Any Multilingiuals/Polygots/Languagephiles?

[GrowingOut]

I know many of us are from around the world, but I'm wondering, how many languages does LHC know?

And a way to make it fun, how do you say hair in your respective language?

I speak Spanish and Norwegian, so in Spanish we have Pelo. Norwegian, hår.

Let's see how many ways we can say hair!

[chen bao jun]

French - cheveux
Chinese toufa
Russian volos

I'm just studying russian, don't speak it yet

[hafattack]

Studying German! Das Haar

[Yozhik]

Uzbek - soch
(uzun sochli = long hair)

And a small correction to the Russian - volosy (it's referred to in the plural), or волосы.

[chen bao jun]

spasibo, Yozhik!
Thanks. I don't have cyrillic on my computer.
how would you say 'long hair?"

[Ligeia_13]

Just English and Greek for me. Μαλλιά (malia)



Chinese toufa

You're kidding! That in Greek means a chunk of hair, how cool!

[Shepherdess]

I have been trying to learn Hebrew for a few years.
שערות = hair (plural). I'm not sure if I pronounce it right though ("searot" I think is how it's pronounced, I'll have to look it up again).

Then I learned medical terminology (which is based off of Latin and Greek word parts) and trich/o = hair (if that counts anyway). :)

[Yozhik]

Wow - this thread is teaching me a lot! What a great idea, OP. :flowers:


spasibo, Yozhik!
Thanks. I don't have cyrillic on my computer.
how would you say 'long hair?"

Pozhaluisto, Chen bao jun. :)
'Long hair' in Russian is длинные волосы (dlinnyie volosy).

[missfaroe]

Faroese: hár

Danish: hår

[DinaAG]

arabic and english

[bekstamonkey]

"Se-ahhr-ROTE" is the pronunciation for the Hebrew...and folk have already given the Greek and German. That's mine all done LOL :)

[JamieLeigh]

English is my primary language, but I studied Spanish in high school and French in college. I have a good friend who is from Austria and thinks she cannot speak English well (although she can! lol), so I learned a good deal of German to communicate with her without having to use Google translate. :p

Everyone's already said "hair" in all of these.

[lunalocks]

Tinwele is hair in Siswati, so my DH says.

[Kyaatje]

Dutch : haar
Italian : pelinni (if I remember correctly that is, just learned a few words when we were visiting)
French, Spanish and English were mentioned already

[lundmir]

I speak english, italian, french, and my mother language is spanish.

[gossamer]

Taiwanese - tau-meng
Japanese - kami

I used to know it in Cantonese as well, thanks to my hairdresser from Hong Kong, but I've forgotten it. :(

[NoRush]

Dutch : haar
Italian : pelinni (if I remember correctly that is, just learned a few words when we were visiting)
French, Spanish and English were mentioned already

Note on the italian, hair is "capelli" :) I also speak spanish and english

[gossamer]

French - cheveux
Chinese toufa
Russian volos

I'm just studying russian, don't speak it yet

妳好! (Ni hao means "hello" in Mandarin Chinese, LHC friends)

[RedJen]

I can read and understand Italian-- capelli rossi (you know, specific to me, red)-- and speak a little
I can also read German (daily, conversational)
I love languages. It is a life goal to become fluent in Italian and French, re-learn Greek (I was fluent as a small child), and be able to speak German, Arabic, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish.

[Alun]

English speaker, studied French for 5 years and German for 3 years in school, plus a further year of each in evening classes.

I know little bits and pieces of many other languages.

[Neneka]

I speak Finnish and English (and so little Swedish that it's really not worth mentioning). In Finnish hair is hiukset or tukka. :)

[PolarCathy]

Haj - Hungarian
Hår - Swedish (=Danish/Norwegian - same word)
Cabelo - Portuguese


I know many of us are from around the world, but I'm wondering, how many languages does LHC know?

I'm native Hungarian. I can speak Spanish/Catalan (well, I forgot most of it but I could...), understand Italian and Portuguese, and understand Danish/Norwegian/Swedish, but speak very little (shy, and I'd mix them up anyway). Also studied German in school but I had really horrible teachers so I got nowhere with it. I can read most of it but I can't say a thing.

ETA: It would be "cabell" in Catalan.

[Rosetta]

I'm native Finnish speaker, fluent in English (having also used it as language of daily communication for years), more or less fluent in Swedish, and other languages I've learnt in various degrees in the course of my life include French, German, Russian, Czech, Polish, and know some basics of Spanish, and a little bit of Portuguese and Italian. And I can understand quite a lot of Estonian due to it being closely related to Finnish.

