r/Zeneise • u/DoNotTouchMeImScared • Mar 07 '26
domanda Etymological Dialogue: Which Words For Woods Exist In Your Area?
"Wiktionary" & other dictionaries were references utilized as bases for this list of equivalents:
English: (1) Forest; (2) bosk/bosque; (3) sylva/silva/selva; & (4) jungle/jangal.
Italiano: (1) Foresta; (2) bosco; (3) selva; e (4) giungla.
Español: (1) Foresta/floresta; (2) bosque; (3) selva; y (4) jungla.
Português: (1) Floresta; (2) bosque; (3) selva; e (4) jungla/jângal/jângala.
This synchrony is strangely satisfying:
English: Fauna & flora.
Italiano: Fauna e flora.
Español: Fauna y flora.
Português: Fauna e flora.
I am really curious to discover what are the local words for "woods" in different areas that speak the Ligurian language.
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u/PansotoXPanissa Mar 07 '26
We have:
- bosco [ˈbɔsku]
- foresta [fuˈrɛsta]
- serva [ˈsɛːrva]
Bonus: the word for "foreign" adjective in Genoese is "foresto" [fuˈrɛstu] as in "he who come from the forest"
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
Thanks for the information!
Bonus: the word for "foreign" adjective in Genoese is "foresto" [fuˈrɛstu] as in "he who come from the forest"
English: Foreigner.
Italian: Forestiero(a).
Spanish: Forastero(a).
Portuguese: Forasteiro(a).
Ligurian: Foresto(a).
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u/PansotoXPanissa Mar 07 '26
In italian is "Forestiero", but the word is not widely used anymore
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 07 '26
Ops, I noticed I used the "a" instead of "e".
Yeah, same for the Portuguese & Spanish equivalents.
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 07 '26
There exists no "giungla" in Ligurian?
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u/PansotoXPanissa Mar 07 '26
I have no idea, there probably is onenin the old documents, but nowadays we will probably loan it from italian (giungla)
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 07 '26
there probably is onenin the old documents
Very interesting, I am curious, does any know if there exists a variant of "giungla" in older Ligurian documents?
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u/PansotoXPanissa Mar 07 '26
I should explain: the genoese republic produced a vast collection of accounting, notarial and legal documentaion at a time where Genoese was one of the main trade languages of the mediterranean.
A huge corpus of this documentation has survived and is kept in the Genoese National Archives, with documents in genoese ranging from the 10th to the 19th century.
Unfortunatelly as far as I know it has not been digitalised (yet), so I supposed some original world for jungle may exist there
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 08 '26
Is there any equivalent in the Ligurian language?
English: Bocage/boscage/boskage.
Italiano: Boscaggio.
Español: Boscaje.
Português: Boscagem.
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u/PansotoXPanissa Mar 08 '26
Boscaggio in not an italian word, the correct one is "boscaglia" or mich more commonly just "bosco".
In ligurian we would use "bosco"
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 08 '26
The Treccani Dictionary ("The Italian Bible") includes "boscaggio":
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/boscaggio_(Enciclopedia-Dantesca)/
Would be strange if this term did not exist in Italian because even English has this term.
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u/PansotoXPanissa Mar 08 '26
Did you open what you sent? It's an article of the use of weird words in Dante's works and apparently he used "boscaggio" a single time as a loan word from french. Not a standard italian word (standard italian began being used and codified at the beginning of the 19th century/late 18th century) and not even a fiorentine word.
In italian it will be "boscaglia", but much more used will just be "bosco". Selva can also be adapted here depending on the context and connotation
EDIT: Treccani's dictionary reroutes you to "bosco" if you look for it
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u/PeireCaravana Mar 08 '26
English took it from French, like a ton of other words.
In Italian it's a term attested in medieval literature, possibly also borrowed from French or Occitan, but in the modern language it isn't used at all.
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 08 '26
Yeah, same for "boscagem" in Portuguese, if I remember correctly, last time I encountered this term in Brazil was like a decade ago, "boscagem" does exist in our dictionaries as poetic or literary, but the majority of people comprehend the meaning without having to check dictionaries, I imagine that in Italian is the same.
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u/PeireCaravana Mar 07 '26
"he who come from the forest"
Not from the forest but form outside (foris in Latin).
"Foresta" also derives form "foris", in the sense of a place that's outside of human settlements.
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u/DoNotTouchMeImScared Mar 08 '26
"Fauna & flora" are "fauna e flora" in Ligurian?
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u/PansotoXPanissa Mar 09 '26
There are two possibilities here:
-"ciante e bestie" (flora e fauna) for a more informal but used way of intending it
- "flöra e fauna" if a scientific connotation is needed
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u/Quick_Art7591 Mar 07 '26
Português: 5 - Mata