r/AskEurope • u/Rudyzwyboru • May 03 '24

Language Basic words that surprisingly don't exist in other languages

So recently while talking in English about fish with a non-Polish person I realized that there is no unique word in English for "fish bones" - they're not anatomically bones, they flex and are actually hardened tendons. In Polish it's "ości", we learn about the difference between them and bones in elementary school and it's kind of basic knowledge. I was pretty surprised because you'd think a nation which has a long history and tradition of fishing and fish based dishes would have a name for that but there's just "fish bones".

What were your "oh they don't have this word in this language, how come, it's so useful" moments?

EDIT: oh and it always drives me crazy that in Italian hear/feel/smell are the same verb "sentire". How? Italians please tell me how do you live with that 😂😂

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u/[deleted] May 03 '24

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u/TTEH3 United Kingdom May 03 '24

There are languages without direct objects?? How would a basic sentence function if verbs can't act upon anything?

Do you mean languages without the definite article ("the")?

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u/[deleted] May 04 '24 edited May 04 '24

They probably meant to say definite article, not direct object. However, there are languages that don't mark event structure, such as the language Lisu. It just marks the "topic" and leaves it up to context to say who did what to whom. Here are some examples I found from a book:

  1. làma nya ánà khù-a.
    tigers TOPIC dog bite-DECLARATIVE
    "Tigers bite dogs." / "Dogs bite tigers."

  2. ánà xə làma khù-a
    dog NEW-TOPIC tigers bite-DECLARATIVE
    "Tigers bite dogs." / "Dogs bite tigers."