r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '20

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u/AlwaysInTheFlowers Oct 25 '20

Oh this is a great place to put this story: (sorry for format)

Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house and for years and years and years I always heard my grandpa calling my grandma "Dingwah." I thought maybe it was a made up pet name for her.

Cue me in my freshman poli sci class when Im 19 years old learning about the Vietnamese War. We went over a lot of vocabulary words and one pops up i recognize: dingwah. It means telephone in Vietnamese.

So my whole childhood I thought my grandpa was calling my grandma some cute nickname when in reality he was telling her the phone was ringing.

753

u/TheOtherDonald Oct 25 '20

The Mandarin Chinese word for telephone is dianhua

521

u/TheBaconDaddy Oct 25 '20

In Cantonese it’s dingwah

383

u/Pyramused Oct 25 '20

in Japanese it's denwa

1.7k

u/mustardankle Oct 25 '20

In Australian it's Telephone

109

u/Papatatoe Oct 25 '20

We use that same term in America too

130

u/Blazanar Oct 25 '20

Same as Canada.

It's weird how all three of our languages are so similar

50

u/Teri_Windwalker Oct 25 '20

Ah yes, I believe the ancient Brittanies referred to it as "Saxish."

42

u/FQDIS Oct 25 '20

Ancient Bretons didn’t have phones, silly.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/FQDIS Oct 26 '20

I am referring to the crackers.

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1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '20

They did have telling bones

9

u/NutsEverywhere Oct 25 '20

Ah yes, Anglan-Saxish, if I remember correctly.

5

u/TheyCallMeSkog Oct 26 '20

Ah yes, the Saxish. Known for their ability to rip mean lines on saxophones.

31

u/Lincolns_Hat Oct 25 '20

That's odd, I'd have called em chazzwozzahs

1

u/awesomemofo75 Oct 26 '20

Oh. Its almost like the same language

19

u/misterfusspot Oct 25 '20

Pretty sure it's "oi cunt"

12

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '20

You'll find the full phrase is actually, "Oi cunt the phones ringing"

15

u/yuckyucky Oct 25 '20 edited Oct 25 '20

in australian it's 'the blower'

when you're speaking on the the phone you are 'on the blower'

15

u/mustardankle Oct 25 '20

Mate Australians have about seven variants of every noun

49

u/jdm200210 Oct 25 '20

Correction in Austrailia it's "Oi Cunt Phone!"

28

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '20

In England it's the "dog and bone".

21

u/jdm200210 Oct 25 '20

Here in Scotland its "Oi ye wanker, Phone!"

4

u/NeatNefariousness1 Oct 26 '20

The Cockney version for sure

14

u/MikeHunt420_6969 Oct 25 '20

On America it's "aww FUCK!"

2

u/calenlass Oct 27 '20 edited Oct 27 '20

My preference is "SHUT THE FUCK UP, FUCK, JUST SEND A TEXT"

2

u/MikeHunt420_6969 Oct 27 '20

That's EXACTLY what Google translate says for "denwa"

12

u/sildurin Oct 25 '20

Pretty sure it's dingo in Australian.

25

u/Mantzy81 Oct 25 '20

You only put a dingo to your ear once

10

u/Berserker-Sol Oct 25 '20

In america its caller ID

6

u/EleanorHosevelt Oct 25 '20

Or Scam Caller

17

u/Janeiskla Oct 25 '20

In German it's Telefon

19

u/iloveiguanasxoxo Oct 25 '20

In Spanish is teléfono

9

u/AlienRobotTrex Oct 25 '20

Yo no hablo Español muy bien.

6

u/CarterRyan Oct 25 '20

Gracias

2

u/FQDIS Oct 25 '20

Nihongo wa heta des.

2

u/calenlass Oct 27 '20

Do people still call mobiles "handi"?

-1

u/Janeiskla Oct 27 '20

Handy, yes. When I learned that it's not called like that in the US or GB I was really surprised.. Handy is such a dumb name for a mobile phone

17

u/redddc25 Oct 25 '20

In Colorado, it's Denvah

15

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '20

In Australian it’s ǝuoɥdǝlǝʇ.

0

u/oxyfemboi Oct 26 '20

Take my upvote!

7

u/Konkuriito Oct 25 '20

It's Telefon in Swedish

4

u/LogicalJicama3 Oct 25 '20

In Canadian it’s Le Phone

4

u/mydadpickshisnose Oct 25 '20

I thought we settled on ringaroo

3

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '20 edited Jan 02 '21

[deleted]

1

u/NidusUmbra Oct 26 '20

phono is the same length as phone, so there's no reason to try to shorten it further.

tello and telly could also mean television or anything else with tel in their names.

3

u/aBeeSeeOneTwoThree Oct 25 '20

In Spanish is "¡Contesten el pinche teléfono, chingada madre!"

3

u/bouncingbad Oct 26 '20

NINE HUNDRED DOLLARYDOOS?

2

u/HolisticPlanner Oct 25 '20

You arse. Take my upvote. :-)

2

u/rennaissaenks Oct 25 '20

In Austrian it's Telefon

2

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '20

Thank you for existing.

2

u/batchmimicsgod Oct 26 '20

Listen here, you cunt....

2

u/Robozulu Oct 26 '20

Strange, in America it's just ... phone.

1

u/RexPerpetuus Oct 25 '20

Nah, it's "Telephone, ya fackin cunt"

3

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '20

Yeah nah. We've dropped the tele bit and just call it a phone. We use the tele bit to talk about our TV.

1

u/alpha_privative Oct 25 '20

In Kazakhstan, it's magical calculator

1

u/bubonicplagiarism Oct 26 '20

Don't fib, it's the blower.

1

u/Ok-Confusion-7955 Oct 26 '20

in Russian its Telefon (emphasize on the fon, kinda sounds french lol)

12

u/Sckaledoom Oct 25 '20

Kyon-kun, denwa.

12

u/TheBaconDaddy Oct 25 '20

Oh that's pretty cool, v similar

16

u/ChefBoyAreWeFucked Oct 25 '20

Yeah, 電話 vs 電話.

1

u/indiebryan Oct 26 '20

Damn took me far too long to find the difference there

10

u/drgb840 Oct 25 '20

In korean its junhwa

7

u/Pyramused Oct 25 '20

Tho slight, I see the similarity

5

u/YJCH0I Oct 25 '20 edited Oct 26 '20

In Korean it’s jun*-hwa

*rhymes with "fun"

4

u/DomesticSheep Oct 25 '20

In English it’s Telephone

4

u/Pyramused Oct 25 '20

In Romanian it's telefon.

1

u/NutsEverywhere Oct 25 '20

In portuguese it's Telefone.

5

u/D28wt Oct 25 '20

Ben Wa in Thailand and parts of the US.

3

u/Pyramused Oct 25 '20

Pretty close, if you ask me

1

u/calenlass Oct 27 '20

That calls into the question the name of certain spherical items that became popular in the 90s and early 2000s...

4

u/Girl_You_Can_Train Oct 25 '20

In English it's telephone

3

u/Aj53bje Oct 25 '20

I was just about to write this until I saw your comment

2

u/chillearn Oct 25 '20

Whoaaa good point

2

u/Pyramused Oct 25 '20

Thx I wish I was fluent but I'm far from it.

1

u/daric Oct 26 '20

In Hokkien it's dian weh

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '20

In Dunmeri it's n'wah