4 ms·

I always write e-mail too. Perhaps because in my native language the word "email" means "enamel" and it feels like it would be a strange thing to send somebody.

zestyping 4y ago
Exactly, I think of enamel as well.
InCityDreams 4y ago
So what are your words for 'mail', and 'electronic'? Shouldn't then 'e/mail', be literally translated to be the correct thing to send to somebody (in your language)?
- rdlw 4y ago
  Welcome to speaking about technology in a language other than English! I know that in Icelandic, the Icelandic Language Council is proactive about coming up with equivalents for new words, but even there English words tend to sneak in if they're not fast enough or if their alternatives aren't well liked. In Polish, you have mejl for email, and spam for spam. The problem is, people who are on the cutting edge of technology just tend to use the most popular name for it, in this case the English name. So by the time that anyone is thinking about what it should be called in their language, the English term already has some momentum and it can be hard to change. Of course, language always evolves—it's not like anyone's worried that English borrowed too many words from French. But it's a little strange to speak a language during such a great influx of foreign words. E: I don't know what language GP speaks, but Polish Wikipedia says (unsourced, so, y'know) that listel and el-poczta were proposed for Polish ('list' means letter and 'poczta' means mail), but they were ultimately unsuccessful.
  - kergonath 4y ago
    Slightly off-topic, but > Of course, language always evolves—it's not like anyone's worried that English borrowed too many words from French. I’ve known some (English) people who very much are and go out of their way to use Germanic roots instead. When they can, because it’s hard to avoid using ~a third of your language’s vocabulary. When they cannot, they pretend it’s Norman anyway.
    - rdlw 4y ago
      I once said that nobody can distinguish between Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Normans living in Britain today and that no one claims to be one rather than the other, to which an English woman in my class responded "well, except the Neo-Nazis". I guess there will always be someone, even 900 years after the fact :) (Just to clarify, I don't mean to imply those people you know are like that, just something that I'm reminded of.)
      - usrn 4y ago
        I can definitely tell them apart but I'm just to the left of the nazis.

zestyping 4y ago

Exactly, I think of enamel as well.

InCityDreams 4y ago

So what are your words for 'mail', and 'electronic'? Shouldn't then 'e/mail', be literally translated to be the correct thing to send to somebody (in your language)?

rdlw 4y ago
Welcome to speaking about technology in a language other than English! I know that in Icelandic, the Icelandic Language Council is proactive about coming up with equivalents for new words, but even there English words tend to sneak in if they're not fast enough or if their alternatives aren't well liked. In Polish, you have mejl for email, and spam for spam. The problem is, people who are on the cutting edge of technology just tend to use the most popular name for it, in this case the English name. So by the time that anyone is thinking about what it should be called in their language, the English term already has some momentum and it can be hard to change. Of course, language always evolves—it's not like anyone's worried that English borrowed too many words from French. But it's a little strange to speak a language during such a great influx of foreign words. E: I don't know what language GP speaks, but Polish Wikipedia says (unsourced, so, y'know) that listel and el-poczta were proposed for Polish ('list' means letter and 'poczta' means mail), but they were ultimately unsuccessful.
- kergonath 4y ago
  Slightly off-topic, but > Of course, language always evolves—it's not like anyone's worried that English borrowed too many words from French. I’ve known some (English) people who very much are and go out of their way to use Germanic roots instead. When they can, because it’s hard to avoid using ~a third of your language’s vocabulary. When they cannot, they pretend it’s Norman anyway.
  - rdlw 4y ago
    I once said that nobody can distinguish between Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Normans living in Britain today and that no one claims to be one rather than the other, to which an English woman in my class responded "well, except the Neo-Nazis". I guess there will always be someone, even 900 years after the fact :) (Just to clarify, I don't mean to imply those people you know are like that, just something that I'm reminded of.)
    - usrn 4y ago
      I can definitely tell them apart but I'm just to the left of the nazis.