Vocabulary

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

 
Lauren, UK: “In the UK, we say orange.”
Svea, Germany: “In German, we say oranja.”
Draga, Serbia: “In Serbian, we say … aranja.”
Sophia, Georgia: “In Georgia, we say “portakale”.
Lauren, UK: “Sorry?”

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

“No, no.”
Svea, Germany: “Yes, it depends on what type of word it is. If it looks like a newer word that comes from English, then we maybe have similar words.”
Anna, Poland: “I think the most common similarities I, as a Polish person, will have are with German and French.”
Draga, Serbia, “I would think the two of us, because we’re both Slavic.”
Sophia, Georgia: “And we also have a lot of Slavic words in Georgian.”

Svea, Germany: “Isn’t Hungarian a standalone language? So there’s not gonna be much similarity. I’m actually very excited for this.”
Saba, Hungary: “Yeah, I always love to hear the words, and I’m like, ‘Aha, we have a good one for this’.”
Draga, Serbia: “I’m curious to hear your words.”

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

Flower

So, in the UK, we say flower.
In Germany, we say bluma
In Serbia, we say tsveta or tsvet.
In Poland, we say kwiat or kwietusek sometimes also, which is like universal.

In Georgia we say kvaheli.
Lauren, UK: “Why are you laughing? It’s so cute.”
Sophia, Georgia, “Because a lot of languages, like I think Arabic, don’t have ‘ge’ sounds. So, it’s always like when people hear it, they’re like, ‘what’? Yeah.”

In Hungary, we say virag.
In French, we say fleur.
In Sweden, we say bluma.
Lauren, UK: “Oh, similar (to German).

But overall, they’re all very different. I can’t really remember. It’s like Swedish and German sound similar, and it kind of sounds like bloom to me in English. Like, is it spelled with an F or a B?”
Svea, Germany: “B?”
Lauren, UK: “Okay, so it’s similar to bloom then.”
Svea, Germany: “Yeah, it’s the same like Swedish.”

Ana, Poland: “But actually ours are similar to Serbian, a little bit, I would understand.”
Lauren, UK: “Okay.”
Sophia, Georgia: “It sounds so different.”
Ana, Poland: “It sounds really sounds similar.”
Draga, Serbia: “How do you write it, though?”
Ana, Poland: “We would pronounce it as “chi,” but we use the Polish letter ‘c’.
But for ‘c’ sounds we’re writing that with ‘k’.”
 

Elevator

Lauren, UK: “In the UK, we would say ‘lift’.”
In German, we say aufzug.
In Serbian, we say ‘lift’.
In Poland, we would say ‘winda’.
In Georgian, we say ‘lifti’.
In Hungary, we either say ‘lift’ or ‘falvano’.”
Ana, Poland: “It sounds like food.”
Saba, Hungary: “You don’t want to eat it.”
In French, we say ‘asansor’.”
In Sweden, we say ‘hiss’.”
Lauren, UK: “Hiss? Well, some people said lift in a very cute way, like more of an “e” sound, right? And then French just is like ascend, ascending thing. It literally means like ‘to lift’.”
Ana, Poland: “But the French one sounded like a whole sentence.”

Lauren, UK: “Okay, so you will use lift. Would you never say like ‘elevator’?”
Saba, Hungary: “But if I go somewhere, I understand elevator more than lift.”
Megan, France: “Because it’s the same, elevates, so with the French term.”
Ana, Poland: “In Poland, we would use elevator, but it depends.”
 

Yellow

So, in the UK, we would say ‘yellow’.
In German, we say gelb.
In Serbian, we say zhuta.
Oh! In Poland, we would say zolt.
Ohhh. In Georgia, we say khiteli. yeah, in Georgian, it’s the most difficult.”
In Hungary, we say sarga.
In French, we say jeune. Yeah, that similar to Slavic.
In Sweden, we say gulb
Lauren, UK: “Wait, isn’t that similar to you (German)? Oh, very similar, interesting.”
 

Rabbit

In the UK, we say rabbit.
In Germany, we say two different words for the cute one, haza, and for the wild one, it is kantin.
In Serbian, we say zets; for the cute one, zeka.
And in Poland, if it’s like the wild rabbit, it’s zions, and if it’s the cute one, it’s krulik or krulikcek.
In Georgian, we only have one word for it; it’s gurhen.

Ana, Poland: “Yeah, yeah, a little bit actually, yours is more similar. But the white one.”
Sophia, Georgia: “I kind of thought like. When you said yours it’s similar, compared to Polish.”

