Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 September 24

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"peace be with you" in different languages[edit]

Greetings, I am wondering if you could help me writing the phrase "peace be with you" in the native script for the following languages. The "you" here is in singular.

I do hope this is an apropriate question if not please forgive me and thank you in advance. Please feel free to add as much.

Twin

Needed: Hindi, Nepalese, Bangla, Sinkhala, Chichewa, Kashmiri, Sanskrit language, Telugu, Urdū, Persian, Sinhala, pakistan. Scottish Gaelic, Bangalore, Samoan language, Laos, Hmong, Burmese, Malayalam, Canara Konkani Papa New Guinea, American Native language, Blackfoot, Commanche, Navajo,Slovak, Serbian, Bosnian, Ukraine.

"Pakistan" is not a language. There are quite a few languages spoken in Pakistan, see Languages of Pakistan. Same for Papua New Guinea, there are over 850 indigenous languages over there. I don't think your Christmas cards will be ready in time for this year. I'm not even sure these languages have a word for "peace". Native Americans also speak a large variety of languages, of which you listed a few; see Indigenous languages of the Americas. One question: Suppose someone says that in Malayalam this is കൂത്തിപ്പട്ടി പെണ്പട്ടി. How will you know that this is not actually an insult? --Lambiam ^Talk 01:38, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is a level of trust involved, though most people will give correct answers. If you're looking for a batch translation request, I recommend you make a post at the following community: http://community.livejournal.com/linguaphiles/. They get a lot of requests like this, and though I'm not sure you'll be able to get answers for all of the Native American languages you listed, Persian and Indian languages are well represented and you should get quite a lot of feedback. freshofftheufo ΓΛĿЌ 15:08, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dutch : "Vrede zij met u."

German :"Friede sei mit dir."~

Evilbu 19:11, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your recommendation.

Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian: "Mir s tobom!" or "Neka mir bude s tobom!". Duja 13:08, 25 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I got for Croatian: "Mir s vama" is there a difference?

Many languages have a so-called T-V distinction, which means that for the second-person pronouns, or at least the singular, there are two forms: a "familiar" one and a "respectful" one. (These are not necessarily opposed concepts; there is just no way through the choice of pronoun to express the combinations familiarity+respect and distance+disrespect.) In English there used to be "thou" and "you", but "thou" fell in disuse. Evilbu above gave the "respectful" form for Dutch and the "familiar" form for German. --Lambiam ^Talk 23:15, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If the Serbo-Croatian languages have retained the same common PIE roots as the Romance languages, I would guess "Mir s tobom!" is familiar, and "Mir s vama" is respectful, right? 惑乱分からん 11:36, 27 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are correct with "tobom" like in french the 'tu toyer'.

Can some generous soul help me further in this assignment? I have been at the e-mail for days and still have not gotten much result. 'in distress'

If you left your e-mail address here, it was removed. The help desk is a public page, and isn't meant for receiving private information. 惑乱分からん 10:00, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My heartfelt apology and thank you for all the help.

Russian Last Names[edit]

I am Russian, but I don't understand the way Russian last names work, and I couldn't find anything on it. Are there different ending for each name, one generic for sons and one for daughters, etc? If so, is there any reliable way to form or interpret last names? thanks so much! --Q of E 05:02, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See Names in Russian Empire, Soviet Union and CIS countries. --Chris S. 05:39, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]