WotD Update

I know haven't posted any vocabulary lists for days, but I've still been compiling them. You know me: I had to take a straightforward project and find ways to add complication. For one thing, there's the issue of variation. Even ignoring colloquial variants, several of the languages in the list are plurilocal, meaning there is not one single standard/prestige variety but several. I'd love to be comprehensive, but this is a practical list, so I need to keep it brief. With that in mind, here's my list of preferences:

1. German--Standarddeutsch of Germany; common southern alternatives preferred over northern and non-standard/dialect terms dealt with in footnotes.
2. Dutch--Algemeen Nederlands; northern variants over southern/Belgian (sorry, areia).
3. Catalan--IEC standard, with a focus on the speech of Barcelona.
4. Spanish--Castilian Spanish, with common Latin American (esp. Mexican) variants noted.
5. French--Hexagonal French, with note on Cajun variants wherever possible.
6. Irish--Caighdeán Oifigiúil, with a preference for Munster variants.
7. Welsh--Academi standard, with a preference for southern variants.
8. Korean--Preference for Seoul colloquialisms.
9. Chinese--Standard Chinese in traditional characters with a preference for Taiwanese variants.

I'm also not blind to the pitfalls of treating items in a word list as exact equivalents or of focussing on "words" at the expense of other important aspects of language. It was my intention to include example sentences with each entry, but ensuring that these are all correct is rather time-consuming, so I'm contemplating dealing with grammatical constructions as "words" for the purpose of this experiment. Stay tuned.

WotD: Peanut

1. die Erdnuss
2. de pinda
3. el cacahuete
4. el cacauet
5. l'arachide, la cacahuète
6. y bysgneuen, y gneuen ddaear
7. an phis talún
8. 땅콩, 낙화생 (落花生)
9. 花生 huāshēng

Notes: 3. In Mexico, also cacahuate (from Nahuatl cacahuatl "cacao"; the Nahuatl term for "peanut" is actually tlacacahuatl "earth cacao"). 5. In Cajun French, pistache. (For a parallel development, see Ladino fustuk "peanut" from Turkish fıstık "pistachio".) 6. Literally, "pea-nut" and "nut [of] earth"; also cneuen fwnci "monkey nut".

WotD: sweet potato

1. die Süßkartoffel
2. de zoete aardappel
3. la batata
4. el moniato
5. la patate (douce)
6. y daten felys
7. an práta milis
8. 고구마
9. 白薯 báishǔ

Notes: 3. Mex. camote (Nah. camohtli). 9. Quizzically, this literally means "white yam". (Cf. dial. Ger. weiße Kartoffel "white potato".) The Taiwanese and Cantonese call it 番薯 (han-chî/fāansyùh*) "foreign yam".

WotD: get engaged

This entry is dedicated to ladysophis2k8 and luckymarty. Congrats, you two!

1. sich verloben
2. zich verloven
3. prometerse
4. prometre's
5. se fiancer
6. diweddïo
7. geall
8. 약혼하다 (約婚하다)
9. 訂婚 dìnghūn

Notes: 7. Lit. "promise, pledge".

Example sentences: "They just got engaged." (Exhibiting grammaticalised means of expressing actions newly completed.)

1. Sie haben sich gerade verlobt.
2. Ze hebben zich zojuist verloofd.
3. Acaban de prometerse.
4. Acaben de prometre's
5. Ils viennent de se fiancer.
6. Maen nhw newydd diweddïo.
7. Táid siad tar éis a bheith geallta.
8. 인제 방금 약혼했군요!
9. 他們訂婚了!

Discussion: Like English, German and Dutch have no grammaticalised means but rely on an adverb meaning "just", "right now". The Romance languages in this sample use an infinitive clause with an auxiliary; in French, this auxiliary is venir "come", so the sentence could be overly literally read as "They come from getting engaged." Welsh and Irish rely on a periphrastic construction with an adverb taking the place of the usual link particle. (Cf. Hiberno-English "They're after getting engaged.") For Korean, I combined a pair of adverbs meaning "right now" with an exclamatory sentence ending used to present new information of presumed interest. The Chinese final particle 了 (often called in the literature "Change of Relevant State -le" to distinguish it from the homophonous perfective particle) signals a state of affairs which is new, unexpected, or particularly relevant to the matter at hand.

WotD: suburb

1. der Vorort
2. de voorstad
3. las afueras, el suburbio
4. les afores, el raval, el suburbi
5. le faubourg, la banlieue
6. y faestref
7. an bruachbhaile
8. 교외 (郊外)
9. 郊區 jiāoqū

Notes: 5. Cajun le déhors du village.

Discussion: This is a good example of how difficult it is to find straightforward equivalents of even the most concrete terms. European cities are much different in history and structure from most American urban areas, which tend to reverse their pattern by having a depressed inner core and a ring of affluent settlements. Thus, the translation found in most English-French dictionaries for "suburb", banlieue actually has completely different connotations, ones closer to those of American English "ghetto". For Spanish and Catalan, the best translation of "suburbs" is a term literally meaning "outskirts".