6 ms·

A bit OT, but here is another, probably related concept: What is the literal meaning of "to understand" in your language? In at least 3 three languages that I

by prmph 8y ago

A bit OT, but here is another, probably related concept: What is the literal meaning of "to understand" in your language? In at least 3 three languages that I know (Twi & Ga, major languages in Ghana, and English), the literal meaning evokes the sense of standing or sitting under something. I wonder if it is the same in many other languages

bewo001 8y ago
'verstehen' in German. 'stehen' = to stand; perhaps not too surprising given the relationship between English and German, but interesting that it is the same in the African languages you mentioned. A counter example would be French (and some other Romance languages), se comprendre, which is derived from a Latin verb meaning 'to grasp'
- notahacker 8y ago
  Another counterexample common in Romance languages is entender, derived from a Latin word originally meaning "to stretch out" or "to focus/aim" and the origin of the English "intend".
blattimwind 8y ago
German: "verstehen" (an "odd" compound of ver+stehen, note that ver- doesn't really carry meaning by itself and only exists as a prefix), which could be understood as standing on/around(?) something. Then we have "begreifen" which is a fairly direct equivalent of "to grasp".
- ObscureScience 8y ago
  There alot of those "are they necessary?" prefixes around. But isn't "ver" the same as "for", which I imagine is the same as "pro" from latin. Meaning either "before" or "causing" or "facilitating" or similar.
  - Tor3 8y ago
    That is correct (causing or facilitating, in this case). The (I think most common) word for 'understand' in Japanese translates to something like 'it resolved for me'.
  - blattimwind 8y ago
    No, not really. It is used in many, many words, with no obvious intrinsic meaning of the prefix itself (and sometimes it's pretty much just redundant), although some clusters of meaning can be made out (often ver- signifies something negative or grave, for example). verstehen, vergehen (active), vergehen (passive), verdammen, verabreden, verfahren, verlaufen, verfestigen, verändern, verallgemeinern, veranschaulichen, veranlassen (ver+an+lassen), verlassen, verärgern, verarmen, verbiegen, verdrehen, ...
    - ascar 8y ago
      I can't explain it well, but I somewhat have the feeling that "ver" also mostly indicates an irrevocable change. All of the words you listed can be used as a status for current conditions. The best example is probably "versterben". It's hard to grasp, but I think "ver" has some subliminal meaning. The "ver" words feel different than their synonyms.
      - ascar 8y ago
        Out of curiosity I looked it up and Duden actually has a page on it [1]. It can be broken down to 8 different cases according to Duden and there is actually some logic behind it (though not the best and most consistent :D). [1] https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/ver_ https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/ver_
knowThySelfx 8y ago
In Malayalam its "manasilayo" - manas + aayo which means "did you understand?". Manas means mind in Sanskrit. Which forms the base of most Indian languages.
marcodave 8y ago
not my native language, but in hungarian "to understand" is "magyarázni", which literally means "to hungarianize", which I think is amazing :)
- danielbarla 8y ago
  "magyarázni" is actually to "explain", though it does seem to share a common root with Magyar, the word we use for our people. The word understand would be "érteni", and I'm not sure it has any interesting roots other than "ér" meaning vein or stream (potentially, did you get its meaning / source?) I too have wondered about the flavor and basic influence these kind of things must have on those who use the language. I suspect the effect is small, but there, although this particular example might be spurious.
  - ZoltanAK 8y ago
    There's "felfogni", which means "to understand" as well. Cf. English "to grasp" and German "auffassen". Confounder: the Hungarian word is quite likely to be a direct translation of the German version! > The word understand would be "érteni", and I'm not sure it has any interesting roots other than "ér" meaning vein or stream (potentially, did you get its meaning / source?) It's worth noting that "érint" (the verb "touch") appears to have the same root as "ért".
Geee 8y ago
In Finnish, 'ymmärtää' is an old word for 'to encircle', 'to encompass', 'to surround'.
anticensor 8y ago
In Turkish, it is "anlamak", which wordly means mind-ise, which resembles English word remind somehow.
sn41 8y ago
In Malayalam, (Indian, Dravidian language), the word (based on Sanskrit) is "Manassil aayo", which is literally "has it entered your mind"?
aceawan 8y ago
In french "comprendre", from "prendre" — to take and com, a latin root that means with, so litteraly, to take with/within you. An interesting thing to note is that "hypothesis" has almost the same litteral meaning as "understand". "hypo" means under/above and thesis means "to put, to place something" or "position"

