# Foreign language words for Shadow?



## RangerWickett

Need some help from the linguistically minded of you.  Could you please post different words for shadow in different languages?  Also, dark, eclipse, obscure, or night?  

It'd be great if you could cover the bases from a lot of different languages.  Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, various Native American, various African, German, Old English.  If you think it's necessary, please include a pronunciation guide.  

Thanks.

*Japanese:*
Night - Yoru.

*Old English:*
Dark - Dox.


----------



## Dragonblade

Here are some off the top of my head:

Japanese:

Kage = shadow (noun)

Kurai = dark (adj.)


----------



## clark411

German - Schatten

Italian - Ombra

check babelfish if you haven't yet.  

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/


----------



## Maldur

Ill check back with you after I speak with my girlfriend (she speak arabic).

here are the dutch:

Schaduw - shadow
Donker - dark
Nacht - night

Eclipse and obscure are the same (only pronunciation)

I cant write pronunciation, but Ill see if I can find them.


----------



## Archibald Theocliste

Let's try it in french :

Shadow  = ombre
Dark = sombre
Eclipse = eclipse (This one was hard)
Obscure = obscure (This one was harder  )
Night = nuit

Don't know how I can write the pronunciation...


----------



## tleilaxu

Cantonese

Ying Ji or Ying

Ying starts at a medium tone and rises yih- (medium) ng (going up) Ji at a low tone


----------



## tleilaxu

More Cantonese

Dark - Ha Ngam. Ha (High Tone) Ngam (Low tone)

Eclipse - Yat Sihk.  Yat (medium tone) Sihk (Low falling tone)

Obscure (difficult to translate directly) Hahm Wu . Hahm (Low tone) Wu (low rising tone)

Night - Maahn (low tone) or Yeh Maahn


----------



## rigur

Swedish

Shadow = Skugga
Night = Natt
Obscure = Dunkel
Dark = Mörk
Eclipse = Förmörkelse, eklips


----------



## Noldor Elf

And finnish:

shadow=varjo
night=yö
obscure=hämärä
dark=pimeä
eclipse=pimennys

I try to return with pronunciation later.


----------



## tleilaxu

finnish is such a cool looking language


----------



## RangerWickett

Thanks much for all the help already, but keep them coming if you can.  I also forgot to ask for Gaelic, Welsh, and any other British island languages or dialects I'm too ignorant to know of.

Also, if there's some sort of unusual tone to a word, please include that if you're aware of it.  Y'know, like how supposedly Inuit have a dozen different words for different kinds of snow, if a language has different words for different types of shadow, that'd be cool.


----------



## tleilaxu

why do you want this info anyway?


----------



## RangerWickett

Poems and prophecies.  Can anyone here think of a fantasy culture that could use a few dozen different words for shadow?


----------



## Knight Otu

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> *Need some help from the linguistically minded of you.
> *



Not sure if I qualify as linguistically minded... 



> *
> Could you please post different words for shadow in different languages?
> *




As already said, Schatten is the german word



> *
> Also, dark, eclipse, obscure, or night?
> *



Dark - Dunkel (darkness is Dunkelheit)
Eclipse -  Finsternis (As in Sonnenfinsternis, solar eclipse)
Obscure - Verborgen
Night - Nacht (In italian, notte)


----------



## archer8228

Let's try it in latin:

Shadow = umbra (also means ghost)
Dark = acerbus, atrer, obscurum
Eclipse = labores solis (doesn't translate very well)
Obscure = ignotus(adjective)
Night = nox


----------



## Comert

turkish
shadow - gölge, hayal, hayalet, karalti, saye, siluet
darkness- karanlik, alacakaranlik, gunessiz, isiksiz, izbe, kapali, kapkaranlik, kuytu, kuz, los, maglum, muzlim, zifir, sumbuli,
eclipse - tutulma, husuf kusuf
night - gece, aksam, ikindi, tün, yatsi
night - laila (arabic I think)

edit: added some more names for shadow, darkness....etc


----------



## Comert

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> *Poems and prophecies.  Can anyone here think of a fantasy culture that could use a few dozen different words for shadow? *



You could try the black speech of Mordor.


