# The official language thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Off-topic\ **Created:** [April 3, 2018, 11:14am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524 "2018-04-03T11:14:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Frenzie](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/frenzie/32/4416_2.png) [@Frenzie](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Frenzie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:43am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/323 "2018-05-10T07:43:22Z")
> [@Sushi](#): > > A lavabo is for _lavare_ washing (hands) only. Lavabo even literally translates to [I will wash](http://latindictionary.wikidot.com/verb:lavare) Well obviously. šŸ˜› But itā€™s just _weird_ to hear a fancy Latin word as the regular term for such a regular object. šŸ˜‰ Itā€™s nothing like the properly Dutch word pompbak. > [@Sushi](#): > > Uw autocorrect heeft dat al verbeterd, precies. Excuseer, _blijkbaar_ šŸ™‚ Ja, in 't Vlaams (of Antwerps) zijn voorwerpen ook (al dan niet) aanwezig. Maar niet _afwezig_ . Ge kunt in een hotel gaan reclameren (uw beklag doen) dat de beloofde kluis niet aanwezig is. Afwezig zou willen zeggen dat ze pootjes gekregen heeft en efkes (even) een toereke is gaan doen (blokje om) Thatā€™s very much general Dutch. Een voorwerp is niet aanwezig. Enkel personen zijn afwezig. ---
**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:58am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/324 "2018-05-10T07:58:29Z")
@sushi, by living in Belgium, which languages did you learn at school? ---
**Author:** ![Frenzie](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/frenzie/32/4416_2.png) [@Frenzie](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Frenzie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:13am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/325 "2018-05-10T10:13:45Z")
> [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](#): > > by living in Belgium, which languages did you learn at school? German is somewhat neglected here in Flanders. At the basis you have the two main languages of the country, Dutch and French, followed by the European lingua franca (English). The forgotten third language of the country, German, is the fourth language in education. Schools can optionally offer other languages from EU or BRIC countries iirc. ---
**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:43am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/326 "2018-05-10T10:43:59Z")
> [@Frenzie](#): > > Flanders Mustā€¦resistā€¦theā€¦obviousā€¦diddly doodly! ---
**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/327 "2018-05-10T16:52:28Z")
> [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](#): > > @sushi, by living in Belgium, which languages did you learn at school? Dutch, French, English, German. On top, you can also study some dead languages like Latin or ancient Greek. But I wouldnā€™t say you are fluent enough in those. ---
**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/328 "2018-05-10T17:02:52Z")
> [@Sushi](#): > > But I wouldnā€™t say you are fluent enough in those. Youā€¦ me? šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Someone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Someone](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Someone)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/329 "2018-05-10T17:06:51Z")
New question: A link on a web page ā€¦ leads / points / goes / links / jumps / something else ā€¦ to another page? ---
**Author:** ![PiecesOfKate](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/piecesofkate/32/93_2.png) [@PiecesOfKate](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/PiecesOfKate)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/330 "2018-05-10T17:12:00Z")
Iā€™d say ā€˜goesā€™. But if I was at work Iā€™d probably say ā€˜directsā€™. ---
**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/331 "2018-05-10T17:46:17Z")
Pretty much anything but ā€œjumps,ā€ but it IĀ“d say it depends on the context. ---
**Author:** ![tasse-tee](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/tasse-tee/32/4002_2.png) [@tasse-tee](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/tasse-tee)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/332 "2018-05-10T17:59:39Z")
I would say a link ā€œgoesā€, and maybe ā€œleadsā€. Or an image ā€œlinksā€ to another page. ---
