Farang=westerner?

[edje123]

most of the european languages are part of the "indo-germanic" family, thus it is not so strange to know that a part of our lanuages have far-east origins

[Evil Penevil]

Originally Posted by LordF

There are also lots of English words that are from Persian roots.

Originally Posted by Latino4life

Some are quite alike swedish as well...

It's important to distinguish between words that have common roots and borrowed words. Persian (Farsi), Swedish and English are all Indo-European languages and share many of the basic words, like father and mother, which go all the way back to the distant ancestor of them all, Sanskrit.

English and Swedish are fairly closely related as languages go. Both are Germanic languages (English is West Germanic and Swedish i North Germanic). The major language that is closest to English is Dutch. Many English words are based on Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Place names that end in -by, -berg or -thorpe all have Norse roots. What's interesting is that some English words are more Nordic than modern Swedish. "Window" comes from Old Norse vindauga literally "wind eye." The modern Swedish word is foenster, which stems from the Latin fenestra.

Over the past 500 years or so, many words have been borrowed into English from other languages. It's a process that continues today. "Cummberbund" is an interesting example. It is indeed based on Persian words meaning "waist restraint," but entered English via Hindi. Cummberbunds have always been part of Indian military uniforms and that's where Englishmen first encountered them while living in colonial India.

The words chess, check and checkmate also come from Persian. "Checkmate" actually means "Shah mat," or "the king i dead," in Farsi. In terms of words borrowed from modern Swedish, we have ski, ombudsman, and smorgasbord.

Evil

[Nautilus]

How do you pronounce this ? chinese = jeen

[LivinLOS]

Chinese in Thai is jean / jeen.. Kinda like wearable jean(s).. Abrupt and not drawn on the vowel.

Jeans are with a soft J / Y.. More Yeans..

Thats just my impression of how I hear the words.. May not be technically correct..

[Nautilus]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

Chinese in Thai is jean / jeen.. Kinda like wearable jean(s).. Abrupt and not drawn on the vowel.

Jeans are with a soft J / Y.. More Yeans..

Thats just my impression of how I hear the words.. May not be technically correct..

Thank you for the explanation.

[LivinLOS]

Also re reading what I wrote (saying how to pronounce is harder that you chink) the J at the start is firm not a gee sound but a ch sound.. I guess you could conceivably write Chin for phonetic also.. Not as hard a CH as the chin on your face but 50/50 between jeen and chin !!

No wonder transliteration is so tough..

[Mav]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

Not as hard a CH as the chin on your face but 50/50 between jeen and chin !!

You trying to invent another drink here Lil?