WotD: sidewalk (AE), pavement (BE)

[muckefuck]

1. das Trottoir, der Bürgersteig
2. het trottoir
3. la acera, la banqueta, el andén
4. la vorera
5. le trottoir, la banquette
6. y pafin
7. an cosán
8. chodnik
9. 보도 (步道)
10. 人行道 rénxíngdào

Notes: Sidewalks have become ubiquitous relatively recently, so some languages show a lot of variation. 1. German is particularly notorious in this respect, with a half dozen terms in general use; I've limited myself to the usual word in Baden (a French borrowing, unsurprisingly) and what I take to be the most common Schriftdeutsch expression. 3. Banqueta is specifically Mexican; andén is common in Central America whereas elsewhere this tends to mean "(train) platform". 5. Banquette survives in this meaning only in Louisiana. 7. From cos "leg" and the usual word for "footpath" as well.

Comments

WotD request

[bunj.livejournal.com]

This came up at Knit Night: spinning wheel. Neither the native French speaker nor the native Spanish speaker could think of it. It's the sort of technical word you only learn if it comes up (or you read fairytales).

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I know the German is Spinnrad (either from reading Grimms' Märchen or a parody of them), but I'm clueless when it comes to the other languages.

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Spanish: Rueca
Catalan: Filosa

I had to double check how it could be related to fairy tales and such....

Re: WotD request

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

charkha is one of the few Hindi words I know.

[pne.livejournal.com]

"Das" Trottoir? *looks up* So it is. I would have guessed "der".

But then, that one's firmly in the category "passive vocabulary" - I say "Bürgersteig" (which I, like you, also take as the most general expression in standard German).

Come to think of it, I might also say "Gehweg" occasionally, but still "Bürgersteig" seems like the central lemma to me.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I had it as masculine in my head, too, despite the fact that even the dialect examples are unmistakably neuter. (E.g.: "'s Trottoir isch gfegt, d' Fenschtr send butzt, dr Rasa isch gschora, dr Kandel isch gfirbt.")

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

Seconding neuter, it's "es Trottwa" in my mother tongue of Pfälzisch, too.
Um die Samstagsnachmittagspflichten zu ergänzen "die Rinn is gekehrt" :-)

In Berlin, people mostly say "Gehweg".

[tisoi.livejournal.com]

banqueta has made it to Tagalog. Spelled bangketa now.