Hello Agora fans,

      No biggy but here is a web page I found (Travlang) with the phrase "Thank You Very Much" in various languages. There are times when this phrase comes in very handy when writing or talking to any foreigner so I thought some of you might like to have it.

     —- Brian

http://www.travlang.com/wordofday/184.html

Very handy indeed, but I have, of course, a few comments.

The Arabic is unmistakably Egyptian. In Morocco, it would likely be just shukran, or a blessing like barak ‘llahu fîk. Plain shukran should work in most Arabic speaking countries.

The Hindi expression looks very exuberant to me. In most cases, expressing your thanks through body language will be the norml thing. If you want to show real gratitude, dhanyavaad would be proper enough, or in extreme cases bahut dhanyavaad. I suppose this would work for Bengali dhany(a)baad as well.

The Mandarin feichang ganxie is really ‘thanks very much’. ‘Thanks’ or ‘thank you’, xiexie; xiexie ni will probaly suffice in normal situations.

For Persian (which I think is a more proper name in English than Farsi), the normal word is merci. "No, we never say ‘merci’ in Persian, we always say ‘tashakkur’." - "I see. Have a cigarette?" "Merci."

Very curious and useful indeed, Brian!! It’s very difficult to find the proper translation… Obviously, one tends to employ the expression that is widely used in the target language, rather than the exact equivalent. "Thank you very much" in Spanish would be "se lo agradezco mucho"; but that’s too formal, too long to be taken in consideration.

Like anders, I’ve got a few comments. For Catalan we find "moltes gracies/moltíssimes gràcies", I reckon one could apply this superlative also to Castilian "Muchísimas gracias". As to Galician, "Graciñas" is a diminutive… I’d say it’s actually "Muitas gracias", but I’m not sure.

By the bye, on visiting the link on the left-hand side where it says "Spanish", I found some curious things. I thought that Spain in Arab would still be "Al-andalusí", in the same way as in Hebrew one says "sfaradit".

But, now that I see "gazteleraz" in Basque… Actually it’s the language "Castilian" what they’re translating. Then it’s "gaztelera"(language of the South Wind) and I’ve never heard a Catalan asking whether you speak "espanyol", but always "castellà".

And, finally, anders, how can a commoner like myself get to know as many languages as yourself?!?

Regards,

          WS.

Luganda and Wolof have no autocthonous (I just wanted to use that word) way to say thank you very much?  That’s weird.  Maybe a smile or a nod of the head or something else is enough then?

Brazilian dude

What caught my eye is a little different… I couldn’t help notice the Greek expression, which reminded me immediately of the Eucharist in the Catholic church… And saying ‘grace’ before a meal… etc.

-Tim