# Butterfly



## virycent

Hello there,

I was wondering if y'all can give me translations of "monarch butterfly" or just "butterfly" in a whole lot of different languages. I would greatly appreciate it!  It's for a project at school and i really want to go all out.  Much love to y'all and thanks in advance!

-Viry


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## DearPrudence

*French : un papillon (a butterfly)
le papillon monarque (the monarch butterfly)*


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## Sisyphos

butterfly --> monarch butterfly
In German: der Schmetterling --> der Königsschmetterling
In Dutch: de vlinder --> de koningsvlinder


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## tatis

En español es la Mariposa Monarca (the Monarch Butterfly)
(una) mariposa=a butterfly


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## Chazzwozzer

In *Turkish:*
Butterfly = Kelebek
Monarch butterfly = Monark kelebeği



			
				Sisyphos said:
			
		

> In German: der Schmetterling --> *der Königsschmetterling*



Isn't that actually *Der Monarchfalter?*


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## Cereth

Japanese:

蝴蝶 (こちょう) kochyou = Butterfly


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## virycent

wow that's awesome! thanks...is there any more out there? and actually.  i know it's kind of random...But do you know of any NAMES that MEAN butterfly or monarch butterfly? Like baby names i guess you could say. That would also be of much help!


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## vince

蝴蝶

Cantonese: wudip
Mandarin: hudie


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## claudine2006

Italian: farfalla


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## linguist786

*Hindi*: तितली (titlee)

*Urdu*: *تتلى* (titlee)

Unsure about Gujarati, but I'd assume they use the same word..


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## midismilex

And in Taiwanese we say:

Ya A
O diap
Cho Cho


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## vince

Midismilex, what are the Chinese characters for Ya a?

I'm assuming cho cho might be slang since it looks like the same word repeated twice.


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## midismilex

Ya a: 蝶兒
I don't think Cho Cho is a slang, but from Japanese language, perhaps.


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## Chriszinho85

In Tagalog: "paruparo" or "mariposa"

In Portuguese:  "borboleta"


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## elroy

Arabic:

butterly: فراشة (_faraasha_)
monarch butterfly: فراشة ملكية (_faraasha malakiyya_)


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## vince

midismilex said:
			
		

> Ya a: 蝶兒
> I don't think Cho Cho is a slang, but from Japanese language, perhaps.



How come ya is 蝶

but *o* diap is 蝴蝶 (I'm assuming)?


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## midismilex

vince said:
			
		

> How come ya is 蝶


Well, I'm not a scholar, so...I don't have the exact answer for that. 



			
				vince said:
			
		

> but *o* diap is 蝴蝶 (I'm assuming)?


I guess so, too.


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## Areté

Swedish:

Butterfly = Fjäril

Monarch Butterfly = Monarkfjäril


Take care


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## Iruka

virycent said:
			
		

> wow that's awesome! thanks...is there any more out there? and actually. i know it's kind of random...But do you know of any NAMES that MEAN butterfly or monarch butterfly? Like baby names i guess you could say. That would also be of much help!


Using a site from the internet I found these results for names which mean butterfly:
Aponi (Native American)
Kallima (American)
Kimama (Native American)
Kimimela (Native American)
Neveah (Slavic)
Vanessa (Greek)


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## shaloo

In Telugu: Butterfly = Sita- koka- chiluka

Shaloo


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## badgrammar

Turkish: Kelebek...


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## kanojo_

Slovene: Metulj


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## robbie_SWE

In Romanian: 

*fluture* = butterfly
*fluturas *= it's the diminutive form (the little more childish form you requested  )

 robbie


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## Etcetera

Russian: бабочка (babochka). 
Finnish: perhonen.


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## Zub

In Catalan,

Monarch butterfly = papallona monarca
Butterfly = papallona


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## amikama

Hebrew:

Butterfly = *פרפר* (_parpar_)
Monarch Butterfly (_Danaus plexippus_) = *דנאית מלכותית* (_danait malkhutit_)


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## modus.irrealis

Greek: πεταλούδα (petaludha)

In Ancient Greek, it seems the word for butterfly (and moth) was ψυχή (psyche), which was also the word meaning "soul."


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## Maja

In Serbian:

*leptir *(Cyrillic: *лептир*)
and a pet name would be *leptirić* (*лептирић*) which is a diminutive!