In Hungary, we also say two different, but it’s kind of like rabbit and bunny, so a simple rabbit would be mul. And the cute version would be nusi. It also means ‘reach for something’.”

In French for the wild one, we say yelk, and then for the domestic one, we say lapop.
In Sweden, for the pets, bunny, we say kanin, and then for the wild one, we would say haare.”
Lauren, UK: “Oh, I wanted to say that we also say hare for the wild one, which is really similar to the Swedish for the wild one.

 

Chair

In the UK, we say ‘chair’.
In German, we say schtul.
In Serbian, we say stolitsa.
In Poland, we say ceswa.
In Georgian, we say skam.
In Hungary, we say steik.
Well, in French, we say chez.
In Sweden, we say schtool.

Ana, Poland: “Fun fact: in Poland, stol means like table.”
Lauren, UK: “Stool is like what you’re sitting on. It’s more of a stool to me.”
Ana, Poland: “That’s a chair.”
Lauren, UK: “Yeah, but like a stool doesn’t usually have like a back.”
Ana, Poland: “So in our languages, it’s just like table, stool.”
Draga, Serbia: “Or, serving stool.”
Lauren, UK: “That could be confusing. It was similar . . . Can you repeat yours together?”
 

Orange

In the UK, we say ‘orange’.
In German, we say oranje.
In Serbian, we say naranja.
In Poland, we say pomaraica but I’m not sure if it’s fully correct because some people say just pomaraic, but I think it should be pomarainca.
In Georgia, we say portakale.

Svea, Germany: “In Albanian, it’s also called portokali. The color is portacali, but the orange fruit is portacal.”
Saba, Hungary: “Funnily, I heard a similar word.”
Svea, Germany: “Yeah, oh, I mean, it’s like Spanish.”
Saba, Hungary: “But the color is actually the same. We just say narange, which I said previously, like orange-yellow.”

Megan, France: “Now in French, we say orange, for both the fruit and the color.”
In Sweden, we say apasin.
Lauren, UK: “Oh, very different.”
Svea, Germany: “Is it like apricot?”
Cajsa, Sweden: “No.”
Lauren, UK: “What about the color? What about the color orange?”
Cajsa, Sweden: “We say ‘oranj’.”

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

Sophia, Georgia: “It was fun. Yeah, it’s always fun to compare the languages because he catches similarities and differences. Especially for me as a Georgian person, I mean, it’s never similar, but today, I got one for you, actually. So it was very hilarious.”

Saba, Hungary: “I actually could do this for hours and just come up with the most random stuff.”

Svea, Germany: “This should be like a party game for foreigners, like let’s find common words.”

Draga, Serbia: “German and Swedish people would drink the most shots.”

Svea, Germany: “And Georgia would be like, guys, I want to drink too.”

Saba, Hungary: “And that would be the sober driver.”

Draga, Serbia: “We’ll [to Ana from Poland] be the closer.” Y

Ana, Poland: “eah, but no, the funniest thing for me was the stool part. It’s a different meaning in Polish.”

Sophia, Georgia: “If you like the video, please like, subscribe, leave comments.”

Megan, France: “And we will see you again soon. Bye. Thank you.”

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

 

 

Questions

 

Bloom, Petal, Stem, Roots. All the languages of Europe are a) closely related to one another, b) somewhat related, c) distantly related, d) not related at all e) It depends. It varies. Some are, others aren’t.

Pink, Purple, Aqua. Do all languages in Europe belong to the Indo-European language family?

Citrus, Lime, Tangerine. Were there any similarities and differences in how Europeans say, “flower”? What can you say about the word “bloom”?

Elevator, Escalator. What can you say about the words lift, elevate, and ascend?

Gold, Silver, Beige, Tan. Did you notice or catch anything regarding the English word “yellow”?

Mole, Squirrel, Groundhog. Is there only one term for “rabbit”?

Cupboard, Bookcase, Shelf. What’s the difference between a “stool” and a “chair”?

Drawers, Dresser. The word “orange” has only one meaning. Is this right or wrong?

Violet, Dandelion, Heather. What conclusions could be drawn from the session?
 
 
 
Closet, Wardrobe. Could you recognize some or many of these words?

Deer, Moose, Reindeer. Do you notice any relationships between your language and other languages?

Floor, Ceiling, Walls. Has your language borrowed words from other languages? Do other languages have loan words from your language?

Zucchini, Cauliflower, Squash. What might happen in the future?

Leeks, Parsley, Dill, Chives. What could or should people, governments and lexicologist, etymologists, and semanticists do?