----------



## ninthcouncil

Here's a URL you might find useful:

http://www.freedict.com 

Unfortunately, Japanese appears to be out of commission at the moment


----------



## Buttercup

I've just fished out my Romany dictionary for you.  Let's see what we find....

dark=kalo, skootsizi, karanluki (sorry, I don't know the difference)
darkness=kalipe
midnight=mashkari rat
night=rat
nighttime=ratsyasa, rakyasa
shadow=oochipe


It's just a little pocket dictionary, so it doesn't have eclipse and obscure.  Sorry.  I like mashkari rat though.  Sounds like a very scary poisonous rat, one that maybe only comes out at night....


----------



## Bonedagger

Danish: 
Shadow = Skygge ["y" like german "ü"]
dark = mørkt [myarkt]
eclipse = eklipse/formørkelse [formyarklese]
obscure = Skjult/tilsløret [tilslyared]
night = nat

Spanish: 
Shadow = Sombra


----------



## Madfox

Of course, the down side with dictionarys as opposed to people is that they tend to give the litteral translation and not the best word to be used 

Anyway, while in Dutch the word "donker" means dark, I am not sure that is the word you are looking for. The Dutch word "donker" is used mainly when there is a lack of light or when it is darker variation of a color. When you use "a dark night" to describe a somewhat threatening mood the word "duister" is probably much better.  This especially true when you want the tranlation of darkness, because that would be "duisternis". When translating a word you should really give the context in which you want to use it.


----------



## Maldur

madfox I stand corrected ( even though Im a bit mift being corrected by you )


----------



## Mindcrime

Mandarin Chinese:

ying zi

or 

ying yin

(without getting into irrelevent linguistics lessons, "yi" is more or less pronounced "ee" rather than "yai" or "yee")

For 'dark' or 'mysterious':

Xuen

(pronounced "shwen", basically)

Chris


----------



## Desdichado

Black Speech:  búrz = dark, burzum = darkness

Try some slavic languages, like Polish or Russian too.  They probably come out very interesting, although I can't think of the word of the top of my head anymore.


----------



## Relic

Blackfoot Native American - 

Shadow: nashe (pronounced naw-she)
Dark: wunta (pronounced wan-ta)
Eclipse: daku nashe (translates to "shadow of the moon")
Obscure: ni sha wa (pronounced knee-sha-way)
Night: hanne (pronounced hon-knee)


----------



## The It's Man

Other words for darkness on EN world is ofcourse Shadow of My former Self 

Anyway, as Madfox already stated there are other words for the Dutch _donker_. The words _duister_ and _duisternis_ are very good. But that's not all. How about a not very common (regional) word for _duisternis_: _Deemster_, it is derived from the Latin tenabrae or from the old Greek themeros; BTW _deemstering_ means twilight.

For shadow I have found this:
_Immersie_, it's the start of the shadow of one celestial body on another .
_Lommer_, it's the shadow of the foliage of a tree and shrubs.
_Lommering_, old fashioned word.
_Nevelbeeld_ the image made on a mist by the shadow of the observer. (_nevel_ means mist and, _beeld_ means image)
_Schad_, also a regional word, it also means the reflection in water or ice.
_Scheem_, another regional word, it's also the shadow of a dead person, (kind of ghost I guess). _Schemering_ is also another word for twilight.
_Schemer_ is also a word for the time between light and dark. 

And there are the words _halfduister_, _halfdonker_ and _halflicht_ (_half_ means half, _licht_ means light).


----------



## omokage

Japanese

_omokage_ - shadow face, mental image, projection, memory traces, lingering image, shadow of one's former self, etc.

just had to plug myself in this thread . . . it was so easy.


