In how many languages do you know how to say “dolphin”?

Asked by raum (13459

) September 2nd, 2019 from iPhone

When I was in high school, I made the mistake of marking English as my second language on a school form. (I learned it concurrently.)

I was called to the office. They sat me down and asked me to point at objects to test my language proficiency.

I was pretty amused because my English is pretty good. But I also found their choice of objects to be pretty interesting.

One of the cards they held up had a picture of a dolphin. Which has become my personal gauge for language fluency.

So…how many languages can you say “dolphin” in? No cheating and googling!

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9 Answers

I know dauphin, delfino, and deflin (which is a word for “dolphin” in many languages). The European words seem to all borrow from the same source. I don’t know the word for “dolphin” in any non-European language.

Demosthenes (15328

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Dolphin in Hebrew – is Dolfin דולפין

elbanditoroso (33577

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Only one. Out of curiosity I looked up the Chinese for dolphin, which is haitun, or sea pig.

flutherother (34927

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An old name for “dolphin” in English was mereswine which also means “sea pig”. interesting.

Demosthenes (15328

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The real question is: Can you say dolphin in Dolphin?
I bet you can not, you monoglot primitives!

ragingloli (52277

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Two. English and Spanish.

I don’t think knowing the word dolphin demonstrates fluency.

A friend of the family teaches Spanish and she has told a story about not being able to recall the word for straw. Straw for a glass of soda. My husband was born and raised in Spanish, and I know words he doesn’t. Words like rise, as in low rise jeans. I sold clothes in Spanish and he’s a guy. Lol.

JLeslie (65790

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