# Stay Safe



## ThomasK

I would like to hear NOT about the literal translation, but about how you that instruction/... is formulated in your language. 

Dutch: "*Blijf in uw ko*t!" Lit. "*remain in your hut/hutch*". ----- I think it was not developed by a PR bureau but a funny reaction by our Minister of Health when being asked about details for distance and picked by the media. But "kot" is literally like the dog's kennel/..., so some dilapidated safe place for an animal, built with few means and dirty of course because dogs don't clean of course. It became the word for students' rooms around here as a typical male student's room was like that: a mess, not clean, etc., even adopted by French-speaking fellow Belgians. It is also informally used to refer to one's home, but ironically of course, but maintaining the idea of some cosiness, I think. Some people object to the slogan because of the connotation, but it works: short, forceful (two plosives, two short key words), etc.


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## Yendred

The English idiomatically say "_Stay safe and take care_", but in French we usually just say:
_Prends soin de toi _[pʁɑ̃ swɛ̃ də twa]
or:
_Prenez soin de vous _[pʁəne swɛ̃ də vu]
(literally _Take care of you_)


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## ThomasK

It is very strange but somehow I have come to read that as "Take care of yourself  [as we won't be doing it]", whereas I suppose that is just my idea, not shared by a lot of people...


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## Yendred

ThomasK said:


> Take care of yourself



Well this is the idea of course, but literally this would translate in French into "_Prends soin de toi*-même*_", which we don't say.



ThomasK said:


> [as we won't be doing it]



No, this is not the intended meaning. It's just a standard benevolent phrase.


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## apmoy70

In Greek the most common one is *«να είσαι/είστε καλά»* [na ˈi.se kaˈla] (2nd p. sinɡ. or informal)/[na ˈi.ste kaˈla] (2nd p. pl. or formal) --> _You be well_ (I wish you were safe, sound, healthy etc).


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## ThomasK

I'd feel like asking about the various meanings of /kalos/ but that might lead us astray. However, in our Flemish newspaper I came across an expression in a title on whether or not to celebrate Easter in Church in Greece, ending in "... skiti", but I cannot trace it...

@Yendred: so, that little word makes a difference. I think in English 'yourself' is the most common (I think "of you" is not used even). But those are the pecularities of languages, I suppose!


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## Yendred

ThomasK said:


> But those are the pecularities of languages, I suppose!



Yes I guess this is because _Take care of you_ is ambiguous.
As _Prends soin de toi_ and _Prenez soin de vous_ cannot be confused, _Take care of you_ can both address a single person or a group, while _Take care of yourself/yourselves_ removes ambiguity.


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## Welsh_Sion

You may well know that England [sic] has now changed its wording to "Stay Alert". None of the other nations of the UK have done this, and retain "Stay Home". The former is creating ambiguity and confusion amongst many UK citizens as well as the fact that any messages the Prime Minister invokes with them are usually policies of an England-only nature (something he never mentions.)

As for the Welsh version of "Stay Home", this unfortunately (in my opinion) has been interpreted by many translators as the verbal-noun (equivalent of the infinitive and gerund in my language) and not as imperative 2nd pers. plur. (equivalent of French 'vous'). Coupled with that, some sign writers do not know the difference between 'adref' (homewards) and 'gartref' (at home, chez soi).


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## Yendred

Oh you meant "_Stay home_", the instruction addressed at citizens during COVID-19 lockdown...
Then in French the corresponding instruction is "_Restez à la maison_", which is a literal translation.
In France, today May 11th, is the first day of *un*lockdown, and the instruction was changed to "_Restez prudent_" (literally _Stay careful_).


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## Perseas

ThomasK said:


> [... ]ending in "... skiti", but I cannot trace it...


I think you mean "μένουμε σπίτι".
(menoumespiti)


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## ThomasK

Indeed. But not that common? And literally "Stay at-home"? Thanks!


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## Perseas

ThomasK said:


> Indeed. But not that common? And literally "Stay at-home"? Thanks!


The Greek phrase was common in the previous days. It means "we stay at home". Now it's more common "μένουμε ασφαλείς" (we stay safe).


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## ThomasK

You were using the "we" form then. Interesting. Ours was/is a straightforward imperative, but the irony compensates for the apparently harsh tone. Is there a special reason for this change, do you think? (Just very briefly: is /asfalis/ based on the a-privatus + an ad.?)


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## Perseas

The 'official' slogan is in 1st person pl. It sounds more 'democratical' , though "you stay home" was also heard sometimes.
Yes, it's a-privatus (a + σφαλ(ής) <σφάλλω).


