If any person raises his hand to strike down another on the ground of religion, I shall fight him till the last breath of my life, both as the head of the Government and from outside- Jawaharlal Nehru.
This is the weirdest survey I've come across, and the includes one where about thirty people said they were Pat Buchanan.
Intrepid Explorer Squire of the Green Room Harbinger of the Cosmic Squid Brief Castaway Founder of Hermits United TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year Dark Matter Overlord Kind of a Big Deal
This phrase is going in the box of "things I didn't think sounded weird until it was pointed out to me"
"The fact is, I don't know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn't collapse when you beat your head against it." --Douglas Adams
^ Let me know if I am understanding your question @blueafrica.
Spanish and French (and probably the other romances) do have a literal translations for "how come" that people commonly say. It would be something like
comment se fait-il Or cómo es que ^ These are said and used and are meaning similar to the English How come.
But the translation is not "why". It is literal translation of "how" & "come", and typically not used by itself as a complete sentence, like how in English, you can say
"How come?" and that would be synonymous with "Why?" by itself. If I am not mistaken (and I am not a linguist, so possibly ) I don't think you can do that in those two languages.
In those languages you would literally say how did you come to that, how is it happening, how in the world is it possible. In those languages, how come in not the equivalent of why. How come is the literal version of how come.
What is interesting is that in Spanish and French, why=for what.
In English, we would understand "for what" as something like saying "for what reason (are you asking?), but we would be confused (or awkward) if someone were to say "For what is the sky blue?"
That is weird. But not in those languages, because "Why=For what", in the same way that "How come=Why" in English. And just like how in English, we have to have LITERAL translations for the Spanish/French porquoi/por qué, in those languages, they have LITERAL translations for English's "how come?"
Now. Don't even get me started on BECAUSE. I think that in some languages (I'm looking at you Italian!) 'because' is a literal translation of why. Spanish por qué is "WHY" but Spanish porque is because. It is super interesting.
I kind of reckon that "Why" as a concept is filled with nuance. Like, I recall Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the whole "Wherefore" which also meant "why" and puzzles a modern reader today. You mean "wherefore" has nothing to do with location? LOL!
I think it's because WHY is so DEEP. Think about it.
What -- as a question word is pretty straightforward. It is pointing to something in our physical world and asking "what?" so it is intrinsically tied to a physical reality. I love it because I imagine that a baby's first question into the world is like baby kid pointing at something and going in his head "what?" "what is that?" Over and over and over again.
When and Where are similarly tied to time, place, and therefore also a question word that points to a physical reality.
Even "how" points to processes. It is like baby kid watching you delicately balancing a spoon and getting food balanced on top of the spoon and getting that spoon/food into your mouth. Like, baby kid is going "how do you do that?!" Or when a stuntman flips all cool-like and we're all "HOW?" How is quite awesomely an action-question.
But why is...nebulous. Why is intention. It is internal. It is about meaning and that is not directly tied to the physical world so much as the internal world, it is actually tied to the things inherent and the things unseen. Pretty cool.
It spurs an interesting perspective on existentialism. We all look at ourselves and ask why we are here. And in some languages we may be asking "how it has come to be that we are here" and that is pointing to wanting to know an origin story, doesn't it?
Whereas in other languages, we may be asking "for what reason could we be here" and that is pointing for a logic to "being"
Yeah, that's what I was saying, that Spanish "por qué" is literally "for what" but means "why" - although then of course I had to go look up the four different "porques," three of which I get and the fourth of which is only used in very specific circumstances that confuse me. But the other three are all tied together in a way that's really interesting.
Like you basically can answer "por qué" with "porque" or "porqué."
"Por qué?" "Porque..." or "Porqué..."
I actually haven't learned how to ask why in French! But I have in Spanish, which is funny because I'm learning both via Duolingo and I've been doing French longer than Spanish.
But French is also way more ridiculous and complicated than Spanish, so maybe that's porqué.
The main thing I remember about "wherefore" is our English teachers all going, "Why!!! WHY!!!! It doesn't mean where! It means whyyyyy!!!!!!!"
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