Llama, what's your name? (Spanish/Quechuan)
Apparently the llama owns its name to the Spanish phrase ¿Cómo se llama? When the Spanish discovered America they asked the indigenous people for the name of this animal using the phrase ¿Cómo se llama? What do you call this? The indigineous people didn't understand and repeated the last word llama, llama. So the Spanish finally thought the animal's name is llama. Or so I've been told. Nice story anyway.
Editorial note: Very nice, but not quite accurate. In fact the expression llama was there before the Spanish arrived. It's of Quechuan origin and was borrowed by many languages, together with other Quechuan words such as condor or puma.
Sent by: Ben
Comments
But in Spanish, the verb 'llamar' it's used like 'called'. Literally, we say "how are you called?" If we wanted to translate the English question "What's your name?" literally, we should say "¿Cuál es tu nombre?"
In many languages the word for 'name' resembles the English word 'name'. German - Name, Hindi - Naam, Urdu - Naam, and as tongues twist pronounciations and spellings twist. Words may be borrowed from other languages - depending on cultural attachments and scenarios.
Japanese also uses a similar word, namae, which means name.
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