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   Elias Mårtenson (loke@functional.cafe)'s status on Tuesday, 06-May-2025 19:30:54 JST Elias Mårtenson

   Swedish uses much more precise words to describe relations. I came across a sentence in English that is almost completely untranslatable without more context: "One of my grandfathers really likes strawberries, but my other grandfather hates them".

   This is because Swedish uses different words for the parental and paternal grandparents. If you speak Swedish, try to translate the sentence above. It's not easy.

   What other languages have this problem? Even Norwegian and Danish have words for this I think?

   #linguistics

   • Alfred M. Szmidt repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 06-May-2025 19:30:53 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

     in reply to

     @loke All Slavic languages, Estonian and Finnish. ...

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     Karsten Johansson (ksaj@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 03:58:10 JST Karsten Johansson

     in reply to

     • Alfred M. Szmidt

     @amszmidt @loke The British sometimes mimick the Swedish way. For example, "Me mum's mum."

   • Embed this notice
     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 03:58:10 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

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     • Karsten Johansson

     @ksaj @loke So as a Slav (Pole); having lived in Sweden for .. close to 4 decades -- to the point where I can do shibboleths in both languages. I find this topic so funny/interesting. And still have issues with "mother mother" (mormor) ... 😃 100% that @loke would not even know I'm a Pole!

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     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 04:03:51 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

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     • Karsten Johansson

     @ksaj @loke In Slavic (in general) you'd do what you'd do is as in English, "grandfather from my mothers/fathers side" -- but this is sorta cheating, morfar/farfar is almost like a case in the language (similar for morbror/farbror/moster/faster/....)

   • Embed this notice
     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 04:05:24 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

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     • Karsten Johansson

     @ksaj @loke It reminds me very much of the Slavic usage of bending surnames by gender.

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     Christian Lynbech (mapcar@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 06:05:19 JST Christian Lynbech

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     • Alfred M. Szmidt

     @loke @amszmidt For danish, we too have the paternal/maternal (farfar and morfar) but we also have a neutral word (bedstefar) that would work for both. Could be a german influence.

   • Embed this notice
     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 06:05:55 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

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     • Christian Lynbech

     @mapcar @loke Isn't "bedstefar" just "best father"?

   • Embed this notice
     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:58:11 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

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     • Karsten Johansson
     • Lars Brinkhoff

     @loke @ksaj @larsbrinkhoff there is dotterson though …

   • Embed this notice
     Elias Mårtenson (loke@functional.cafe)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:58:12 JST Elias Mårtenson

     in reply to

     • Karsten Johansson
     • Lars Brinkhoff
     • Alfred M. Szmidt

     @ksaj @larsbrinkhoff @amszmidt there isn't, but if you say it, people would definitely understand.

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     Lars Brinkhoff (larsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:58:13 JST Lars Brinkhoff

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     • Karsten Johansson
     • Alfred M. Szmidt

     @amszmidt @ksaj @loke I was also thinking of how "grandchild" is "barnbarn", and "grandson" is "sonson" or "dotterson", so in this case Swedish has both the specific and unspecific words. But I feel the preference would usually be "barnbarn".

     By the way, also fun to note that in Northern England and Scotland they have the word "bairn" for child/barn. Old Norse influence?

   • Embed this notice
     Karsten Johansson (ksaj@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:58:13 JST Karsten Johansson

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     • Lars Brinkhoff
     • Alfred M. Szmidt

     @larsbrinkhoff @amszmidt @loke Is there a barnson or dotterbarn? If not, there should be. 🎯

   • Embed this notice
     Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:59:36 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

     in reply to

     • Karsten Johansson
     • Lars Brinkhoff

     @loke @ksaj @larsbrinkhoff which Lars already mentioned. I’ll go get more coffee.