weird language
 

so... this topic is simply for the weird things in languages that dont seem so logical but we have them anyway. people could post this kind of stuff in any language...
for example...in latvian we use a lot of double negative to simply say a negative.
for example:
never do that again
(neg)....(pos)
nekad (never) tā vairs nedari (don't do)
(neg)............................(neg)
meaning is totally the same but in latvian sentence almost contradicts itself and for others it might seem weird :)

Same here! I think most languages use double-negative sentences. At least all Romance languages do.

In Catalan you would write:

No ho facis mai més.

Neg. Pos. Neg.

No = don't.

Mai més = ever again. Actually "mai" means "never". So the literal translation would be: never again. That makes two negatives.

Yeah, our old music teacher that has an Italian accent always goes "You don't do nothing, you get out!" To kids that don't do anything.

In Mandarin, there are stative verbs (verbs that describe the state the subject is in), meaning that the word for "to be" 是 (shì) is not used.
Eg. The weather is cold = 天气冷 (Tiānqi lĕng) (lit. "weather cold").

With Japanese, just translating what someone is saying is insufficient, because while the translation may be correct, you have to know what the speaker is implying ie. if a Japanese taxi driver tells you "It's difficult to get there in 10 minutes", he actually means it's impossible. And if you invite a Japanese to a party and they say, "I'll think about it later", they are really saying "no", albeit euphemistically. Japanese is not just another way of speaking; it's another way if thinking. Japanese people do not think the same way as other nationalities; it is crucial you learn about Japanese culture, social customs and etiquette when learning their language, and that's a problem even machine translations (eg. Google) can't get round; such artificial methods would need artificial intelligence to tell you what people are actually implying. I think this is the main difficulty for foreigners learning Japanese.

But you know your language first and English second shouldn't you find it weird how it is in English? (Not that I find it weird since if you are using another language you should think in that way)

'negative+positive' to state a negative.

as your example:


In my native language:

negative+negative


"Sakın" and "asla" used for never and "yapma" is negative form of "do" verb.

if I translate "never do that" literally "asla yap" now this sounds weird.

So I think this is not a strange thing. Every language has their own grammar rules.

Well
 

I didn't know that there was a language with double negative o.o

Well, in spanish there are many ways to say an adjetive to make it sound less harsh or formal like you could say for example: small= pequeño but to make it sound less fromal you can say: pequeñito
another example: ugly= feo or you can say feito

another one : fast= rápido or rapidito or rapidísimo

:)

Yeah, English can be very confusing at times. Although I still think it's not a tough language to learn. Pronunciation mainly. How the heck does one word get two different pronunciations?! (eg. either, direction). That's not a common thing you find in many languages, or is it?

Also, what's funny is that every verb demands an explicit subject, which has to have a specific gender even though it doesn't affect the rest of the words in the sentence [He is happy / She is happy . Happy stays the same]. In Catalan (and Spanish, and most languages that come from ancient Latin), a subject ain't always needed (cause you can tell who the subject is by how the verb is conjugated) but every single object or noun complement has a gender as well [Está contento / Está contenta; the O, in the first case, lets us know the subject is a HE, while the A; in the second case, makes it unnecesary for the subject to be there cause we know from that one letter it's feminine therefore SHE]. That's why it's funny when an English-speaking person has a go at speaking Spanish, they just never get that right with the genders. :mtongue:

English phrase: 'Long time no see'.

It defies all conventional grammatical rules.

(Okay, most, but still.)

May be ultimately derived from broken English, such as Native American Pidgin English or Chinese Pidgin English. Of particular note is the latter, as the Chinese phrase '好久不见' translates (almost) literally into 'Long time no see'.

LOL it so does!

This reminds me... it's funny when you're watching an English movie with subs, let's say German subs. The actor opens the fridge and says "No milk" and on the screen there's like two lines of German writing and it's like for God's sake all he said was "no freaking milk" xD This happens a lot and cracks me up for some reason I haven't figured out yet... >.> xD

This should be the translator(s) fault. :) You also can say: "there isn't any freaking milk in the fridge, though I thought there was"

Kein milch.-- in german
Nincs tej-- in my language

Errr no. I mean, yes okay, it has to do with the translation, but it is true that some languages have ways to say something with very few words (English is one of those), while in others you'd use a much longer sentence to express the same thing. There's a pretty funny scene in Lost In Translation that pretty much illustrates what I'm saying. Bill Murray goes to Japan to do a commercial. On set, during the filming, there's a Japanese translator there that translates to English everything the director says. And here's what proves my point: the director just chatters away in Japanese for the longest time, and Bill Murray is like "wow I must be doing very awfully cause he won't shut up..." and when he asks the translator what all he said, the translator just says "Do it again but more slowly" and Bill Murray's like "WTF?! Seriosuly, is that ALL he said? He talked much more than that! He must have said something else!"... see what I mean? Ummm it makes a lot more sense when you watch the scene, I tried but couldn't find it on youtube.

No, it is just ordinary slang, or lazy speech, for "It's been a long time since I(we) have seen you(each other)." It defies the grammatical rules because it is not technically a sentence, nor proper English. But it is very commonly used. So when written it is usually separated by a semicolon, or completely separated into the approximation of two independent sentences.

Yes, I know that film, and absolutely love it, one of the bests, but what I've said still stands:
Translated Suntory Scene
Translated dialog from the hilarious Suntory Time whiskey commercial scene from the film Lost in Translation.

Bob, who is in town to make a whiskey commercial, doesn't speak Japanese. His director (Yutaka Tadokoro), a histrionic Japanese hipster, doesn't speak English. In one scene, Bob goes on the set and tries to understand the director through a demure interpreter (Akiko Takeshita), who is either unable or (more likely) unwilling to translate everything the director is rattling on about.