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## vince

Iruka said:
			
		

> Using a site from the internet I found these results for names which mean butterfly:
> Aponi (Native American)
> Kallima (American)
> Kimama (Native American)
> Kimimela (Native American)
> Neveah (Slavic)
> Vanessa (Greek)



That's silly because there's no such thing as THE Native American language, there are several unrelated language groups. It's like talking about an Asian language, doesn't make sense.


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## Jhorer Brishti

Since the label "Native American" is given to a number of those words.. it seems like the makers of that list deemed that the various Native American tongues in the Americas were too unimportant to actually be considered apart and that the general audience could care less from which language the word is from... Quite presumptive of them,methinks....!!!

In Bengali the word for Butterfly is প্রজাপতি(prajapati) which is pronounced Projaapoti.. From a recent discussion with Pivra who is quite adept at Sanskrit, I found out that "Prajapati" broken down into its formative parts means "Lord of Animals"...


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## ukuca

In Turkish:
*kelebek*   =   butterfly
*Kral kelebeği*    =  monarch butterfly


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## Tisia

*Persian:*
*پروانه *parvaneh

*Kurdish:*
*په پوله* papula OR *که پو* kapu

*Finnish:*
Perhonen

Tisia


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## Aylish

in swedish butterfly is " fjäril "


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## panjabigator

Panjabi--titilii (dental t)


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## kaixox

BASQUE:

Butterfly: tximeleta


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## panjabigator

How do you pronounce that...phonetically?


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## Cereth

hOLA Panjabigator creo que tximeleta se pronuncia algo así como "chimeleta" (o shimeleta) es el sonido más parecido en el que pude pensar...

Espero nos lo aclaren 

Cereth


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## panjabigator

Muchas Gracias Cereth...antes no sabia como se pronuncia el sonido "tx" pero ya se!   Thanks


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## kaixox

Cereth said:
			
		

> hOLA Panjabigator creo que tximeleta se pronuncia algo así como "chimeleta" (o shimeleta) es el sonido más parecido en el que pude pensar...


Cereth está en lo correcto, la _tx_ en euskera (vasco, basque) se pronuncia como _ch_ en castellano

Un saludo


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## Whodunit

Latin:

butterfly: papilio
monarch butterfly: _reference books say "danaus plexippus", but I doubt the existence of "plexippus" in Latin._

By the way, the German word is "*Monarchfalter*". The name "Königsschmetterling" does not exist.


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## misdirection

Chriszinho85 said:
			
		

> In Tagalog: "paruparo" or "mariposa"



Some correction:

In Filipino/Tagalog, _butterfly_ means "paruparo" or "paru-paro".  This describes any butterfly.  But specific to the giant (red or orange-colored) butterflies, they are called _mariposa_.


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## big-melon

Chinese: -- 蝴蝶


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## Insider

Ukrainian:

*метелик *(metelyk)


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## MissPrudish

In greek:

(one) butterfly: (μια) πεταλούδα

sounds like: (mia) petaluda


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## Bienvenidos

Tisia said:


> *Persian:*
> *پروانه *parvaneh



*Parvaneh* is the same in Eastern Persian. Note: Vs are usually pronounced as Ws


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## kaixox

BASQUE:

Butterfly:

tximeleta
pinpilinpauxa


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## SJAJ

In Serbian:

butterfly = leptir
Monarch butterfly = leptir monarh


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## PEPEL

In *Dutch/Flemish* the the word for butterfly is _vlinder_. Flemish is the Dutch language as it is spoken in Flanders, i.e. the north of Belgium. The Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippusis) called _monarchvlinder._

In *Frisian* (a Germanic minority language in The Netherlands) the word is _flinter_. As you can see it is similar to the Dutch word.


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## Setwale_Charm

In Irish Gaelic: féileacan with a stress mark above the final a. as well.
 In Welsh: pili-pala, glöyn byw

 In Estonian: liblikas
 In Latvian: taurinš

 In Norwegian and Danish: sommerfugl
 In Icelandic: fiðrildi


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## avec amour

If you come to Malaysia (or anywhere in this world that use Bahasa Melayu), butterfly is 'rama-rama' (this species actually the one that comes out at night), or 'kupu-kupu' (this comes out at daytime)... Monarch butterflies?.. I think 'rama-rama diraja'...


