Why words like 'okay' and 'taxi' are universally understood across the world but survival related ones like 'help', 'water', 'food' remained nation specific?

opalescent@lemmy.zip to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 140 points –
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Populations and Languages probably already had a pre-existing word for help, water, food, before English became the trade language. When a new concept is introduced via English there is a chance the (simple) English word will be borrowed for that thing.

It's why every European language just slaps an accent mark on the word "airplane" because we invented the tech and created the name, so they just adapted it to fit the pronunciation of the phonetics in their own vocabulary.

π•±π–‘π–šπ–Œπ–Ÿπ–Šπ–šπ–Œ would like a word

Honestly I can't think of a single European language where it is the case. German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Basque... none of them sound like airplane.

I mean, Spanish uses el aviΓ³n and el aeroplane and Italian is l' aero which is just short for l' aeroplano. Gotta give him that.

Well because the words for air are aire and aria in Spanish and Italian respectively, and you know, aircraft fly through the air.

Other languages base the word on the word fly. It would be weird naming the concept without using the words air of fly.

Helicopter is a better example, while we're on the topic of flying machines.

I'm wondering why they didn't choose a word like Television for this.

Germany is the red headed step child lol

The Deutsch and their Β« zeugsΒ  and DingsΒ Β»

I love that a culture so associated with attention to detail and precision engineering is just like « flugzeug, fuerzeug, schlagzeug, schreibzeug… »

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