Seven samurai probably contributed strongly to keeping that word safe, but I see “samurais” a lot too.
Successive tsunami is definitely a thing. I see “tsunamis” and “tsunami waves” (overflowing wave waves) being used there.
4 Likes
This is something my Italian language tutor would regularly rant about. Apparently she’d made a remark about only being served one panino in some shop and got a confused look from the server. 
2 Likes
If she was in Italy, she had a point!
If not, I’m afraid she needed to realise that languages are living things, they borrow words from other languages, and then the original language ‘rules’ no longer apply!
4 Likes
“Chai tea? Chai means tea! Did you want some milk milk in your coffee coffee?!”
I’m reading Babel by RF Kuang, in which she explains the origins of the word “Typhoon”. Apparently, an ancient Greek deity (Typhon) which was a multiheaded wind-serpent that Portuguese sailors brought to China, which the Chinese then borrowed for "tai fuin*, literally “Very-Big Wind”.
But the protagonist is then confused (as am I!) because the Chinese already had words for big and wind which sounded shockingly alike… so which egg came before which chicken?
Languages. Whacky.
Also, “handiron” doesn’t come from the words hand or iron, but the French “andire”? I’m misremembering that factoid slightly.
3 Likes
I think there are quite a few words like that in English - borrowed from other languages but then ‘translated’ into English words that closely match the sound of the original word.
In ‘foreign’ words that don’t end up having an S on the end to mean plural, I always think it is because there is an implied unspoken noun and the word is being used as an adjective to that noun. So when we say Samurai or Lego without an s it is because there is an unspoken noun, warriors and bricks respectively, that gets the plural. I think that makes sense.
3 Likes
Samurai warriors, just like ninja spies.
3 Likes
Exactly. Because linguistically, we don’t really know what Samurai means so we use it as an adjective.
1 Like
I’ve always used (and understood) ‘lego’ in the same way as ‘money’ - so you can have some lego but not ‘a lego,’ and it can’t pluralise because it’s already collective.
So - ‘that lego’ or ‘that money’ works, but ‘those lego’ or ‘those money’ doesn’t work at all.
That’s why ‘legos’ sounds so wrong (to me - clearly there are plenty of people around to whom it sounds fine, so for them the word ‘lego’ must function differently).
4 Likes
I think we may have derailed this thread somewhat…
2 Likes
Indeed. And apologies if anyone has found it exasperating.
(It’s one of the biggest drawbacks of forums that there have to be threads for topics, and things can’t really be allowed to wander all over the place like actual conversations do. Of course I can see how unwieldy and chaotic it would be if there was just one thread for everything, but still - it’s a shame!)
1 Like
This is one of the things Usenet got right. Threading using multiple references makes it easy to track the digressions, and ignore the subthreads that you don’t care about. (And even write kill file rules to do it automatically).
1 Like
I am firmly in the plural of Lego is legos camp. And when I step on a plastic thing in the middle of the night, it’s a Lego not a “Lego brand plastic brick”. Even if it’s not made by Lego….
3 Likes
That’s a piece of effing lego as in “who left this piece of effing lego lying around?”
4 Likes
Tindahan simply means a shop of any type - not necessarily a fruit shop. So they got that one right w Filipino fruit market.
But the publisher got Bastos wrong. I cant confirm that the Tagalogs dont use it this way, but the publisher’s factoid is just incorrect - that it is a swear word. Bastos is the word to use if you want to use the words pervert or rude.
1 Like
Or the clubs suit on the Spanish cards…
It’s funny, because I conceive a tsunami as a geological event that generates giant waves (either from earthquake or landslide) but the meaning (correct me if I am wrong) is just giant wave, isn’t it?
With regards to the tai fun / typhoon resemblance, I need to look it up, but there are words in Euskera (the Basque Country regional language) that are completely similar to Chinese and Japanese words. Keeping in mind that Euskera is a pre-Roman language, and not of Indo-European origin (possibly the oldest surviving language in Europe, some experts say) I wonder if the roots of the words have survived that long the length of two continents (1.5 of that being Asia) apart.
On the other hand, Basque and Galician fishermen have gone all over the globe on their fishing trips for centuries 
2 Likes
Earthquakes cause tsunami, which are big waves, yes.
Taifuu is literally “big wind” in Japanese, so I find it hard to believe it’s a word integrated from another language with kanji picked to fit - examples of those tend to just match the phonetics, not the meaning too.
2 Likes
Weirder things have happened. “female” and “male” have different etymological roots.
1 Like
Thinking about Japanese, it has always made me wonder how they developed Arigato (thanks) from the Portuguese Obrigado (Thanks) after they were the first Europeans to trade with them. Do we know if they had no way of saying Thanks before contacting the European traders/missionaries?
I know Romans did not have a few figures of speech that we have today, like “I’m sorry”, so I wonder it that is the case with Japanese pre 1500s
2 Likes
Apparently that wasn’t the origin of arigatou though, just a coincidence.
“Arigatai” is found in very old texts, for example.
3 Likes