this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Linguistics Humor

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An isogloss or a political border? 🥶🥶🥶

Cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/1728128

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[–] harpo@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

To add a little more confusion, there are two words in Catalan for it. The map says "Pistatxo", which is not wrong, but the synonym I and many people around me use is "festuc", which coincidentally starts with F, so there goes your political border theory.. or not!

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

Definitive proof of a Catalan vs. Daco-Romance link! /s

[–] boraca@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We also have fistaszki in Polish, but it doesn't mean pistachios - it's what we call peanuts sometimes.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 5 points 10 months ago

In Turkish, when you say "fıstık" alone, people would understand peanuts as well. However peanut is "yer fıstığı" while pistachio is "Antep fıstığı" or for the pink ones "Siirt fıstığı".

[–] colderr@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In Estonia we don't say it like that usually. It's not wrong but we usually just say "pistaatsiapähkel".

[–] TheGreenGolem@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] colderr@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. It pretty much means pistachio nut.

[–] TheGreenGolem@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I was pretty much joking about how that's longer than any of the words on the map in OP. But apparently it wasn't a good joke.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

This explains literally everything.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Bulgaria needs a third colour. I don't know what the fuck that letter is, but it isn't P nor F.

[–] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Probably it got on the red side because it is a "compound" word шамфъстък where the second part (фъстък) is similar to the languages of the eastern part.

[–] Land_Strider@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah definitely that. In Turkish, for example, the actual world is Şam Fıstığı ("Fıstık" as root), with literal translation would be "Damascus Peanut").

[–] sab@kbin.social 0 points 10 months ago

I think it's the equivalent to sh (as in sheep). At least it's absolutely not an F.

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago
[–] muhyb@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I wonder what is the origin of this word, since all sound similar. Hence the F-P transition.

[–] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The origin seems to be Persian (from where the plant comes actually as many other fruits) from which the word entered as a loan to ancient Greek (πιστάκιον) and later Latin (pistācium).

Interestingly enough from middle Persian "pstk'" the initial sound became aspirated (like the "Farsi" name itself for the modern language from Middle Persian "Pārsīk").

And by Turkish/Ottoman domination the f- variant spread in the Middle East.

[–] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 4 points 10 months ago

A lot of fruits, trees and nuts come from Persia... the name of the "peach" in some European languages is closely related to it, for example English "peach" from old French "pesche" is a contraction of medieval latin "persica", cfr Romanian "piersică", Italian "pesca" (and in some Italian dialects it's called "persica"/"persego") and similar variations.

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Relevant detail: Ottoman Turkish ⟨فستق‎⟩ fıstık borrowed it from Arabic ⟨فُسْتُق‎⟩ fustuq, that borrowed it from Middle Persian - the same variety as Greek and then Latin did. So odds are that the f-variation was caused by Arabic rendering a foreign [p] as [f], and probably predates Persian itself internally undergoing a p→f shift. Source.

[–] chaogomu@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

The root word is Persian. Middle Persian to be exact. pistakē.

Pistachios are native to Iran, parts of Afghanistan, and a spattering of other middle eastern countries.

Commercial production mostly came out of Iran until the 1970s, when changes to the US tax code made growing for production favorable, then the Iranian Revolution hit and US production took off.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago

Which is Romanian and Turkish? Are they Greek to you?

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

Do ya like fistiks?