I think "hair" in all those languages has already been mentioned here, except:
Czech - vlasy
Polish - włosy
Estonian - juuksed

[Kyaatje]

Note on the italian, hair is "capelli" :) I also speak spanish and english

Right ! I need to remember that I always mix what I remember from Spanish and Italian ! (Pello+ capelli = pellini in my head LOL)

[missfaroe]

Polarcathy: haj in Danish means shark :)

[MissAlida]

My native language is hungarian, but I see it has already been mentioned. Apart from that, I speak fluent romanian. And english of course. I understand german, spanish and a little italian but I can't speak them.

Romanian- păr

[MissAlida]

missfaroe That's interesting. :D (I'm a hungarian )

[PolarCathy]

Tak! Had no idea. Not a typical part of everyday conversations. : ))


Polarcathy: haj in Danish means shark :)

[dollyfish]

I took German in school, but someone already contributed that (Haar... ha)

Guess I'll contribute a bilingual language joke? My family is Swedish and my grandfather went to Harvard, so for his 80th birthday his younger brother gave him a custom-made shirt with the Harvard logo topped by a little toupée with the slogan "Harvard Hårvård" ("Harvard haircare") :lol:

[miss_asimov]

Bilingual German and English here! :) Haare, of course ^^

[Yozhik]

I took German in school, but someone already contributed that (Haar... ha)

Guess I'll contribute a bilingual language joke? My family is Swedish and my grandfather went to Harvard, so for his 80th birthday his younger brother gave him a custom-made shirt with the Harvard logo topped by a little toupée with the slogan "Harvard Hårvård" ("Harvard haircare") :lol:

Dollyfish, that's so cute!
Too bad that shirt was custom-made -- I'd totally buy it if it weren't. :p

[chen bao jun]

妳好! (Ni hao means "hello" in Mandarin Chinese, LHC friends)

hen hao.
ni shi zhongguo ren ma?
xin nian yukuai

trans for LHC friends
Im fine. Are you chinese? Happy New Year!
I'm not chinese but fluent--been studying for over thirty years.

[gossamer]

hen hao.
ni shi zhongguo ren ma?
xin nian yukuai

trans for LHC friends
Im fine. Are you chinese? Happy New Year!
I'm not chinese but fluent--been studying for over thirty years.

Wo bushi zhongguo ren. Keshi wo keyi suan shi Taioan ren ba. Ni de zhongwen jiang de hen hao! :D

trans: I'm not Chinese. However, I can probably count as Taiwanese. Your Chinese is great!

[arc691]

I speak Chuukese, which is a Pacific Island language. (Chuuk is an island nation and part of the Federated States of Micronesia.)

Chuukese for hair is "makur" or "mokur" and the word changes depending on whose hair. "Mokurei" - my hair, "Mokurom" - your hair, "Mokurach" - our hair, "Mokuremi" - your hair (plural), etc.

The word for hair and head is actually the same word, so to distinguish between them you can add "meten" and say "meten mokurei" "meten mokurom" etc.

To count hair(s) you say, "emet meten mokur" - one hair, etc. But when you count other things you use different words entirely. Like "efoch" - something long, "emon" - something alive like a person or animal, "efou" - something round, "epa" - a flower, "eche" - a leaf or something flat, etc.

Chuukese is a funny language!

[RedheadMistress]

- Farsi: Mooh
Swedish: Hår

[Majala]

In my language (Slovenian) it's "lasje", in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian it's "kosa"; I also speak German, a little Japanese and very little Franch, but those were mentioned already.

[Mischamiu]

Arabic الشعر
French cheveux
Spanish pelo
French cheveux
:)

[Yozhik]

In my language (Slovenian) it's "lasje", in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian it's "kosa"; I also speak German, a little Japanese and very little Franch, but those were mentioned already.

Very interesting, especially with Serbo-Croatian/Bosnian - kosa in Russian is braid. Too bad there isn't a linguist here to explain the connection. :)

[Atlantic]

I'll add Welsh: gwallt.

[missketi]

Very interesting, especially with Serbo-Croatian/Bosnian - kosa in Russian is braid. Too bad there isn't a linguist here to explain the connection. :)

Didn't know that. It is interesting that kosa means braid in Russian. Well, I know Croatian, English and some Spanish. But that's already been said.

[AnnaB]

English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Ukrainian and Russian are very similar. Here it is anyway.

Ukrainian- волосся (volosya)

[Agnieszka]

włosy in Polish :-)

[lapushka]

I read & write 5 languages, well 4 and a bit, actually (Dutch, English, German, French, and a bit of Spanish). My Spanish isn't that great (basic knowledge). All terms for hair have already been mentioned.

