Thursday, January 25, 2007

* I have seen in the news lately, that in the States there
has been some pretty good sized snow storms.
  This morning it snowed for the first time since I have
arrived in Romania. As you can see in the picture below.

   

  You can also see that it wasn’t very much, so I guess
we’ve been pretty lucky as of now.
  For this region of the world it is unusual to receive snow 
this late in the winter season. It is a wild guess but I seems
we are like everywhere else, victims of global warming.
  There are two words for snow in Romanian. One is … zăpadă.
The other, which I really like the most, is … ninge … which
actually is pronounced almost exactly as the word … ninja ... 
your loveable assassins.
  It is always interesting learning a new language and having
to use it. But in the process of living in other countries, and
learning their languages, I have met some word redundancies.
  For example, 'unde' in Romanian means ‘where'. In
Senegal, in the Pulaar language, it means … to pound …
as seen in this picture below.

   

  Again in the Pulaar language, the word 'sappo' means 10.
  When I was in El Salvador (Spanish) sappo meant …
what’s in the picture below …

            

  yup it meant frog.

  I can easily understand if there are similarities between
Spanish and the Romanian languages. They are both latin
based.
  But it is interesting, that they also have, a word or two
that is used in an African language. Which as languages go
aren't even close .
  So I guess if unde can mean ‘where’ or ‘to pound’ and
sappo can either mean ‘10’ or 'frog'. 
  Though the words are spelled different but pronounced
the same.Why can’t ninge not either mean 'snow', or a
'silent deadly assassin'?

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