "gift" can mean either "poison" or "married." So the Doris Lessing book A Proper Marriage got the Swedish title Bra gift, which means both "Married Well" or "Good Poison."

Depending on intonation, the phrase "halsa pa" can mean either "visit" or "greet." (Diacritics not included because of forum issues.)

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

In finnish the pronounciation rarely plays such an important part, but the way the language is constructed can lead to the exact same sounds having vastly varying meanings.

One example is: Onkiva rovasti onki varovasti ja on kiva rovasti. You essentially repeat the same thing three times, except the spacing is different in each phrase, and changes the meaning accordingly: Onkiva rovasti = A fishing bishop. Onki varovasti = fished carefully. On kiva rovasti = is a nice bishop.

Another wonderful example is the phrase "kuusi palaa", which, depending on context, can have 9 different meanings despite being written in the exact same way.

Spoiler: As demonstrated here

 

[CaitSeith]

Oh, homophones and homonyms. So much fun... Here are some Spanish examples:

callo (shutting up myself / callus / shorthand for callosity)

torta (cake / traditional mexican sandwich / slap on the face)

haya (have / beech) / halla (find)

 

[Twinrehz]

Can't really tell how relevant it is, but the norwegian word for grip (grip in the sense that you're grabbing onto something or someone), and the word for roof (that is, the one on top of the house), is "tak". I learned that until the 16th century, those words were spelled and pronounced differently, but at that time they simply merged into one word with two meanings. It seems as they were relatively similar to begin with, they just simply got merged into the same word.

Fast forward to the 21st century, this situation arises again, although this time in a slightly more troubling manner; the sound that characterises the difference between to pronunciations is slowly being "phased out" (as for why, I don't know, it sounds fucking terrible if you ask me), which will end with the curious problem that the norwegian word for chain (kjede) (like the chain on a necklace, or indeed the word for a store chain) will become the same as the most common "medical" norwegian word for vagina (skjede). So when the process is all done for (estimated to take about a century), the word "butikkjede" can mean both a chain of stores, or a prostitute's vagina. I suppose the different spelling will remain for some time longer, since that seems to stick around for a lot longer.

Then there's a funny norwegian phrase: "er det det det er". Yes, the sentence is written like that, and "det" is repeated three times in a row. It translates to "is that what it is", only even more inane and boring than english, which uses a whopping 4 words, where the norwegian phrase settles with two. The word "det" is rather integral in norwegian grammar, and you get a buffalo buffalo buffalo-situation, if you're familiar with that bizarre phenomenon.

Well this has been a small journey in norwegian grammar, hope it was interesting to someone.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I speak Greek (native tongue) and Japanee, both of those have #1 and Greek has #2, Japanese doesn't really have spelling but you can literally transform what something means by adding more letters after it so it is kinda like that in that you have to memorize oodles of contextual readings.

Like, there's "fire", and then "flower", but if you write "flowerfire" that actually means fireworks and has nothing to do with the flowers that stems from a flame. Also the character for flame is two of the characters for fire, sized down and stacked up, or a forest is three tree characters. It has a lot of cutesy such elements making it fun to learn but at first it will take some getting used to.


Greek has this thing we call a tonos or tone, it's a line you put on the letter you read loudly in words, so like enErgy vs Energy, vs energY. There's lots of words which are spelled identically but have the tone on a different letter and they all mean different things, it is great for rhymes, puns and wordplay.

 

[BeeGeenie]

As the person who offered the Chinese example pointed out, this is a very common thing especially for inflected languages, and languages that have a limited number of phonemes to work with.

Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian, just to name a few.

Anyone who's watched a lot of subbed anime probably knows Japanese uses a lot of homophonic humor. They sometimes have to explain the joke so the translation makes sense. Heck, there's an anime named Bobobo-bo bo-bobo (never seen it, but it sprang to mind.)