by prmph 8y ago

bewo001 8y ago

'verstehen' in German. 'stehen' = to stand; perhaps not too surprising given the relationship between English and German, but interesting that it is the same in the African languages you mentioned. A counter example would be French (and some other Romance languages), se comprendre, which is derived from a Latin verb meaning 'to grasp'

notahacker 8y ago
Another counterexample common in Romance languages is entender, derived from a Latin word originally meaning "to stretch out" or "to focus/aim" and the origin of the English "intend".

blattimwind 8y ago

German: "verstehen" (an "odd" compound of ver+stehen, note that ver- doesn't really carry meaning by itself and only exists as a prefix), which could be understood as standing on/around(?) something. Then we have "begreifen" which is a fairly direct equivalent of "to grasp".

ObscureScience 8y ago
There alot of those "are they necessary?" prefixes around. But isn't "ver" the same as "for", which I imagine is the same as "pro" from latin. Meaning either "before" or "causing" or "facilitating" or similar.
- Tor3 8y ago
  That is correct (causing or facilitating, in this case). The (I think most common) word for 'understand' in Japanese translates to something like 'it resolved for me'.
- blattimwind 8y ago
  No, not really. It is used in many, many words, with no obvious intrinsic meaning of the prefix itself (and sometimes it's pretty much just redundant), although some clusters of meaning can be made out (often ver- signifies something negative or grave, for example). verstehen, vergehen (active), vergehen (passive), verdammen, verabreden, verfahren, verlaufen, verfestigen, verändern, verallgemeinern, veranschaulichen, veranlassen (ver+an+lassen), verlassen, verärgern, verarmen, verbiegen, verdrehen, ...
  - ascar 8y ago
    I can't explain it well, but I somewhat have the feeling that "ver" also mostly indicates an irrevocable change. All of the words you listed can be used as a status for current conditions. The best example is probably "versterben". It's hard to grasp, but I think "ver" has some subliminal meaning. The "ver" words feel different than their synonyms.
    - ascar 8y ago
      Out of curiosity I looked it up and Duden actually has a page on it [1]. It can be broken down to 8 different cases according to Duden and there is actually some logic behind it (though not the best and most consistent :D). [1] https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/ver_ https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/ver_

knowThySelfx 8y ago

In Malayalam its "manasilayo" - manas + aayo which means "did you understand?". Manas means mind in Sanskrit. Which forms the base of most Indian languages.

marcodave 8y ago

not my native language, but in hungarian "to understand" is "magyarázni", which literally means "to hungarianize", which I think is amazing :)

danielbarla 8y ago
"magyarázni" is actually to "explain", though it does seem to share a common root with Magyar, the word we use for our people. The word understand would be "érteni", and I'm not sure it has any interesting roots other than "ér" meaning vein or stream (potentially, did you get its meaning / source?) I too have wondered about the flavor and basic influence these kind of things must have on those who use the language. I suspect the effect is small, but there, although this particular example might be spurious.
- ZoltanAK 8y ago
  There's "felfogni", which means "to understand" as well. Cf. English "to grasp" and German "auffassen". Confounder: the Hungarian word is quite likely to be a direct translation of the German version! > The word understand would be "érteni", and I'm not sure it has any interesting roots other than "ér" meaning vein or stream (potentially, did you get its meaning / source?) It's worth noting that "érint" (the verb "touch") appears to have the same root as "ért".

Geee 8y ago

In Finnish, 'ymmärtää' is an old word for 'to encircle', 'to encompass', 'to surround'.

anticensor 8y ago

In Turkish, it is "anlamak", which wordly means mind-ise, which resembles English word remind somehow.

sn41 8y ago

In Malayalam, (Indian, Dravidian language), the word (based on Sanskrit) is "Manassil aayo", which is literally "has it entered your mind"?

aceawan 8y ago

In french "comprendre", from "prendre" — to take and com, a latin root that means with, so litteraly, to take with/within you. An interesting thing to note is that "hypothesis" has almost the same litteral meaning as "understand". "hypo" means under/above and thesis means "to put, to place something" or "position"