Rod Engelsman wrote:
Did you know that in the UK when someone says "Asian" they actually mean
India and Pakistan? Some people in the UK will strongly oppose calling
people from China and Japan "Asian".
I'm sure that hearkens back to the colonial days.
Certainly. There are surprising numbers of Indians and Pakistanis in the
UK, naturally because of colonialism. Therefore, for UK citizens, most
people from the continent of Asia that they see are from India and Pakistan.
From my travels, I would say that the UK is probably unique in their
definition of Asian. Judging from the fact that in Venezuela, Canada, US
and Germany "Asian" generally implies the far east.
Have you noticed how some languages like to construct new words from base
words like your example? German seems to do that too. Not so many bases but
big long words. US English tends more to shorter words but more of them,
often borrowed from other tongues (immigrant culture?).
Actually, Germanic languages like English and German are the most likely
to construct words from base words. German does it more than English,
but English does it too. You don't *notice* it as much because (1) it's
your language and (2) English often inserts a space between the two
words (probably a result of the Romance influence in English). Consider:
- flash|light (German: Taschen|lampe, Spanish: linterna)
- light bulb (German: Glüh|lampe, Spanish: bombillo)
- school bag (German: Schul|tasche, Spanish: morral)
- air|plane (German: Flug|zeug, Spanish: avión)
- water fall (German: Wasser|fall, Spanish: catarata)
I've inserted a | to separate compound words. In Spanish none of the
above are compound words.
German is the most extreme at compound words:
Fire truck: Feuer|wehr|fahr|zeug (fire|brigade|travel|object)
Lighter: Feuer|zeug (fire|object)
Toy: Spiel|zeug (play|object)
Air|plane: Flug|zeug (flying|object)
Btw, yes I know English, Spanish and intermediate German.
Cheers,
Daniel.
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