# home - at home



## Perkele

Is the expression 'at home' regular or irregular in your native language? If you know where the term has its origins feel free to tell.

Below a short list of languages that have deployed some kind of an adverb instead of a regular locative / preposition structure:

English: home - (at) home (not in home)
Finnish: koti - kotona (not kodissa)
German: das Haus* - zuhause / zu Hause (not im Heim)
Latvian: māja* - mājas (not mājā)
Swedish: hem - hemma (not i hem)

*the word means 'house'

Finnish kotona is a locative case form of the word koti but nowadays the locative case has been replaced by inessive and adessive cases.

Swedish has two other locational adverbs for the word hem.

hemma - at home
hem - to home
hemifrån - from home


----------



## jazyk

In Portuguese _at home_ is _em casa_. Casa is from Latin casa, which originally meant a shack, a hut, and the like.


----------



## MaxJ

At home is "thuis" in Dutch(house=huis), but it is formed together with to be, so I'm at home=Ik ben thuis. So that makes it irregular in some way.


----------



## Volcano

*In Turkish, we say Ev for both house and home

At home - Evde

To home - Eve

From home - Evden*


----------



## Tamar

In Hebrew:

At home is בבית ba-ba'it (ba'it = house, home)
To home is הביתה habayta, which is the irregular form.


----------



## Kangy

In Spanish we say:

at home - en casa
(to) home - a casa


----------



## panjabigator

In Panjabi:

at home -  ghar vich
(to) home - ghar (nuun)

Hindi/Urdu:

at home - ghar me.n
(to) home - ghar (ko)


----------



## ThomasK

One addition to MaxJ's contribution : 'thuis' means *'te huis'* literally, and is therefore a contraction, which is as a lexical phenomenon fairly uncommon in Dutch, at least not productive.

The most interesting might be to read precisely where the irregularity is...


----------



## Perkele

ThomasK said:


> The most interesting might be to read precisely where the irregularity is...


Indeed, people seem to have missed the point.

IRREGULAR 'HOME' LOCATIVES:
*in* library and *at* home
*i* biblioteket och hem*ma*
kirjasto*ssa* ja koto*na*
*in* der Bibliothek und *zu* Hause

REGULAR 'HOME' LOCATIVES:
*en* biblioteca y *en* casa

English people don't say in home, Swedish people don't say i hemmet, Finnish people don't say kodissa, German peopple don't say in dem Heim.

Spanish people, however, have no distinction between in library and at home, they use the same preposition (en) in both cases!


----------



## Outsider

Well, in French you normally say *chez soi* for "at one's [home]", although you can also say *dans sa/la maison*, "at one's/the home".

I'm not sure this fits what you're looking for, though.


----------



## Nanon

"À la maison" (at home) works too.
Some Slavic inputs. For instance, Russian has the following adverbs (etymologically, they come from "house"):



Perkele said:


> hemma - at home -> дома
> hem - to home -> домой


----------



## Hakro

Outsider said:


> Well, in French you normally say *chez soi* for "at one's [home]", although you can also say *dans sa/la maison*, "at one's/the home".


I have learned that the French seldom if ever say at home "dans la maison" but *à la maison*, so it's irregular as it is in English, German, Swedish, Finnish etc. 

Am I wrong, Nanon?


----------



## Adam S.

In Kazakh:

Үй [üy] - house, home
Үйде [üyde] - at home
Үйге [üyge] - (to) home
Үйден [üyden] - from home


----------



## Nanon

You're not wrong, Hakro, although "à" does not always imply a movement. "À la maison" is similar to "à la mer, à la montagne..." it can be a place to go or a place to stay at or in (a "locative"). "Dans la maison" would be "inside the house".


----------



## Hakro

Nanon said:


> "Dans la maison" would be "inside the house".


That's exactly what I wanted to say: "Dans la maison" would be "inside the house" and not "at home". Or am I wrong?


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

Swedish hemma is in fact a remnant of the dative singular ending expressing the same thing: at home. We have lost the case endings for nouns in Swedish but traces of them are found all over the place.

I'd be very interested to find out the Icelandic usage.

/Wilma


----------



## Nanon

Hakro said:


> That's exactly what I wanted to say: "Dans la maison" would be "inside the house" and not "at home". Or am I wrong?


Of course you're not wrong. "Dans la maison" *is* "inside the house" (of one's own, i.e. home, or any other house), implying that you are not even going out to the garden or to any place attached to the house... 
But saying that French speakers hardly ever say "dans la maison" is slightly overstated: if you tell a child to stay inside not to catch a cold, or if you say (hope you don't...) that the right place for girls is inside the house, that is how you will say it.


----------



## dinji

Tamar said:


> In Hebrew:
> 
> At home is בבית ba-ba'it (ba'it = house, home)
> To home is הביתה habayta, which is the irregular form.


A bit irregular, but the final _*-a*_ is not without regular parallells:

You have at least the following, don't you:
חוצה chutza '(to direction) out'
פנימה pnima '(to direction) inside'
ארצה artza 'to the country (Israel)'
אחורה achora 'backwards'
and not least
קדימה qadima 'ahead, one of the main political parties'


----------



## jana.bo99

Croatian:

home (at home) - kod kuće

Slovenian:

home (at home) - doma 

German:

home (at home) - Zuhause, daheim

Hope, somebody will do correction.


----------



## Perkele

I'm not intressed about how the word itself. What i want to know is whether  to form is regular or irregular and if so in what way it is irregular.