[arelrios]

Spanish is my primary language.I studied English for 4 years (college level) when I moved to the US 7 years ago. Right now I am on level 4 Brazilian Portuguese (college level)
I love languages. I hope once I can speak/read/write Portuguese, I can start Italian :D

[Vanille_]

I am so envious of you guys! I learned French in high school and got pretty far. I'm sad I didn't keep up with it. Anyways, the idea of polygots is very new to me but it has rekindled my interest in languages. I thought it was too late for me, but after reading so many experiences from adults learning multiple languages, I'm determined to be one of them! Right now I am learning Spanish with my husband. We are relying solely on online stuff, but I found a really good website. Once we get even a little bit conversational, I plan on using those sites where you can meet people on skype who want to practice your language and you can practice theirs.

Spanish wasn't my idea, it was DH's. What I really wanted to do was reactivate my French. So I am doing both. I'm spending most of my time on Spanish, but I'm brushing up on my French on the side.

[Remyy]

I love studying languages! I'm on the precipice of proficiency in Italian (capelli lunghi=long hair) but I still have a few tenses to perfect. I can also read and write in Russian, but I can speak only on a basic level. I'm dedicated to learning it though!

Once I'm proficient in Italian (my goal for 2013) I'll start on a new language. Probably Dutch or French.

[Alun]

I'll add Welsh: gwallt.

Irish: gruaig

[jel]

Ukrainian and Russian are very similar. Here it is anyway.

Ukrainian- волосся (volosya)


włosy in Polish :-)

Another Slavonic linguistic similarity: in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, a single hair is vlas

But, as already mentioned, hair is kosa, and long hair - duga kosa

[Amelia]

I'm a (European) Portuguese native speaker. But i also master English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.
I can sometimes understand Dutch and Swedish, but it's just one or two words :P
'Cabelo comprido' is 'long hair' in Portuguese. :)

[flip-flop]

English is my first language, and I speak Chinese reasonably well. I also studied French and Russian. I can still read in French, but probably not speak it, and the Russian is all but gone.

Hair in all of these languages has already been mentioned, but I have a question: hair on the head in Chinese 頭髮toufa is differentiated from body hair 毛mao (which is also the word used for animal fur) whereas in English, hair is usually all hair on humans and long hair on animals (like horses' manes and tails) and fur seems to be for shorter hair that densely covers the skin surface. Is there a similar difference in any of the languages already mentioned?

[longcurlygirl<3]

Just Spanish and English for me. All pelo was already mentioned :)

[Islandgrrl]

English, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish, Welsh. All mentioned already, the Yiddish is the same as German.

[Achlys]

Hair in all of these languages has already been mentioned, but I have a question: hair on the head in Chinese 頭髮toufa is differentiated from body hair 毛mao (which is also the word used for animal fur) whereas in English, hair is usually all hair on humans and long hair on animals (like horses' manes and tails) and fur seems to be for shorter hair that densely covers the skin surface. Is there a similar difference in any of the languages already mentioned?

In my experience, differentiation between head hair and body hair is common in languages. I'm a native Estonian speaker and head hair is 'juuksed' in Estonian (as was mentioned before), but hair generally is called 'karvad', both in plural. Long hair is 'pikad juuksed'. It may also be a bit interesting that some languages refer to hair in plural, while others, like English, use a singular word. Which is quite understandable, as hair can be viewed both as a collection or a single mass of strands.


Very interesting, especially with Serbo-Croatian/Bosnian - kosa in Russian is braid. Too bad there isn't a linguist here to explain the connection. :)

Similar words meaning related but slightly different things are also a common sight in related languages. Serbo-Croatian and Russian both belong in the Slavic language family. Such changes in meaning can happen over time when the two languages have already started to differentiate from each other. It's just a possible example, but you could use 'braid' meaning the whole of a person's hair, especially if they are wearing a single braid.

As I said, I'm Estonian, but I have studied English, Russian and tiny bits of German and Swedish, and even tinier bits of French (on my own) and Ancient Greek. I can understand but not speak the language/dialect (it's disputed) of Võro that is spoken in southern Estonia. The word for hair in that language is 'hiusõq' (and 'hiuss' for a single hair).
I'm somewhat interested in languages and understanding their systems is not a problem for me if I have some motivation. I take part of the linguistics olympiad, but so far only on national level.

Edit, more about Estonian words:
The whole of head hair can also be called 'juus', which is the singular form of 'juuksed'. It's not in everyday usage, though. 'Juus' is also the word for a single strand of head hair, but 'karv' the usually used word for them (and all other single hairs, it's the singular of 'karvad' I mentioned before). 'Juus' is a poor, neglected word. 'Kiharad' (singular 'kihar') is a more poetic word for head hair.

[Astraea]

English
French
Turkish: Saç