The sigmatoids of the English language are sometimes found in other languages.
Massacre, from the Portuguese language, also appears in the English language, and its world reference is the same.
One must stress (main stress) the second syllable (Harper Collins) when reading this sigmatoid in Portuguese, and the first syllable when reading it in English (Longman).
Perhaps the Germans, through the Anglo-Saxon migration to the United Kingdom, have played a major role there, and the Spanish, through their imperialist actions, are their equivalent in what regards this sigmatoid, and Portuguese.
It is
Hallo in German, and
Hello in English: not only both sigmatoids are almost identical in their spelling, but their world reference is the same.
The stress lies in the second syllable in both cases (Longman and Collins).
It is
Heiraten in German, and
Marry in English, but
Casar in both Portuguese, and Spanish.
The first syllable gets the oral stress in German (Collins), and English (Longman), and the second syllable gets the stress in Portuguese (Harper Collins), and Spanish (BARRON’S).
There are sigmatoids that break
the imagined rule: it is
Frau in German,
Madam in English,
Dona in Portuguese, and
Senora in Spanish.
English (Longman), and Portuguese get
the same sort of stress, German (Collins)
does not look the same in those regards, but is still looking similar somehow to English, and this time also to Portuguese (Harper Collins), and Spanish (BARRON’S) is the only one completely
out of the pack.
There is then some chance that the same people added
Heiraten to the German lexicon, and
Marry to the English lexicon, say the Anglo-Saxons.
Another people probably added
Casar both to the Portuguese, and to the Spanish lexicons, say the own Spanish.
It is then possible to determine the origins of groups of sigmatoids through analysing details, such as stress patterns.
It is possible to argue with the etymological lexicons writers using those studies in case there are discrepancies.
Hitler was an impressive figure.
In quite a few movies, and also on Brazilian TV shows, the Nazi soldiers said
Hi, Hitler.
On the Internet, people seem to think that Hitler's soldiers said
Heil Hitler!.
Heil is
Ave in Portuguese (
Ave Maria for
Hail Mary), and
Hail (
Hail Mary) in English.
Hitler is always portrayed as one of the most important figures in human history, a person who is absolutely venerated by his soldiers, and people.
Hitler's soldiers made a very uncomfortable gesture when uttering
Heil Hitler!, and the expression has to mean adoration for Hitler, so that they could not simply be saying
Hi, Hitler!, which is quite informal.
Ave, and
Hail appear in
Ave Maria, and
Hail Mary, traditional Catholic prayers.
Ave, and
Hail mean maximum veneration for Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Ave then, in its most disrespectful usage, is something that closely relates to
Salve in Portuguese because of
Salve Rainha (
Hail, Holy Queen), which is part of a Catholic prayer that is usually seen associated with
Ave Maria.
Salve means
save, but may also mean
relatively elegant greeting, that is, never
hi, but something like
‘long live.
Ave is seen in movies about the Romans,
Ave Caesar being the expression that first comes to mind.
Caesar was adored by the Romans, so that
Ave Caesar is something like
Save the Great Caesar or
Long live Caesar or
Long life to Caesar or
Our kingdom is for you, Caesar or
All blessings to you, Caesar or
We praise you, Caesar.
In some etymological dictionaries,
Hail is associated with both farewell, and hi, so that it must be
all blessings to you or
we praise you.
There is then a problem
in Translation: Hitler is an important historical figure, and this sentence is really old.
Translation is
one of the greatest arts, and many more
places like PROz should be created: that does improve standards.
In a translated version of a book by Simone de Beauvoir, Tous les Hommes Sont Mortels, the main character is a male who
lasts forever, and he dies in one chapter but is alive in the next one without any explanation being given.
Translators must never depreciate texts with their service provision, but there are exceptions for the rule of not improving texts: sometimes clarity is a must (birth certificates, and other documents).
The contents of the texts must be conveyed in the target language
as they are in the original language, also in what regards style, but punctuation mistakes can be fixed, just like PROz defends.
The Translator's Notes (NTs) can do the job of informing the reader about the original contents, if necessary: they play a major role in what comes to accuracy.
It is worth studying the origins of the expressions: more chances of finding the best match in the target language.
Some references:
• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081011134507AAoVcaW
• http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/german-english/sprach
• http://www.woxikon.com/wort/frau.php
• http://www.evene.fr/livres/livre/simone-de-beauvoir-tous-les-hommes-sont-mortels-345.php
• http://websters.yourdictionary.com/ave
• http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/maryd6d.htm
• Harper Collins Portuguese Dictionary: English – Portuguese, ISBN 006-273489-X, 1997
• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, ISBN 1-405-80673-7, 2005
• Collins German Dictionary & Grammar, ISBN 978-0-00-732316-6, 2010
• BARRON’S Foreign Language Guides Spanish-English, ISBN-10 0-7641-3329-2, 2006
(The first five websites were seen on the 12th of January of 2013, and the fifth was seen on the 22nd of January of 2013)
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