Jared Diamond, in his book The Third Chimpanzee<\/U>, gave me my first introduction to the concept of the Proto-Indo-European language. Of course I encourage you to find, buy, and read that book or at least look up some articles online. Wikipedia has some good ones [citation needed]. The easiest short version of today’s theme is that there are some words that share common roots across multiple languages, like the numbers, words for certain animals, etc.<\/p>\n
Bat is not one of those words.<\/p>\n
I know you all have been dying to hear how my bat words adventure worked out. In case you have forgotten (read: I know you have forgotten) I found myself fascinated by the difference in the English word for bat (bat) and the Spanish word for bat (murci\u00c3\u00a9lago). These are obviously not the same. I began to wonder just how different the name was across multiple languages, so I started asking classmates and random students how to write bat in their language. This is the final list, submitted for your approval. I make NO CLAIMS to the accuracy of these translations. I’m pretty sure the Hungarian is right on as I had it confirmed by more than one person. The Turkish? That could say ‘dog trolley’ for all I know, I didn’t look it up. There may even be bad words down there, gasp. That was part of the fun of it, I suppose. This was not science, this was an excuse for social interaction with strangers.<\/p>\n
I only wish I could have gotten more. At least I got them from people that actually spoke these languages.<\/p>\n
murci\u00c3\u00a9lago – Spanish
\nfladdermus – Swedish
\nvleermuis – Dutch
\nchauvesouris – French
\nyarasa – Turkish
\ndenev\u00c3\u00a9r – Hungarian
\npipistrello – Italian
\nfledermaus – German
\nle\u00c4\u2018urblaka – Icelandic
\nnetop\u00c3\u00bdr – Czechoslovakian
\n\u00d0\u00bb\u00d0\u00b5\u00d1\u201a\u00d1\u0192\u00d1\u2021\u00d0\u00b0\u00d1\u008f \u00d0\u00bc\u00d1\u2039\u00d1\u02c6\u00d1\u0152 – Russian
\n[koumori] – Japanese
\nsiksp\u00c4\u0081rnis – Latvian<\/p>\n
Obviously Dutch, Swedish, and German have got some little thing going on. I think it’s a conspiracy. I also had many people confirm that the literal translation was ‘flying mouse’ which … you know, I’ve never looked at a bat and thought, “Oh, I see, a mouse with wings.” It’s a bit different than that in my mind.<\/p>\n
I think I’m going to stick with BAT.<\/p>\n
BAT!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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