The English for โananasโ is โpineappleโ, did the English really think they grew on pine trees?
Itโs a bit cherry picked, but only a bit, since there are a few languages that just copied the English word later on.
Japanese and Korean come to mind.
That actually makes it funnier to me because ananas would be easier to pronounce in Japanese vs pineapple. Ananansu(u is silent) vs Painappuru.
Oh you canโt even imagine the amount of times I put a pineapple up there.
Counter point:
You canโt include English in any rational discussion about languages. It breaks every rule, and isnโt one language, but a pidgin of three or four. Itโs a bastard of a language, and what-about-ism involving English is so trivial itโs not worth debating. You can always find a worse example of any language linguistic stupidity in English.
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We donโt just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
Writer James D. Nicoll
โappleโ used to be a generic term for fruit. So itโs actually โfruit of the earthโ, the French are poetic like that
โappleโ used to be a generic term for fruit.
Oh, that explains the myth that Adam and Eve at an apple, when a specific fruit is never mentioned.
It also explain why we here in the Nordics call oranges โappelsinโ, as in a โChinese appleโ.
Great! Canโt have myths about random fruit in this otherwise totally valid, reasonable and trustworthy story about a woman that was made from a manโs rib and talked to reptiles.
If a narrative is not literally true, does that mean it has no truth value?
Butโฆ weโre talking French and Adam and Eve was written in Hebrew. Is it the same for Hebrew?
Hebrew used a generic word for fruit, all languages translated that word as their version of apple which was generic at the time, and then much later, all languages changed the meaning of their word for apple, itโs not specific to French. The use of apple for one specific fruit is fairly recent - more recent than the King James Bible, even.
I donโt know what the word in Hebrew is and if it also changed its meaning since then, though.
Also apples used to be small, tart, and acidic.
You wouldnโt eat them as a dessert but as a basis for brewing alcohol.
Itโs wild how much fruits changed in recent times.
So much so that most zoo are stoppimg giving them to animals and switched to more leafy greens. They have gotten so sugary that they promoted tooth decay and obesity.
Look, weโre talking people who call ninety-nine โfour twenty ten nineโ; you canโt expect them to name things properly.
To be fair, English has a bit of that too if you look at the first 20 digits
One, two, threeโฆ Eleven, twelve, thirteenโฆ Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-threeโฆ Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-threeโฆ
If English was fully decimal the teens would simply be โOnety-one, onety-two, onety-threeโ but itโs not because fuck following conventions!
Something thankfully not all French-speaking countries agree. But the ground apple is pretty much universal. The alternative โpatateโ is also widely used,
Stuff from the โnew worldโ (Americas) often got some weird names. Like the โIndian chickensโ (turkeys).
Recently I watched an press event with a Canadian politician, who was switching between French and English as we must sometimes. He was talking about a bag of apples (which his colleague was holding) costing a stupid amount of money. He made the mistake of saying a bag of potatoes, which i found fucking hilarious as I speak both languages and understand the mistake. Unfortunately for him, the people criticising him were morons and were like WHY WOULD HE SAY POTATOES IS HE STUPID.
Franglais is my language of choice after several drinks in any French speaking country. I am from Jersey, New, so itโs the best I can do with my education.
