parallels in sayings | Antimoon Forum

It French, the relatively original construction "tiens mois au courant", meaning "keep me informed", is a litteral translation of the German "halte mich auf dem Laufenden" and English "keep me current".
While the English saying may be a borrowing of the French, it is unclear to me whether the Germans borrowed als the construction from French or vice versa?
There are other examples like
French "prendre un bain", "ein Bad nehmen", "To take a bath", or
"prendre une fin miserable" "ein klägliches Ende nehmen" (no English correspondence"
Do you know other parallel sayings and what is the origin of these parallels?

In Spanish there is "ponme al corriente" o "tenme al corriente" (keep me informed) but I highly doubt it derives from other languages. It is an original expression. They are mere coincidences.

When such a borrowing happens, it's called a "calque": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque

It's not a calque if it's a coincidence, though.

There are many such phrases that always amuse me when I'm studying Spanish... I have no idea which are true calques and which are coincidences. The first one I learned was that sentences such as "I'm going to do it" could be translated very literally as "voy a hacerlo" -- with "voy" literally meaning "I go"! There are also lots of little things... "también" means "also" or "too", but if you look at it, you realize it's a compound of "tan bien", which word by word could be read as "as well"... which is another way of saying it in English! Likewise "tal como", which means "such as", both literally and in meaning. There are other somewhat surprising parallels, but I generally don't remember them...

- Kef

Another interesting construction seems to be the French "on a a etre poli" which corresponds exactly to "one has to be polite" and "man hat höflich zu sein". French "on" and English "one" are similar in writing but different in etymology, since "on" comes from Latin "homo", which is different from "one" but corresponds to German "man[n]". It seems that the French "on" is a calque of the German "man" and that English "one" is a copy of "on".

Another interesting construction seems to be the French "on a a etre poli" which corresponds to "one has to be polite" and "man hat höflich zu sein". French "on" and English "one" are similar in writing but different in etymology, since "on" comes from Latin "homo", which is different from "one" but corresponds to German "man[n]". It seems that the French "on" is a calque of the German "man" and that English "one" is a copy of "on".

"on a a etre poli" is a literal translation of the Spanish "uno ha de ser educado".

Oh, c'mon, it's really hard to say "this borrowed from that".

How many similar sayings are there? Even in some other thread people were discussing this. "All roads end in Rome" or "laugh is the best medicine", for instance, are sayings present in many languages. Don't tell me, they are also Spanish?

Proverbs are different from grammatical constructions, though. Proverbs are always borrowed deliberately, whereas borrowing grammatical constructions kind of just happens.

- Kef

Think "one has to be polite" is also a saying, or proverb...

I think it was the use of on/man that was interesting, not the whole phrase.

What is the relationship between on and man? I don't get it.

<<<What is the relationship between on and man? I don't get it. >>>

The French use "on" meaning "they/one" as in "they speak French in France". Although the word comes from "hom" <fr. "homme" <fr. Latin "homo/homin-" the word is a literal translation of the German "man" as in "man sagt das". French is the only romance language that uses Latin "homo" like this. The origin is Latin but the use of the word is German.

That's related to the Franks in Northern Gaul. They adopted Latin but it was spoken as a second language by them, Frankish was their primary. It's for this reason that French SOUNDS like German to other Romance speakers. A teacher of mine in college, who came from Eduador, said French was not like Spanish or Italian...it sounds like German! It kinda shocked me to hear that. If you think about it, it's kinda true. I always have a hard time telling a Frenchman from a German (speaking English of course) and oftentimes falsely mistake the Frenchman for a native German.

La Chunga Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:42 pm GMT
"on a a etre poli" is a literal translation of the Spanish "uno ha de ser educado".

That's equal to English "one has to be polite". Where does uno/one in this place come from?