Linguistics

[Suominoita]

In Swedish you say stomach, at least in normal casual conversations, so I didn't even realize something was wrong, no idea what they say in Finnish... Gotta try to remember "womb" so people don't laugh at me if I ever decide to write a pregnant character xD

Well, it would be quite usual for me and my family members to say 'kohtu' that means womb if that's what we're talking about. My mother was a nurse though that might have something to do with it...  Still, small children likely wouldn't.
Something like:

My womb's a bit swollen, I think I'm going to menstruate soon.
Or. "Hey baby, it's about time for you to come out. Kick some speed from the womb bottom."

[Mebediel]

There's Wampe/Wumpe/Wamme/Wumme, all colloquialisms for a (usually fat) belly or by extension an overweight person in German, but it must have shed the pregnancy-related connotations at some point along the way.

That would make sense. Judging by the Middle English dictionary, the English word had belly-related connotations as well that were dropped at some point Interesting!

[JoB]

This most recent conversation made me really curious about the origins of the word "womb," so I looked up the etymology really quickly. JoB: is "womb" commonly used in German? Because the English word came from Proto-Germanic, although the source I use also says that there was an Old Norse word for "womb," which this thread indicates didn't really make its way to modern conversational language.

Please note the change of meaning implied by the page you link to: While the non-English precursors refer to the belly as a whole, English started to shift it until today, "womb" exclusively refers to the uterus.

German has its own term for the uterus, "Gebärmutter", but using it to refer to an unborn's whereabouts its very uncommon AFAICT. The standard wording is that a woman has a "Baby im Bauch", i.e., the belly. The (rather old-fashioned by now) "Wamme" and (still current) "Wampe" likewise refer to the belly as a whole.

FWIW, apart from the cannibalistic option, German would allow a baby to figuratively "lie heavily in my stomach" if its existence - still to be born or not - presents seemingly insurmountable problems of some kind.

[Róisín]

Interesting. The usage of 'mother' specifically for the organ we would call 'womb' persisted in English at least until the seventeenth century. Several English herbals and medical texts of around that time contain phrases like 'oppression or diseases of the mother' for what we would call 'gynæcological problems'. Authors such as Parkinson, Culpeper and Gerard spring to mind.

[Mebediel]

Please note the change of meaning implied by the page you link to: While the non-English precursors refer to the belly as a whole, English started to shift it until today, "womb" exclusively refers to the uterus.

German has its own term for the uterus, "Gebärmutter", but using it to refer to an unborn's whereabouts its very uncommon AFAICT. The standard wording is that a woman has a "Baby im Bauch", i.e., the belly. The (rather old-fashioned by now) "Wamme" and (still current) "Wampe" likewise refer to the belly as a whole.

FWIW, apart from the cannibalistic option, German would allow a baby to figuratively "lie heavily in my stomach" if its existence - still to be born or not - presents seemingly insurmountable problems of some kind.

Right, I somehow missed the difference in meaning in the original link and only noticed it when I went to look up the Middle English word Gonna go ahead and use sleep deprivation as an excuse for sloppy reading comprehension. I guess the general consensus across the languages mentioned so far in this conversation (except for Finnish maybe?) is that belly = casual conversation, and womb = more formal/old-fashioned.

Interesting. The usage of 'mother' specifically for the organ we would call 'womb' persisted in English at least until the seventeenth century. Several English herbals and medical texts of around that time contain phrases like 'oppression or diseases of the mother' for what we would call 'gynæcological problems'. Authors such as Parkinson, Culpeper and Gerard spring to mind.

That's good to know! Using "mother" makes a weird amount of sense.

[Miriam]

In Dutch we also say 'baarmoeder', similar to German 'Gebärmutter'.

[IntensiTea]

*slides into a 4-years-dead post because I can't keep my mouth shut even on the internet*

I would like to add for consideration the story of my sign language classmate who moved his hands down instead of up and told us all about the nude (he meant "event") his friend was hosting.

Not quite as bad, since he used the word in its adjective form... but still, I have never seen anyone turn red as quickly as this fellow did when he found out what he had actually said.

[Unseelie]

On the one hand, this thread has been lying dormant for several months again, on the other hand, it's still one of the most current ones in the language board, so...

My favourite example in German:
Mädchen - Girl
Madchen - Diminutive form of maggot, possibly an especially small or cute maggot

[wavewright62]

Thread necromancy is fine, with examples like this! XD

[Mirasol]

I know I´m at it again with the sort-of-necromancy, but at least I´m doing it in a relatively recently used thread.

So as a very enthusiastic minnion who wants to understand the runos and just really likes how the spelling looks, I started practicing Finnish (hence change in description  ). And I ran into a problem yesterday that sort of fits this threads Topic:

How is "Good evening" in Finnish spelled? My learning-app says "Hyvää iltää", but my phone´s language-setting insists on "Hyvää iltaa", and claims to not know "iltää". I wouldn´t put it past either of the programs to be wrong about it, and I don´t want to say something drastically different to what I thought it ment, should the spelling change the meaning.
So is there any actual Finnish-speaking person here who could help me with that?

[Jitter]

Iltaa is correct. A and ä are two different sounds altogether. Since in Finnish there is basically one sound to one letter, when you know Finnish you can write any word you hear pronounced. And vice versa of course, if you see something witten, you know how to say it.

[Mirasol]

Thank you! 

The thing is I never actually heard it spoken, or just by a computer voice that was in the program. And I heard how this voice butchered the german translations, so I didn´t trust it too far with the Finnish pronounciation either.

[Vulpes]

Minna suggested the precursor to this site https://ttsdemo.com/ someplace on the Redtail's Dream website. Maybe it'd be helpful? She said that Mikko had a good accent for the aRtD characters.

[Jitter]

Yes, that is very good! The intonation is weird in longer sentences, but the pronunciation of each word is very good! The male voices Mikko and Marko are better than the women.

[Mirasol]

Minna suggested the precursor to this site https://ttsdemo.com/ someplace on the Redtail's Dream website. Maybe it'd be helpful? She said that Mikko had a good accent for the aRtD characters.

Woah, I had no idea something like that existed. Thanks for the recommendation!