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## Setwale_Charm

Turkmen: kebelek, kэpэnэk
Kazakh:елбелек, кёбелек


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## Chazzwozzer

Good. 
*Other Turkic languages:
Azeri: *kəpənək
*Uyghur:* kepinək


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## Setwale_Charm

Polish: motyl, motylek
Czech: motýl
Slovak: motýľ


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## PEPEL

In *Luxembourgeois* (Lëtzebuergesch) a butterfly is called _päiperlék_.


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## zaigucis

Setwale_Charm said:


> In Latvian: tauriņš


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## anahera

Hey, I'm also needing the word butterfly. But I need it in 4 specific languages. Cambodian, Vietnamese, the language of Laos and also Myanmar. But I need it in it's original written form. Can anyone help please????? To the person who was originally doing this, check out the butterfly web page, it's got heaps, even the original peoples of Australia. It was really helpful to me. Thanks to anyone who can help.


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## mimi2

In Vietnamese:
butterfly: *con bướm* 
           : *con bươm bướm*


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## Setwale_Charm

Ossetic: gælæbu


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## gogoneddus

Setwale_Charm said:


> In Welsh: pili-pala, glöyn byw



Also, some people use Iâr fach yr haf, but I prefer Pili-Pala. So pretty!


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## Mac_Linguist

*Macedonian:* пеперутка (_peperutka_) OR пеперуга (_peperuga_)
*Bulgarian:* пеперуда (_peperuda_)


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## Linni

In Czech:

butterfly: *motýl*
monarch butterfly: *motýl monarcha*


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## Spectre scolaire

If Turkic forms are “variations on a theme”, the theme seems to be Middle Turkish kepēli from around the year 1000. Basically, Modern Turkic “dialects” have adopted a diminutive form with -*k*. The rest can be explained through metatheses, p/b and l/n changes, and different choices of vowels ranging from schwa in Azeri kəpənək (cf. _Chazzwozzer_ #52) to köbölök in Kirghiz. Modern Turkish kelebek is just one of the variations. When many of today’s Anatolian kelebek_ler_ have lost the initial k- and fly around in guise of öbelek, the theme is still recognizable. 

An interesting one from _Setwale_Charm_’s rich collection of butterflies is Ossetic gælæbu (in #58). This must have originated among Turkish butterflies before the latter were “linguistically diminished”. What the Turks did to Persian *پروانه* (_Tisia_ #32), however, can hardly be seen as respectful to the neighbour’s fauna. Turkish pervane means a “moth”!

Which brings me to the Modern Greek name πεταλούδα, see _modus.irrealis_ (#27). (Bulgarian пеперуда (cf. _Mac_Linguist_, #60) must be a Greek loanword!) This word has a bucolic flavour – provided the etymology saying that the basic word comes from the same word as the English “petal” is correct.

The _Ancient_ Greeks, on the other hand - still referring to _modus.irrealis _- seem to have had the same word for “butterfly and “moth”.  I can’t remember any butterflies from the most likely candidate, Theocritus – nor did I read about _moths_ in Classical Greek (a likely candidate may be Aristotle), but I suppose ψυχή is correct. 

Did anybody mention Latin papilio? (This can also mean a “tent”...) Anyway, French papillon is not far away.
 ​


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## Alijsh

Spectre scolaire said:


> Did anybody mention Latin papilio? (This can also mean a “tent”...) Anyway, French papillon is not far away.


They seem to be cognate with Mazandarani (an Iranian language) *pâpeli / bâpeli*


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## noncasper

Dios mio,en una misma nación,por qué la lengua de Catalan es bastante diferente con Español? Entonces los españoles(nativos) pueden escuchar y leer el catalan?Y quiero a saber que sólo las diferencias son los vocabularios o la gramática también?


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## samanthalee

In Mandarin

Monarch butterfly = 金斑蝶 ( jīn bān dié ) (literally: Golden-Spotted butterfly)


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## e.ma

Setwale_Charm said:


> In Welsh: pili-pala, glöyn byw



Isn't this simmilar to Kaixox' basque: pinpilinpauxa.

(And I confirm "chocho" is a common way of calling butterflies in Japan; might be more common in children's tongue.)

A beautiful thread, by the way!


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## e.ma

noncasper said:


> Dios mio,en una misma nación,por qué la lengua de Catalan es bastante diferente con Español? Entonces los españoles(nativos) pueden escuchar y leer el catalan?Y quiero a saber que sólo las diferencias son los vocabularios o la gramática también?



