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I can confirm as a native Greek speaker we use Chinese for the same expression. Based on the linked scale it is more accurate to say Japanese instead.
by kyriakos 7y ago
I can confirm as a native Greek speaker we use Chinese for the same expression.
Based on the linked scale it is more accurate to say Japanese instead.
- paganel 7y agoAm Romanian, we also use Chinese for the same expression. That is most of the times, we also use Turkish, as in: “What it is so hard to understand? Am I speaking Turkish to you?”
- pibi 7y agoItalian here, we use Arab for pretty the same sentence. That's because we are still studying Greek and Latin on some public school.
- knocte 7y agoSpanish here, we use Chinese.
- smcl 7y agoYou’re gonna like this - in Czech it’s “je to pro mě španělské vesnice” meaning “it’s a Spanish village to me”
- youeseh 7y agoAm American. We use alien.
- klez 7y agoI wouldn't say that a language studied by a minority of students (those in liceo classico) is the reason we use "Arab" as the incomprehensible language shorthand. Especially when you consider that the Greek studied in liceo is not the Greek spoken in Greece today.
- coldtea 7y ago>I wouldn't say that a language studied by a minority of students (those in liceo classico) is the reason we use "Arab" as the incomprehensible language shorthand. A minority today, but one would assume (as in the case in e.g. German and France) more (of students) in the past 50-100-200 years when the phrase was established.
- posterboy 7y agoThdre's the connotation of respect if not awe for the language, whereas this idiom is pejorative. The implication of the idiom is not "what, am I talking too educated?", quite the opposite (the connotation is not "stupid" either, just "way foreign")
- carlob 7y agoCame here to say this, but I'm just going to correct you: Arabic is the language, Arab the people. :)
- pibi 7y agoAh ah, good call
- jaclaz 7y agoYes and no (meaning that we strangely use both Arabic and Turkish in different situations). If you don't understand, you would say "Mi sembra arabo" (it seems arabic to me) but if you are talking and the other part doesn't understand it is more common "E che parlo, turco?" (what am I speaking, turkish?) than "E che parlo, arabo?" (what am I speaking, arabic?) at least in my experience. Of course historically "turk" and "arab" were synonyms due to the fall of of Constantinople and the "contacts" with the Ottoman Empire. And now, risking to quote myself, evidence of the sentence (by a greek) "it's English to me": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20484479#20485258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20484479#20485258
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- pmontra 7y agoI never heard this Turkish expression, only the Arabic one. I always lived in the Milan area. Where is it used? "E che" sounds central Italy.
- jaclaz 7y agoSure, the "E che" form is tuscany and central Italy (as often happens considered archaic by someone), the "parlo turco" is italian alright: http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ricerca/Parlare-turco/ http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ricerca/Parlare-turco/ A more "neutral" Italian would be "Parlo forse turco?". Curiously, it is a sentence used in literature by Andrea Camilleri which should mean that the form is also in use in Sicily. JFYI ;-) Mario Vigorone [1980]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yANFI1bs9c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yANFI1bs9c
- pibi 7y agoAlso the "parlo arabo?" is listed on treccani: http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/arabo http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/arabo BTW, I agree with the other comment that this is more common in the north.
- Svip 7y agoIn Danish, we say Volapük (well volapyk in Danish). So nice of us to give an artificial language some exposure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volap%C3%BCk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volap%C3%BCk
- 6thaccount2 7y agoHaha...the less successful forerunner to Esperanto (which I've been having a blast with on Duolingo).
- jobigoud 7y agoIn French we also use Chinese for the same expression. When someone makes mistakes in English we say they speak English like a Spanish cow.
- artsyca 7y agoYou beat me to it μεγάλε (big guy), first word out of my mouth was κινέζικα (Chinese) -- in fact we use the term 'Κινέζος' (Chinese) as somewhat of an unknown unknown so to speak -- it's the same with the origin of the word for turkey (the bird) every culture seems to have a different locale in mind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)#History_and_naming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)#History_and_nami...) As for learning Japanese, believe me, it's nothing compared to Greek -- there are not as many tenses, nor genders, nor verb conjugations I'd suggest it's very similar to Hebrew which itself is rather similar to Greek in many ways
- coldtea 7y agoPhonetically (for Europeans) and from a grammar/alphabet/etc standpoint Japanese are easier than Chinese.