**Author:** ![Frenzie](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/frenzie/32/4416_2.png) [@Frenzie](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Frenzie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/333 "2018-05-10T19:39:29Z")
> [@milanfahrnholz](#): > > Pretty much anything but ā€œjumps,ā€ but it IĀ“d say it depends on the context. A link can jump to a different location on the same page. > [@Someone](#): > > A link on a web page ā€¦ leads / points / goes / links / jumps / something else ā€¦ to another page? Those donā€™t necessarily have the same connotation. A link by itself points/specifies/refers to/leads to/_links_ to/etc. a location (where it goes). But if you click a link it doesnā€™t just point to [the Thimbleweed Park website](https://thimbleweedpark.com/) anymore. It goes there. More colloquially a link also ā€œgoesā€ to the Thimbleweed Park website without clicking on it, just like all roads go to Rome.[1] Stylistically itā€™s generally recommended to use more varied and precise vocabulary than just ā€œgetā€ and ā€œgo.ā€ šŸ˜‰ [1] The proper expression is of course _lead to_ Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/334 "2018-05-10T19:52:58Z")
> [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](#): > > > [@Sushi](#): > > > > But I wouldnā€™t say you are fluent enough in those. > > Youā€¦ me? šŸ˜ƒ Oneā€¦ (On in French) ---
**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/335 "2018-05-10T19:57:56Z")
A linkā€¦ Zapps you toā€¦ Takes you toā€¦ At least, you follow the link, no question about that! So if you _follow_, perhaps the link _guides_ you toā€¦ But imo, a link just links to. Refers to, at best. And you click it. Or not. Which makes the link pointless. No point, no click. Point ā€˜nā€™ Click Thimbleweed Park! (Phew, that was a bit of three degrees of separation) ---
**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/336 "2018-05-10T20:06:29Z")
> [@Frenzie](#): > > German is somewhat neglected here in Flanders. Here? Werenā€™t you Dutch? As in born and raised in the Netherlands? > [@Frenzie](#): > > At the basis you have the two main languages of the country, Dutch and French, followed by the European lingua franca (English). The forgotten third language of the country, German, is the fourth language in education. Which perfectly reflects the demographics in Belgium. To be honest, the German speaking community in Belgium is a historical abberation. > **[German-speaking Community of Belgium](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-speaking_Community_of_Belgium)** > > The German-speaking Community (German: Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft), also known as East Belgium (German: Ostbelgien), is one of the three federal communities of Belgium, with an area of 854Ā km2 (330Ā sqĀ mi) in the LiĆØge Province of Wallonia, including nine of the eleven municipalities of Eupen-Malmedy. The primary language of the community is German, making this the third official language in Belgium. Traditionally the community and the wider area around it forms an intersection of various Borde... ---
**Author:** ![Frenzie](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/frenzie/32/4416_2.png) [@Frenzie](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Frenzie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/337 "2018-05-10T20:17:49Z")
> [@Sushi](#): > > Here? > Werenā€™t you Dutch? As in born and raised in the Netherlands? Iā€™m one of those nasty immigrants. Vlaams Belang gives me a free paper about how horrible we are every two months or so. Build more mosques! Build more mosques! #missionaccomplished > [@Sushi](#): > > Which perfectly reflects the demographics in Belgium. To be honest, the German speaking community in Belgium is a historical abberation. It was tongue-in-cheek of course, but Germany is our neighbor as well. ---
**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/338 "2018-05-10T21:56:48Z")
if @frenzie can speak for Flanders/Belgium as a Dutchman, allow me to take you on a short(?) history about the Netherlands and carrots. Oh and donā€™t worry, thereā€™s lots of language related stuff in it too. Ever wondered why (most) carrots are orange? By nature, carrots always had different colors, ranging from white to almost black. So these more expensive yellow or purple carrots you can buy these days, have been around for a much longer time and arenā€™t something newly fashioned. Actually the color of carrots is orange because the color of oranges is. Not because they are genetically related or something. The story goes like this: Over 2000 years ago, shortly after Julius Caear, the Romans built a city in the south of France at the place of a conquered Celtic settlement named after one of the Celtic gods: Arausio. This name evolved over time into Ouranjo in ProvenƧal or Orange in French [ɔŹÉ‘ĢƒŹ’]. You can still visit a lot of Roman buildings, theatres,ā€¦ today in Orange, by the way. Hey! Thatā€™s like orange, the fruit, which also has the color orange, you say? Right so. The fruit was actually already called naranga in Sanskrit at the time of the Romans. Over a period of 1000 years the fruit and its name traveled to Persia/ Arab (narang), via Spain/Castillo (naranja) and eventually France (arange). So by the Middle Ages, the fruit is called arange, city called Orange. Now those fruits were imported into Western Europe from China. Thatā€™s why theyā€™re called, still to this day ā€œappelsienā€ (in Belgium) or ā€œsinaasappelā€ (in the Netherlands): pommes de Chine or ā€œapples from China/Chinaā€™s appleā€. They came in over the Mediterranean Sea by ship up the river RhĆ“ne until the city of Orange. From there on they were distributed and were thus also called ā€œpommes dā€™Orangeā€, apples from the city Orange. \* Or in short orange. The fact that the name arange and Orange is only a minor difference in the sound of the first syllable must have definitively helped in mixing up both words. History has its fair share of coincidences. At that time, oranges (fruit) introduced a pretty new unique color which was both like red and yellow but not quite. So they named that color simply after the fruit itself: orange. Before people maybe called it dark yellow, who knowsā€¦ A couple of centuries later, mid 16th century, Guillaume de Nassau (Willem van Nassau), the count of Nassau (in modern day Germany) inherits the title Prince of Orange and together with some properties and land in the Netherlands, his family house is renamed to house of Orange-Nassau. Standard Game of Thrones stuff. Cue some religious war (more Game of Thrones stuff) where Willem fights for the Protestant side and sporting the color orange in his teamā€™s jerseys. His house will rule over England, South Africa and almost all of the other seven kingdoms in time, but thatā€™s another story. As we all know from Game of Thrones, it never hurts to suck up to the current ruler of the day. So the story goes that some carrot farmers cross-bred\*\* orange-colored carrots in honor of the Prince/king of Orange-Nassau. And that is why to this day, carrots are orange. Because Willemā€™s battle color was orange. Because his houseā€™s name was Orange. Because oranges are orange. * * * \* : Similar to how denim (jeans fabric) has its roots in ā€œde NĆ®mesā€ (another nice Roman city in the Provence). \*\*: Recent DNA research shows that orange colored carrots existed before, so itā€™s not that orange carrots are artificial, but there definitively was a heavy human selection and genetic narrowing involved (similar to breeding of dog races). ---
**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/339 "2018-05-10T22:10:02Z")
> [@Frenzie](#): > > Germany is our neighbor as well so is the UK Although with that Brexit šŸ¤” ---
**Author:** ![tasse-tee](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/tasse-tee/32/4002_2.png) [@tasse-tee](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/tasse-tee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:10am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/340 "2018-05-11T05:10:02Z")
_Congratulations!_ You know more about orange than anyone else in the entire universe, probably! šŸ† ā­šŸŠ ---
**Author:** ![tasse-tee](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/tasse-tee/32/4002_2.png) [@tasse-tee](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/tasse-tee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:12am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/341 "2018-05-11T05:12:23Z")
> [@Sushi](#): > > so is the UK > Although with that Brexit šŸ¤” Still going to stubbornly call myself a European after we leave. ---
**Author:** ![Guga](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/guga/32/14476_2.png) [@Guga](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Guga)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:19am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524/342 "2018-05-11T05:19:24Z")
> [@Sushi](#): > > So they named that color simply after the fruit itself: orange. Before people maybe called it dark yellow, who knowsā€¦ I read somewhere, and I suppose it makes sense, that orange was considered a shade of red. Think about hairs. We still call it ā€œred hairā€ despite the fact that theyā€™re obviously ~~grilled~~ orange. [Previous page](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524.md?page=16) [Next page](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-official-language-thread/2524.md?page=18)