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## ThomasK

Interesting etymology of your "safe"!


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## Stoggler

Welsh_Sion said:


> As for the Welsh version of "Stay Home", this unfortunately (in my opinion) has been interpreted by many translators as the verbal-noun (equivalent of the infinitive and gerund in my language) and not as imperative 2nd pers. plur. (equivalent of French 'vous'). Coupled with that, some sign writers do not know the difference between 'adref' (homewards) and 'gartref' (at home, chez soi).



What should it be?  Arhoswch gartref?  Is aros the correct verb-noun in this case?


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## Welsh_Sion

For Stoggler,

*Arhoswch* (*< aros*) *gartref *I suggest is the correct form in this case

*Arhos-wch *+ Soft Mutation + *gartref*
Stay (sometimes 'stop'), you 2nd pers. plur. IMP., at home

Incidentally, *berfenw* is translated as 'verbal-noun', not 'verb-noun'.


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## Stoggler

Welsh_Sion said:


> Incidentally, *berfenw* is translated as 'verbal-noun', not 'verb-noun'.



Oh.  I’ve only ever seen verb-noun in text books:


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## Welsh_Sion

Surprised at that, Stoggler. I've always learnt the expression verbal-noun as in verbal-adjective (not verb-adjective).


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## Awwal12

Russian normally uses "берегите себя" (beregíte sebyá) - "keep-safe yourself", "guard yourself (from harm)".


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## elroy

Yendred said:


> _Take care of you_ can both address a single person or a group


That’s not the reason we don’t say it.  We also don’t say “We took care of us” even though there’s no ambiguity.  And there are innumerable sentences with “you” that are said on a daily basis by millions of native speakers, that could be argued to be ambiguous, but we say them anyway and most of the time context clarifies the meaning.

In short, we use “yourself/yourselves” for grammatical reasons — not to eliminate ambiguity.


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## Awwal12

Yes. Any other argument than the reflexive directly implies that its referent is NOT the same as for the agent. I.e. "they took care of them" means that Group 1 took care of some  non-identical Group 2. Since "you" is a locutor and not an anaphoric pronoun, and always has the same referent in the same context, the sentence (at least in its basic understanding) contains mutually exclusive parameters and is therefore ungrammatical. However, I can think about the situation when the speaker adresses a single person and the object "you" refers to some group which includes that person. Doesn't it make "take care of you" possible and meaningful by any chance, I wonder?..


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## elroy

Awwal12 said:


> I can think about the situation when the speaker adresses a single person and the object "you" refers to some group which includes that person. Doesn't it make "take care of you" possible and meaningful by any chance, I wonder?..


 No, that doesn’t work.


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## Awwal12

Curiously, it doesn't work well in Russian too, even despite its capability to differentiate 2p.sg. and 2p.pl. Pozabót'sya(imp.sg.) o vás (2p.pl.prep) doesn't sound well at all, and the polite plural would make it even worse. Probably it has something to do with inclusivity.


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## ThomasK

Just BTW; we had a plural when I was born, and some 15 years later we lost it. Why? God knows... It has, however, not changed/ impacted my life.  ;-) It may be useful, but not necessary. Of course in French there is some ambiguity, I suppose: écoutez could refer to polite form "vous" and plural "vous". Or am I mistaken?


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## Penyafort

In *Catalan*, as usual, in the Gallo-Iberian doublet *restar/quedar-se*, the first one has become rather formal or literary, the latter being the most usual. So we could say, as in French or Italian, *resteu a casa*. (Or also, with _romandre_, another rather formal/literary verb, *romaneu a casa*, cognate to the Italian rimanere). But the common way these days is the Iberian one, so we say _*queda't a casa *_(you) / _*quedeu-vos a casa*_ (you all).


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## nimak

ThomasK said:


> I would like to hear NOT about the literal translation, but about how you that instruction/... is formulated in your language.
> 
> Dutch: "*Blijf in uw ko*t!" Lit. "*remain in your hut/hutch*".




*Macedonian:

Чувајте се!* (Čuvájte se!) [t͡ʃu'vaj.tɛ.sɛ] lit. _"Keep/guard yourselves!"; _plural and polite
*Чувај се!* (Čúvaj se!) ['t͡ʃu.vaj.sɛ] lit. _"Keep/guard yourself!"_


*чува* (čúva) v. 3p.sg. = _"keep", "guard", "care", "protect", "save"_


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## ThomasK

Some CONCLUSIONS:: very common are

(1a) *Stay *safe, _literally_
(1b) *Stay *at home, at your place

(2a) Take *care *of yourself, guard yourself
(3) Be *well*

(1a+2)


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