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Italian here, we use Arab for pretty the same sentence. That's because we are still studying Greek and Latin on some public school.
by pibi 7y ago
Italian here, we use Arab for pretty the same sentence.
That's because we are still studying Greek and Latin on some public school.
- knocte 7y agoSpanish here, we use Chinese.
- smcl 7y agoYou’re gonna like this - in Czech it’s “je to pro mě španělské vesnice” meaning “it’s a Spanish village to me”
- youeseh 7y agoAm American. We use alien.
- klez 7y agoI wouldn't say that a language studied by a minority of students (those in liceo classico) is the reason we use "Arab" as the incomprehensible language shorthand. Especially when you consider that the Greek studied in liceo is not the Greek spoken in Greece today.
- coldtea 7y ago>I wouldn't say that a language studied by a minority of students (those in liceo classico) is the reason we use "Arab" as the incomprehensible language shorthand. A minority today, but one would assume (as in the case in e.g. German and France) more (of students) in the past 50-100-200 years when the phrase was established.
- posterboy 7y agoThdre's the connotation of respect if not awe for the language, whereas this idiom is pejorative. The implication of the idiom is not "what, am I talking too educated?", quite the opposite (the connotation is not "stupid" either, just "way foreign")
- carlob 7y agoCame here to say this, but I'm just going to correct you: Arabic is the language, Arab the people. :)
- pibi 7y agoAh ah, good call
- jaclaz 7y agoYes and no (meaning that we strangely use both Arabic and Turkish in different situations). If you don't understand, you would say "Mi sembra arabo" (it seems arabic to me) but if you are talking and the other part doesn't understand it is more common "E che parlo, turco?" (what am I speaking, turkish?) than "E che parlo, arabo?" (what am I speaking, arabic?) at least in my experience. Of course historically "turk" and "arab" were synonyms due to the fall of of Constantinople and the "contacts" with the Ottoman Empire. And now, risking to quote myself, evidence of the sentence (by a greek) "it's English to me": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20484479#20485258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20484479#20485258
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- pmontra 7y agoI never heard this Turkish expression, only the Arabic one. I always lived in the Milan area. Where is it used? "E che" sounds central Italy.
- jaclaz 7y agoSure, the "E che" form is tuscany and central Italy (as often happens considered archaic by someone), the "parlo turco" is italian alright: http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ricerca/Parlare-turco/ http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ricerca/Parlare-turco/ A more "neutral" Italian would be "Parlo forse turco?". Curiously, it is a sentence used in literature by Andrea Camilleri which should mean that the form is also in use in Sicily. JFYI ;-) Mario Vigorone [1980]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yANFI1bs9c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yANFI1bs9c
- pibi 7y agoAlso the "parlo arabo?" is listed on treccani: http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/arabo http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/arabo BTW, I agree with the other comment that this is more common in the north.