----------



## tarchon

archer8228 said:
			
		

> *Let's try it in latin:
> 
> Shadow = umbra (also means ghost)
> Dark = acerbus, atrer, obscurum
> Eclipse = labores solis (doesn't translate very well)
> Obscure = ignotus(adjective)
> Night = nox *



<i>ignotus</i> means something like ignored or overlooked, used specifically to indicate forgiveness for some sort of transgression.  Obscure would be a very unusual translation of it.
Obscure in a visual sense is, not surprisingly, <i>obscurus</i>, c.f. French <i>obscure</i>, Italian <i>oscuro</i>. 
<i>ater</i>, not "atrer", the basic meaning is dull/flat black
<i>acerbus</i> means sharp or bitter, has nothing to do with darkness.  I assume this was listed as a synonym for "dark" in the metaphorical sense as in "a dark mood."
Also:
<i>tenebra/tenebrae</i> = shadow, darkness
<i>occultus</i> = concealed, secret
<i>opacus</i> = shaded, dark
<i>caligo</i> = mist, gloom, darkness

Ancient Greek has among others
<i>skotos</i> = shadow
<i>orphnη</i> = darkness


----------



## Zappo

*Italian here*

Shadow - Ombra
Dark - Oscurità (noun), Tenebra (noun), Scuro (adj), Buio (adj or noun)
Eclipse - Eclissi
Obscure - Scuro, tenebroso, oscuro. They all mean dark, but of these, only oscuro can mean "difficult to understand". Also, tenebroso feels somewhat dramatic.
Night - Notte

The 'à' letter isn't pronounced any different from a normal 'a', it just means that the stress is on the last syllable. All Italian vowels are always pronounced in almost the same way, regardless of which word they're in or which position they occupy, so pronounce shouldn't be a problem. 

Are you trying to compile a goth wannabe resource?


----------



## Andrew D. Gable

Irish for shadow is _sgáth_, I believe.


----------



## The Sigil

And here's Hungarian, which has words that (I think) sound dark and menacing for the requested words:

Dark = Sötét (SHOET-ayt)

Shadow = Árnyék (ARNY-ayk)

Nightmare = Árnyrém (ARNY-raym, literal translation would be "shadowy horror")

Night = éj (pronounced like the english letter "A" with just a touch of "y" sound on the end)

Obscure (adj) = jelentéktelen (YELL-en-take-tell-en, best literal translation into English is probably "without a known presence")

Obscure (verb) = elhomályosít (EL-hohm-eye-oh-sheet, best literal English translation would probably be "fully blotting/causing to fade out")

Eclipse (noun) = fogyatkozás (FOH-dyaht-kohz-ahsh, best literal translation into English would be "the gradual diminishing" though there is much more connotation than that)

Eclipse (verb) = there are four of them:
elhomályosít (see "obscure" above)
elsötétít (EL-shoet-ayt-eat, best literal translation would probably be "to fully darken")
felülmúl (FEL-uehl-mool, best translation would probably be "to cover up")
túlszárnyal (TOOL-sahr-nyahl, best translation would probably be "to completely fly in front of" - metaphorically, "to outstrip or exceed")

--The Sigil


----------



## Undead Pete

The Sigil said:
			
		

> *And here's Hungarian, which has words that (I think) sound dark and menacing for the requested words:
> 
> Dark = Sötét (SHOET-ayt)
> 
> Shadow = Árnyék (ARNY-ayk)
> 
> Nightmare = Árnyrém (ARNY-raym, literal translation would be "shadowy horror")
> 
> Night = éj (pronounced like the english letter "A" with just a touch of "y" sound on the end)
> 
> Obscure (adj) = jelentéktelen (YELL-en-take-tell-en, best literal translation into English is probably "without a known presence")
> 
> Obscure (verb) = elhomályosít (EL-hohm-eye-oh-sheet, best literal English translation would probably be "fully blotting/causing to fade out")
> 
> Eclipse (noun) = fogyatkozás (FOH-dyaht-kohz-ahsh, best literal translation into English would be "the gradual diminishing" though there is much more connotation than that)
> 
> Eclipse (verb) = there are four of them:
> elhomályosít (see "obscure" above)
> elsötétít (EL-shoet-ayt-eat, best literal translation would probably be "to fully darken")
> felülmúl (FEL-uehl-mool, best translation would probably be "to cover up")
> túlszárnyal (TOOL-sahr-nyahl, best translation would probably be "to completely fly in front of" - metaphorically, "to outstrip or exceed")
> 
> --The Sigil *




Beat me to it.  My wife is Hungarian...i was gonna ask her for some help.