----------



## valdo

Latvian:

  mājas - home
  mājās - at home


----------



## TriglavNationalPark

jana.bo99 said:


> Slovenian:
> 
> home (at home) - doma


 
Two additional variations:

*domov* = [going] home

*dom* = home (noun)


----------



## Encolpius

*Hungarian*

ház (house) = ancient Finno-Ugric word
hon < from the ancient adverb: honn [at home]

now: 
ház is used in the phrase: *haza *("to" home) < ház + -a (ancient lative case)
hon is used in the phrase: *itthon *[here+at home] and *otthon *[there at home], I think there is no other language which uses one word for "here at home" and "there at home".


----------



## ThomasK

MaxJ said:


> At home is "thuis" in Dutch(house=huis), but it is formed together with to be, so I'm at home=Ik ben thuis. So that makes it irregular in some way.


 
I wonder about the irregularity in Dutch. In my view *'thuis'* is not really irregular, but an old preposition is used, 'te'.

You can use 'thuis' in three ways: 
(1) *'Ik ben thuis'*, which is lit. *'te huis'*, which might be translated as *'at home'*, but 
(2)'thuis' has also become the word for *the noun 'home'* and 
(3) the expression 'te huis' has in fact split up into 'thuis' and *'tehuis'* , which refers to homes for the elderly, people suffering, etc.

Funnily, if you *go home*, you say:* 'Ik ga naar huis' [to house],* not *'naar thuis'.


----------



## apmoy70

Perkele said:


> Is the expression 'at home' regular or irregular in your native language? If you know where the term has its origins feel free to tell.


In Greek:
Both house and home is «σπίτι» ('spiti, n.) from the Byzantine Greek «ὁσπίτιον» (hos'pition, n.); a Latin loanword (hospitium).


Perkele said:


> Indeed, people seem to have missed the point.
> 
> IRREGULAR 'HOME' LOCATIVES:
> in library and at home
> i biblioteket och hemma
> kirjastossa ja kotona
> in der Bibliothek und zu Hause
> 
> REGULAR 'HOME' LOCATIVES:
> en biblioteca y en casa
> 
> English people don't say in home, Swedish people don't say i hemmet, Finnish people don't say kodissa, German peopple don't say in dem Heim.
> 
> Spanish people, however, have no distinction between in library and at home, they use the same preposition (en) in both cases!


In Greek both expressions are regular:
at home: «στο σπίτι» (sto 'spiti). Preposition «στο» (sto; σε-se + accusative neuter definite article το-to-->σετο-->σ'το-->στο) + accusative.
in library: «στη βιβλιοθήκη» (sti vivlio'θici). Preposition «στη» (sti; σε-se + accusative feminine definite article τη-ti-->σετη-->σ'τη-->στη) + accusative.

[θ] is a voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative
[c] is a voiceless palatal plosive


----------



## Orlin

Bulgarian:
home=дом (dom);
at home=у дома (u doma), вкъщи (vkashti).
house=къща (kashta).


----------



## Izhora

Russian:
 home - дом (_dom_)
 at home - дома (_doma_)

 Ingrian:
 home - koti (generic term for house in many fennic languages)
 at home - kottoon (remnant of the locative of koti)

 Kildin Saami:
 home - пэ̄ҏҏт  (_péṛṛ__t_) 
at home - пэҏтэсьт (_peṛ__tes't_) (locative of пэ̄ҏҏт)


----------



## Favara

*Catalan:* The expressions in each category are completely interchangeable.

Home:
_Llar _(home/fireplace/kitchen) from Latin _lare_ (a home's god, home, family) [ʎaɾ, ʎa]
_Casa_ (home/house) from Latin _casa_ (house) ['kaza]

At home:
_A la llar_
_A casa_
_A ca meua/teua/seua/nostra/vostra_ <- _ca _comes from _casa_, and must specify an owner (mine/yours/his...)


----------



## ThomasK

_(Are you one of the __"last 200 speakers"__ of Ingrian, Izhora ?)_


----------



## ThomasK

This regularity issue is interesting. I am inclined to say it is deviant indeed in Dutch, but I have simply thought up to now that that is typical of old forms that have remained in use because they were so common. 

By the way: don't you have a similar phenomenon with in _the/at_ school in English (_in de/ op_ school in Dutch)? The at/ op without determiner can be called deviant as well, I think...


----------



## bibax

Czech:

dům, gen. domu (u-stem noun, cf. Latin domus) = house;

regular:
v domě = in a/the house;
do domu = into a/the house;

irregular:
doma (probably old locative case) = at home;
domů (<*domovi, old dative) = to home;

There is an obvious difference in meaning between the regular and irregular expressions, which explains why the old cases of the noun _house_ have preserved as adverbs meaning at/to home.

BTW, škola (school) is regular: ve škole, do školy.


----------



## Izhora

ThomasK said:


> _(Are you one of the __"last 200 speakers"__ of Ingrian, Izhora ?)_



(Yes, but actually I think 200 is an underestimation. Around 500 would be more accurate.)


----------



## bb3ca201

Anns a' Ghàidhlig / in Gaelic:

AIG an taigh - at home
DHACHAIDH - (towards) home

EG	Tha mo bhràthair aig an taigh an-dràsda; mar sin, théid mi dhachaidh!
	My brother is at home right now...so I'm going home!


----------



## mataripis

Tagalog: Sa sariling bahay(at home)/  parang nasa sariling bahay(feel at home)/ palagay ang loob ko dito(feel the sense of trust and security)


----------