Porque el catalán y el español son derivaciones distintas del latín. Y sí, la gramática también es distinta. Desde el castellano se entiende un poco (sobre todo en lengua escrita), pero quizá desde el francés se entiende mejor. En cambio, los catalanohablantes sí que entienden bastante bien el castellano, porque, entre otras cosas, lo estudian desde niños.

Si te preocupan las diferencias del catalán, el vasco mejor ni lo mires...

(Y hay más lenguas en España: el poético gallego, el bable, el andaluz -que nadie reivindica, pero juro que existe*- y supongo que alguna más)

*a veces es tan distinto del castellano como el gallego; otra cosa es que no se escriba, y que los andaluces hablen un castellano fino (en eso son casi todos bilingües) -saludos a yujuju


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## yujuju

If you want to add the "monarch" adjective to the basque words (tximeleta, pinpilipauxa) you have to add: errege-

I don't see the Welsh "pili-pala" very similar to the basque one, but if it were it'd be just a coincidence, no more hypothesis for basque, please  hehehe 

ps: I wouldn't say "andaluz" is another "language", it's a way of speaking, accent, but not a different langugae, that will be another topic...


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## Nizo

In Esperanto:
monarch butterfly = monarko (_or sometimes_, monarĥo)
butterfly = papilio


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## michimz

*Nahuatl:*
Papalot


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## deine

Lithuanian:

Drugelis


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## kusurija

_Danaus plexippus:_
Japanese:
大樺斑 [o:kabamadara]
Lithuanian:
Monarchas Czech:Monarcha
_Inachis io:_
Japanese:
孔雀蝶 [kujakucho:/Hepburn-shiki]
Czech:
Babočka paví oko
Lithuanian:
spungė
butterfly(day)
Japanese:
蝶[cho:/Hepburn-shiki]
Czech:
motýl
Lithuanian:
drugys

moth(night)
Japanese:
蛾[ga]
Czech:
můra (nightmare=noční můra ;-) )


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## MarX

Hi!

Just like *kura-kura* (turtle), I love the word *kupu-kupu* (butterfly) in Indonesian. 

Salam


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## Setwale_Charm

Uzbek:
Kapalak

Manx:
foillycan


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## blue_jewel

Tagalog: Paru-paro


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## MarX

In Indonesian *paru-paru* means _lungs_, which, if you think about it, look like a butterfly!


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## Setwale_Charm

Roviana:
pepele

Albanian:
flutur


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## opjeshke

Albanian: flutur


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## mataripis

*Tagalog: Paru-paru/ * Bisaya: Alibangbang


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## PEPEL

Hello Mataripis. You also know Dumaget, what is the butterfly in that language? Dumaget is more than one language (Agta, several varieties). Which one do you know exactly? Thanks.


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## apmoy70

Iruka said:


> Using a site from the internet I found these results for names which mean butterfly:
> ....
> *Vanessa (Greek)*


«Βανέσσα» (Vanessa) does not mean butterfly in Greek; it's the name of one of the most known butterfly species, _Vanessa atalanta_, found here. The colloquial name in Modern Greek for butterfly is «πεταλούδα» (peta'luða, _f._), deriving from the name invented by Hesychius of Alexandria (5th c. AD) «πετηλίς» (pĕtē'lis, _f._), for the insect. Its classical name was «ψυχὴ» (psū'xē, _f._), the name also for the soul (PIE base *bhes-, _to blow, breath_)


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## Favara

Catalan:
_Papallona_ (butterfly)
_Papallona monarca_ (monarch butterfly)


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## Fericire

In Portuguese:
_Borboleta_ (Butterfly)
_Borboleta-monarca_ (monarch butterfly)


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## XiaoRoel

Galego:
Butterfly: *bolboreta, choruma, papoia, paxarela.*
Moth: _avelaíña, boíña, meco_.
(*b* e *v* pronúncianse [β]; *ch* é [t∫]; *x* é [∫]; *ñ* é [ɲ])


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## PEPEL

apmoy70 said:


> «Βανέσσα» (Vanessa) does not mean butterfly in Greek; it's the name of one of the most known butterfly species, _Vanessa atalanta_, found here. The colloquial name in Modern Greek for butterfly is «πεταλούδα» (peta'luða, _f._), deriving from the name invented by Hesychius of Alexandria (5th c. AD) «πετηλίς» (pĕtē'lis, _f._), for the insect. Its classical name was «ψυχὴ» (psū'xē, _f._), the name also for the soul (PIE base *bhes-, _to blow, breath_)



Thanks Apmoy70 for the interesting clarificatiion. I wonder if there are any Greek dialects that have different words for butterfly. In most European languages there are dialect names.