The only Hungarian I know is Badz Meg (no offense...it's probably spelled wrong anyway)


----------



## The Sigil

Undead Pete said:
			
		

> Beat me to it.  My wife is Hungarian...i was gonna ask her for some help.
> 
> The only Hungarian I know is Badz Meg (no offense...it's probably spelled wrong anyway)




It's "Bassz Meg" and you're fortunate Eric's grandmother doesn't know Magyar. 

--The Sigil


----------



## zouron

Greenlandic

Dark = Târtok
Shadow = Alángok
Nightmare = Okimangernek or Angnikitdliûtekangârnek
Night = únuak
Obscure = ulípâ
Eclipse = târsinek
Eclipse of the Sun = Sekernup Pulenara


----------



## Maerdwyn

Arabic:
Shadow:  Till (the t has a very heavy sound, like the t in "Tom"
Night: leila
Eclipse: kasoof
Twilight: ghasaq (the gh is a gutteral "r" like "Paris" said with an
         outrageous French accent)
Obscure:  ghamaD (gh as above, D is very heavy, as in "thud")

Welsh:

Shadow:  Cysgod (pronounced "kus-gid")
Eclipse:  diffyg ("dee-fug")
Night: nos ("knowss"), or hwyr ("hyoo-er", also means "evening")
Obscure: aneglur ("ah-nay-glir") or tywyll ("tow-eel" - "tow" as in "towel"; the"l"  is  breathy)


----------



## ramuji

Japanese:

Shadow:
_kage_ = shadow
_kuragari_ = darkness; dark place (e.g. "someone is lurking in the darkness")
_hitokage_ = shadow of a person, or silhouette

Dark:
_kurai_ = dark
_yami_ = darkness (e.g. "He escaped under cover of darkness/into the dark night.")
_kuroi_ = black


Eclipse: 
_nisshoku_ = solar eclipse
_gesshoku_ = lunar eclipse
_kaikigesshoku_ = total lunar eclipse
_bubungesshoku_ = partial lunar eclipse

Obscure:
_fumeiryo_ = indistinct, inarticulate, ill-defined
_aimai_ = ambiguous, vague

Night:
_yoru_ = night
_yakan_ = night, nighttime
_nichibotsu_ = sunset, sundown


----------



## tarchon

Swahili

shade/shadow = <i>uvuli</i>, (class 11) apparently in the general sense 

shade/shadow = <i>kivuli</i>, (class 7) specifically a ghost as in many other languages, it might also refer to a cast shadow.  The contrast in noun classes suggests that <i>uvuli</i> is probably what we call shade while <i>kivuli</i> is what we call a shadow, but the dictionary I'm using is unclear about it. 

dark = <i>-ausi/-eusi</i>  What goes before the - depends on what it modifies, e.g. <i>kivuli chausi</i>, dark shadow.

Mongolian (standard Halka)

shadow = <i>sïïder</i>
dark = <i>baraan, bïrenhii, har</i>

Both of the on-line dictionaries roughly agree, but I have no idea about the particular connotations, except that <i>har</i> is basically the color black (related to Turkish <i>kara</i> and perhaps Japanese <i>kuroi</i>).  They each give several other options, so I'm guessing that Mongolian doesn't have a closely corresponding semantic category.  Mongolian terms for visual appearance generally don't correspond well to Western concepts, I've found.


----------



## Eristophenes

And what about polish? 

Shadow - Cieñ

Dark - ciemny, mroczny

Eclipse - zacmienie (instead of "c" there should be "c" with a dot on top of it - but it's polish letter  )

Oscure - ciemny, ponury

Night - noc


----------



## Irbis

*In Russian...*

Shadow -- ten'

Dark -- t'ma (also the word for "ten thousand" in Old Russian, btw)

Eclipse -- zatmenie

Obscure -- temniy

Night -- noch'


Hope this helps


----------



## Talvisota

Russian-

dark  teem-no-TA
dark (adj) TYOM-ny
dark (adv) teem-NO

shadow  tyen' (doesn't write well, you have to hear it)

night  noch
night (adj) nach-NOY


----------

