# Because / why



## Dymn

Does your language have similar or identic words for both concepts?

In *Catalan*, pronunciation is the same, but we spell it separately in questions and altogether in answers:
Why? Because...
_Per què? Perquè..._

In *Spanish*, this distinction is also made, but in _porque_ the stress falls in the first syllable, so pronunciation is different:
_Por qué? Porque...
_
In *French*, these two expressions are similar, but the difference is clearer:
_Pourquoi? Parce que..._


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## Perseas

*Greek*

Why? Γιατί; /ʝa'ti/
Because... Γιατί... /ʝa'ti/ , also Διότι... ði'oti, Επειδή... /epi'ði/

γιατί < med. διατί < anc. διά τι  (lit. =  for what)


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## rusita preciosa

Russian:
Why: *почему* /potchemu/ - literally ~onwhat
Because: *потому* /potomu/ - lit. ~onthat


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## bibax

Czech:

*Proč?*  ... it is a contracted form of *pro co ...?* _= for what ...?_, but the meaning is _why?_;

*Protože* ... < *pro to, že ...* _= for it/that, that ... _(written together, pronounced as a one word);

(*že* is a conjuction like _that_ in "He said _that_ he was ..." = "Řekl, že byl ...")


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## rur1920

rusita preciosa said:


> Russian:
> Why: *почему* /potchemu/ - literally ~onwhat
> Because: *потому* /potomu/ - lit. ~onthat


"Perwhat", "perthat what" (потому что). Also, зачем (~ for what goal?), за что (~ for what deed), для чего (~ for what purpose?), and corresponding answers are available for these.
"Because" has many standalone translations (так как, поскольку, ибо (seems to correspond to English 'for'), …).
Note that "что" ("what") is also a conjunction (compare with "que").


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## ThomasK

I suppose the word always consists of a preposition and some kind of pronoun - or a pronoun grammaticalised to conjunction such as 'que'/ 'dat', 'that'. 

Dutch: 
- *waarom *(interrogative PRO + for/...)
- *omdat *(for/... + demonstrative/relative PRO)

I don't know if English has ever had 'wherefore' [it certainly has 'therefore']...


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## ger4

German:
- why = *warum *<-- interrogative pronoun *war* (compare modern German: *wo*_ =_ 'where') + *um* ~ 'about'  
- because = *weil* <-- old High German thiu (h)wīla sō ~ 'the timespan [compare English 'while'] as'


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## ThomasK

Holger2014 said:


> German:
> - because - *weil* - old High German _thiu hwîla sô _[the timespan as] "as long as"


There is something strange - in my view at least - with regard to this evolution. This time conjunction turned to into a conjunction signalling a reason in German (and was replaced by 'während' when meant to refer to duration) and to a contrast in Dutch (like 'whereas' in English). None of those evolutions seem so self-evident to me, but of course semantic shifts are often surprising...


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## Hulalessar

ThomasK said:


> I don't know if English has ever had 'wherefore'.



It certainly did, but the word is now considered archaic. It survives in the idiom "the whys and wherefores".


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## 123xyz

ThomasK,

O, Romeo, Romeo! *Wherefore* art thou Romeo?

As for the question, in Macedonian:
зошто - why
зашто - because

Now, "зашто" is composed of "за" (for) and "што" (what), hence "for what" (like the Russian "за что" that was mentioned above), whereas I find "зошто" quite puzzling - it appears to be composed of the same two elements, except that it has an "о" instead of an "а" in the first syllable, which I cannot account for. I suppose that it's the exact same word as "зашто", artificially split from it to have two different words for two meanings. Anyhow, "зошто" and "зашто" are one of the most notorious sources of mistaken among Macedonians, as they often get mixed, with "зашто" generally replacing "зошто". By the way, I myself realised that these are two different words only when I was twelve; previously, I used them interchangeably.

P.S. Colloquially, the "т" in both "зошто" and "зашто" is elided, particularly in the latter.


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## ger4

*Latvian:*
- 'why' = *kāpēc* < *kā*_ =_ 'how' + *pēc*_ =_ 'after, according to'
- 'because' = *tāpēc *< *tā*_ =_ 'so, that way' + *pēc*
*- tāpēc *is normally followed by the conjunction *ka *(~ 'that') --> compare *Russian потому что/potomu chto *and *Czech p**rotože ... < pro to, že ...*


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## ThomasK

Is that *pēc *a local "after" or a temporal, or a figurative one?