Needless to say, Bob is lost. And without subtitles, so is the audience. Here, translated into English, is what the fulmination is really about.


DIRECTOR (in Japanese to the interpreter): The translation is very
important, O.K.? The translation.

INTERPRETER: Yes, of course. I understand.

DIRECTOR: Mr. Bob-san. You are sitting quietly in your study. And then
there is a bottle of Suntory whiskey on top of the table. You
understand, right? With wholehearted feeling, slowly, look at the
camera, tenderly, and as if you are meeting old friends, say the
words. As if you are Bogie in "Casablanca," saying, "Cheers to you
guys," Suntory time!

INTERPRETER: He wants you to turn, look in camera. O.K.?

BOB: That's all he said?

INTERPRETER: Yes, turn to camera.

BOB: Does he want me to, to turn from the right or turn from the left?

INTERPRETER (in very formal Japanese to the director): He has prepared
and is ready. And he wants to know, when the camera rolls, would you
prefer that he turn to the left, or would you prefer that he turn to
the right? And that is the kind of thing he would like to know, if you
don't mind.

DIRECTOR (very brusquely, and in much more colloquial Japanese):
Either way is fine. That kind of thing doesn't matter. We don't have
time, Bob-san, O.K.? You need to hurry. Raise the tension. Look at the
camera. Slowly, with passion. It's passion that we want. Do you
understand?

INTERPRETER (In English, to Bob): Right side. And, uh, with intensity.

BOB: Is that everything? It seemed like he said quite a bit more than
that.

DIRECTOR: What you are talking about is not just whiskey, you know. Do
you understand? It's like you are meeting old friends. Softly,
tenderly. Gently. Let your feelings boil up. Tension is important!
Don't forget.

INTERPRETER (in English, to Bob): Like an old friend, and into the camera.

BOB: O.K.

DIRECTOR: You understand? You love whiskey. It's Suntory time! O.K.?

BOB: O.K.

DIRECTOR: O.K.? O.K., let's roll. Start.

BOB: For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.

DIRECTOR: Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! (Then in a very male form of
Japanese, like a father speaking to a wayward child) Don't try to fool
me. Don't pretend you don't understand. Do you even understand what we
are trying to do? Suntory is very exclusive. The sound of the words is
important. It's an expensive drink. This is No. 1. Now do it again,
and you have to feel that this is exclusive. O.K.? This is not an
everyday whiskey you know.

INTERPRETER: Could you do it slower and ?

DIRECTOR: With more ecstatic emotion.

INTERPRETER: More intensity.

DIRECTOR (in English): Suntory time! Roll.

BOB: For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.

DIRECTOR: Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! God, I'm begging you.

Posted originally in NY Times

From :Lost in Translation Film Fans: Translated Director Suntory Scene

Your theory holds less water.

More resources here:
long time no see - WordReference Forums
LISTSERV 14.5
How informal is 'Long time no see'?

The general consensus is that it's derived from Pidgin English. The only thing that most people can't seem to agree from is whether it's Native American Pidgin English, or Chinese Pidgin English.

Writing "Long time no see" as "Long time; no see" is also decidedly uncommon.

Furthermore, "No see" is grammatically incorrect anyway (the correct form should be "Do not see" or "Doesn't see". Or "Haven't seen" in order to approximate the meaning closer.), unless you are referring to the Holy See. (which is a noun.)

You might find the following links to be interesting:
(Warning, links lead to TVTropes. I disavow all responsibility over any potential loss of time that you may incur should you start reading the other articles. You have been warned.)

Translation: Yes - Television Tropes & Idioms
Tactful Translation - Television Tropes & Idioms
Fun With Subtitles - Television Tropes & Idioms

Especially the last one as you seem familiar with the Pythons.

Jeez! Omg, you copied the whole thing from another page!!! You got me thinking you had actually managed to find that scene and had typed every word, translating the Japanese part and everything... and as I was reading I was feeling guilty for having you lose so much time over this thing! LOL thank God that's not how you got the transcription, I was really feeling very bad about it xDDD

Then using no+noun when wanting to indicate its absence is also wrong. Like, no hurry, no worries, no problem... Would you say these are grammatically incorrect as well?

Familiar with the Pythons? How'd you know that?!

Oh thanks for the links. I did take the time to check them out.

Sorry for made you feel bad, I didn't intend to do that, I just overreacted a bit... :)
Anyway I haven't found the scene either (I did wanted to find it for about five minutes), but this way is even better. You can actually see the difference between the director's speeches and the translated sentences--and that is all the translator's fault, still funny though.

No milk, (There is) no relation (whatsoever) , (There is) no problem (with), (It costs) no money...

You're welcome.

I read one of your posts.

It's cool! I had a fun time reading through the transcript. Plus, I'm studying to be a movie-writer, I love reading movie scripts :)

Well yeah, it is obvious that part of the sentence is being omitted. But the fact that you can say "No milk" and people around you know that what you mean to say is that there's no milk left is what's weird. Maybe not to an English-speaking person who's never known different, but for people who were raised in a different language this is kinda weird, cause no sentence means anything without a verb in it, and then you switch to English and you can make verbless sentences that should have a verb, but you leave it out and everyone still gets what you mean xD see what I mean?

in finnish we also drop out words like "miksi laihdutat?" is " why (are you) dieting?"
and in word you that is sinä we drop out the "in" from it and actually say only sä :D kind of funny but its a lot faster because we speak so slow :p

like cows O_O