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0 pointsNeoTar2y ago0 comments

I think the most common real-world example is Russian and Italian, which have a specific word for light-blue which is distinct from the word for blue.

I assume this is like how ‘pink’ is a special word for ‘light-red’.

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thaumasiotes2y ago

You see the same thing in other areas. In Mandarin Chinese, the sounds represented by "si" in English vision or "r" in English virile are the same sound.

An English speaker (like speakers of many other languages) would find this ridiculous, but it is true that the two sounds represent either side of a completely arbitrary threshold applied to a continuous phenomenon.

taway12372y ago

It's like in English the sound represented by "ś" in Polish "ściągać" and "sz" in Polish "szumieć" are the same sound (usually written "sh") :).

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