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## ger4

@ ThomasK
*P**ē**c* can express temporal and figurative meanings: *pēc tam = *'afterwards', *pēcpusdiena* = 'afternoon' (lit: 'after-mid-day'), *pēc profesijas *= 'by profession, by trade', *pēc viņas domām *= 'according to her' (lit: 'according to her thoughts'), ... So I guess the two most direct equivalents in English would be 'after' (temporal) and 'according to' (figurative).


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## iobyo

123xyz said:


> Now, "зашто" is composed of "за" (for) and "што" (what), hence "for what" (like the Russian "за что" that was mentioned above), whereas I find "зошто" quite puzzling - it appears to be composed of the same two elements, except that it has an "о" instead of an "а" in the first syllable, which I cannot account for. I suppose that it's the exact same word as "зашто", artificially split from it to have two different words for two meanings.



_Зошто _is from _за-ошто _where _ошто _(< _од-што_) is an innovative genitive form of _што _and analogous to the BCS _zbog čega_; cf. also _штом _which was originally a innovative instrumental form of _што._

There's also the colloquial _што_, folksy _оти _and archaic _чуму._


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## luitzen

In Dutch: waarom (why) and daarom (therefore, because)
West Frisian: wêrom and dêrom


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## bazq

In Hebrew:
Why = למה [lama], comprised of ל (to) and מה (what)
"Because" is tricky... 
Before noun phrases בגלל [biglal] is used (it takes pronoun suffixes - "biglali" = "because of me", "biglalam" = "because of them" [masc.])
In the case of the conjunction "because", we mostly use כי [ki].




Holger2014 said:


> German:
> - why = *warum *<-- interrogative pronoun *war* (compare modern German: *wo*_ =_ 'where') + *um* ~ 'about'
> - because = *weil* <-- old High German thiu (h)wīla sō ~ 'the timespan [compare English 'while'] as'



In Yiddish:
Why = פאר וואס [far vos]
Because = ווייל [vayl]


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## ger4

bazq said:


> [...] In Yiddish:
> Why = פאר וואס [far vos]
> Because = ווייל [vayl]


Interesting: פאר וואס [far vos]seems to sound similar to (colloquially used) _für was_ (*'for what', i. e. 'for what purpose')

Adding *Estonian*:
- 'why' = *miks* <-- mi- is an interrogative pronoun stem, -ks is the translative suffix
- 'because' (1) = *sest* <-- se- is a demonstrative pronoun stem, -st is the elative suffix
- 'because' (2) = *sellepärast et* <-- se- in its genitive form + *pärast* ('after') + conjunction *et* ('that')

Finding an equivalent to English 'because' can be tricky - as bazq mentioned in the previous post... Depending on the context, Estonian can use other versions as well but (1) and (2) seem to be the most frequently used ones.


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## mataripis

In Tagalog they existed differently. Because- dahil and why- bakit.


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## SuperXW

In Chinese, they are generally considered two words: why-为什么; because-因为. 
However...
Chinese words are combined by ideographs, or characters. One character remains the same in these two words: 为. 
The fundamental meaning of 为 is similar to "for". Why-为什么-"for what", because-因为-“cause for”. You can say they have some relation.


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## Ífaradà

*In Yoruba: 

**Why - *Kí l'o dé

*Because - *Nítorí

*I'm hungry. Why? Because of school I couldn't go home.*
Ebi npa mí. Kí l'o dé? Nítorí ilé-ìwé n ò lè lọ s'ílé mi.


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## Feainn

Almost every language I know has separate forms to express 'why' and 'because', except Italian. "Perché = why, because"


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## ThomasK

Could you analyse those Yoruba words, I? Do they have a root (with endings or affixes), for example? (Of course the language system could be quite different)


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## Perseas

Feainn said:


> Almost every language I know has separate forms to express 'why' and 'because', except Italian. "Perché = why, because"


Greek also_: Γιατί = why, because._
See post #2


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## Feainn

Perseas said:


> Greek also_: Γιατί = why, because._
> See post #2


Oh, right!


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## Ífaradà

ThomasK said:


> Could you analyse those Yoruba words, I? Do they have a root (with endings or affixes), for example? (Of course the language system could be quite different)


Kí l’ó dé is four words. Kí, l’ contracted from “ni”, ó and dé. Literally what it says is, “what is-it it reached/come to” (for what reason). 

Kí is a notoriously difficult word to explain grammatically as the word differs in meaning depending on context, word order etc., but it generally means “what”, l’ (ni) is a focus marker, ó means "it" and finally dé means "reach/arrive/come." 

Nítorí is derived from ìtorí, which means “reason”. Ìtorí itself comes from the word orí, which means "head" (logic, sense).


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