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## apmoy70

PEPEL said:


> Thanks Apmoy70 for the interesting clarificatiion.


My pleasure.


PEPEL said:


> I wonder if there are any Greek dialects that have different words for butterfly. In most European languages there are dialect names.


I happen to have a few in mind:
«Πιρπιλούδι» (pirpi'luði, _n._) in Northern Greece, «πέρπιρας» ('perpiras, _m._) in Thessaly, «φαρφάρα» (far'fara, _f._) and «φαρφατούρα» (farfa'tura, _f._) in Pontic Greek, «πεταλλίνα» (peta'lːina, _f._) in Cyprus.


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## PEPEL

Thanks again, Apmoy70, you seem to be an expert on Greek language(s) and dialects and I am happy about that. Do you happen to know something also about butterflies the Doric variety of Greek, Tsakonian, and its dialects?
Tsakonian (Tsakonia; Leonidi): ?
a Northern Tsakonian (Kastanista-Sitena): ?
b Southern Tsakonian (Leonidio-Prastos): ?
c Propontis Tsakonian (Vatka-Havoutsi): ?
Still have some more questions, but one at the time...


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## apmoy70

Unfortunately all I could find is the Southern Tsakonian word for it, which is «α λυχκήρα» (a lux'cira, _f._). In Tsakonian the feminine definite article is «α» (from Doric) instead of «η» in Attic/Koine/Modern
(Joseph Michael Deffner's _Dictionary of Tsakonian_).


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## PEPEL

Thanks again, Apmoy70. I studied classical Greek a long ime ago, I can read the Greek alphabet. I found the butterfly word in two Griko (Italian Greek) dialects:
Salento dialect (= Griko Salentino; Salento, Southern Italy): *ajarài, ajarri, jaràai*
Aspromonte dialect  (Aspromonte and other villages, Italy): *petuda
*
No sure if they are correct. They are from Internet sources.

There is an extinct Greek language, called Cappadocian Greek (formerly spoken in Turkey). Do you know or can you find the butterfly word in that language? There are three dialects acoording to Ethnologue.org:
1a Sille dialect (The Sille dialect was in Sille town near Konya): ?
1b Western Cappadocian dialect (Western Cappadocian was in villages south of Kayseri): ?
1c Phrasa dialect (Pharasa was in Pharasa (Faràs) and surrounding villages): ?

And then a last question is about the Juedo-Greek Yevanic language. Any idea about the butterfly there? I promise to not to ask any more questions. Lol.


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## SuperXW

vince said:


> How come ya is 蝶
> 
> but *o* diap is 蝴蝶 (I'm assuming)?


Because Chinese has so many dialects!
You always have to specify which dialect it is. Some dialectal words are just oral, which cannot be reflected to official characters.
The standard writing, is always 碟 or 蝴蝶 of course.


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## PEPEL

XiaoRoel said:


> Galego:
> Butterfly: *bolboreta, choruma, papoia, paxarela.*
> Moth: _avelaíña, boíña, meco_.
> (*b* e *v* pronúncianse [β]; *ch* é [t∫]; *x* é [∫]; *ñ* é [ɲ])



Hello XiaoRoel. First time I heard the word _choruma_. Strange word. Any idea where it comes from? In Diccionario de sinónimos da lingua galega By Pedro Benavente Jareño (1997) Google Books  Page 201, apart from the four words you mentioned, I also found *pambereta *and a variant of papoia: *pampoia*.


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## kaverison

Tamil

Pattaampoochi - pattu -silk, am - like um in hum) - beauty, poochi - insect
Also, pattu poochi

Also, vaNNathu poochi - color(ed)ful insect.


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## AutumnOwl

Setwale_Charm said:


> In Norwegian and Danish: sommerfugl


I like the Danish and Norwegian word for butterfly, it means summer bird.


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## mataripis

Hi Pepel. I know some Dumaget words.to fly in that language is Lenomepow. I think it is close to Nalepow. I will give you the exact translation after a week.I have known many dumaget people in Rizal.


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