# To call



## ThomasK

How do you translate *'to call *[someone by shouting (out)]" in yourlanguage? (E.g. I called him because I wanted to speak to him) 

And what words can you deduce from that same root? What *derivations* do you have? Think of English:_ a phone call_, a _calling_(voc-ation), _to call upon someone_,... But I only want derivations based on your _call_-root, not translations of the latter words. 

Dutch: 
- _Beroep_, profession/ work (not just job – it refers to the contents)
- _roeping_, vocation
- _oproep_, phone call (but only when someone called you,not when you call him)
- _mensen oproepen om_ ..., to call upon people to ...


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## arielipi

Hebrew:
לקרוא - likro, which is also used for to read.


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## ThomasK

Is it really? But can you use _likro _to refer to calling on the phone, to being called, etc. ?


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## arielipi

ThomasK said:


> Is it really? But can you use _likro _to refer to calling on the phone, to being called, etc. ?



Not really, but is acceptable; i on first thought wanted to write it but then i thought it cant be.
If you follow the strict use of words in hebrew then no, but less strict use would allow it in the past tense with explicitly stating on the phone.
Another thing would be to tell someone "youre called on the phone (someones waiting on the line)".


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## apmoy70

In Greek:

To call: *«Καλώ»* [ka'lo] < Classical v. *«καλέω/καλῶ» kăléō (uncontracted) / kalô (contracted)* (Aeolic *«κάλημι» kắlēmĭ*, Arcadocypriot *«καλήζω» kălḗzô*) --> _to call, call by name, summon_ (PIE *klh₁-, _to call, shout_ cf Hitt. kališš, _to call, summon_; Skt. उषःकल (usah-kala), _rooster (lit. 'he who cries at dawn')_; Lat. calāre, _to call, call out, announce_).
Derivatives: 

*«Κλήση»* ['klisi] (fem. noun) --> _call (noun), phone call, calling, vocation, traffic ticket, paging_ < Classical third declension fem. noun *«κλῆσις» klêsis* --> _calling, call_
*«Κλήτευση* ['klitefsi] (fem. noun) --> _judicial summons_ < Classical third declension fem. noun *«κλήτευσις» klḗteusis* --> _judicial/administrative summons_
*«Κλητήρας»* [kli'tiras] (masc. & fem. noun) --> _Public officer responsible for the serving of legal summonses_ < Classical third declension masc. & fem. noun *«κλητήρ» klētḗr* --> _summoner_

From the v. *«καλέω/καλῶ»*:

*«Ανακαλώ»* [anaka'lo] --> _to recall_
*«Προσκαλώ»* [proska'lo] -->_to invite, summon_
*«Προκαλώ»* [proka'lo] --> _to provoke, challenge_
*«Κατακαλέω/κατακαλῶ» kătăkăléō (uncontracted) / kătăkalô (contracted)* --> _to invoke_ (it has not survived in the modern language); a famous Byzantine general (probably of Armenian stock) who lived in the second half of 11th c. CE was named after two participles: *«Κατακαλῶν Κεκαυμένος»* Katakalôn (Present tense active voice participle of v. «κατακαλῶ»)  Kekauménos (Perfect tense medio-passive voice participle of v. «καίω» kǽō, _to light, burn_); thus, his name is literally translated into English as _
The burnt invoker_


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## bibax

Czech:

*volati* = to call;

prefixed perfective verbs:
*povolati* = to call up > *povolání* (= profession/occupation/job, der *Beruf*), adj. povolávací (= call-up), e.g. povolávací rozkaz (call-up papers, draft notice);
*předvolati* = to call sb to the stand, to summon;
*svolati* = to summon e.g. Parliament;
*zavolati* = to make a (phone) call, to ring (up), to phone;
*vyvolati* = to cause/induce e.g. a stir, quarrel, uproar, chaos, fears, ...; to e_*voke*_, to pro_*voke*_; vyvolati film (= to develop a film); vyvolati žáka k tabuli (= einen Schüler im Unterricht auf_*rufen*_, an die Tafel _*rufen*_, to call a pupil to the blackboard);
*obvolati* = to call round, to ring round;
*dovolati se* = to get/obtain/achieve (e.g. justice); to reach sb on the phone;
*odvolati* = to call off, to recant;
*odvolati se* = to appeal;

derived verbal nouns: *volání* (= calling, a phone-call), *povolání* (= profession, Be_*ruf*_), *předvolání* (notice to appear), svolání, vyvolání, obvolání, *odvolání* (= appeal, Be_*rufung*_), ...; povolávání, předvolávání, obvolávání, ...;
derived nouns: *vyvolávač* (= barker, a person who loudly addresses passers-by to attract customers), svolatel (= who summons), ...;

noun *volavka* (= volavý pták) = decoy (bird), volavka is also a woman used by police as a decoy;


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## ThomasK

Thanks for these impressive lists. I had expected quite some words, but not that many. This shows the importance of prefixes again in our languages. Amazing in fact. I am wondering if our Philipino, Chinese, ... friend will come up with similar things - but I suppose their languages work quite differently...


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## Ёж!

ThomasK said:


> How do you translate *'to call *[someone by shouting (out)]" in yourlanguage? (E.g. I called him because I wanted to speak to him)


«Звать». «Я позвал его, мне надо было с ним поговорить». The same is for naming. That's it – no more meanings. No phones, seldom any memories. There is a list of perfective verbs that correspond to «звать», but they make only minor additions to the two meanings that it has ('to call by voice' and 'to name').


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## ancalimon

Turkish:
çağır

Here is the Proto-Turkic word that is probably related.
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/re...ny=&method_any=substring&sort=proto&ic_any=on

çar is the same thing as tsar.


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## er targyn

Caqyr- (also to invite), ata- (to name).


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## ThomasK

I am sorry, butcould you transcribe [and translate] the Russian, E? I can decipher in part,but not sufficiently to be sure. The root is not the same as in Czech, or is it? 

@ et targyn: isthat Russian as well? It is not a transciption of E's, is it? 

@ancalimon: are you referring to the Russian word 'tsar'? What is the link then?


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## ancalimon

er targyn said:


> Caqyr- (also to invite), ata- (to name).



ata- means to elect, to assign in Turkish.
"ad vermek" (to give name) means "to name"
ada- means "devote".


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## er targyn

ThomasK, I gave Kazakh forms, because the Russian ones were already given.


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## ThomasK

I am sorry, et Targyn, I had not noticed, please forgive  me. But is 'ata' also some form of shouting? I suppose not...


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## er targyn

No, ata- is a denominal verb from at "name". In Turkish "name" is ad. 
 Just to add: at means in most Turkic languages also "horse", and ata - "(grand)father".


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## ancalimon

ThomasK said:


> @ancalimon: are you referring to the Russian word 'tsar'? What is the link then?



I guess we would need the true etymology of tsar first to see the link. But that's another subject. Something interrelated with Turkic dialects and history of those people which unfortunately is mostly unknown.

When we look at the Starling link I gave;

"yardım" in Turkish means "help", "call for help"
"yargıç" in Turkish means judge.

So all in all, there seems to be a relationship between calling and being a ruler... and "yar" and "çar".


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## er targyn

Tsar' is from Latin Caesar, it's a fact.


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*:

_kutsua_ = call, invite

Derivations:
(1) _kutsu_ = invitation; a call (by shouting); also: _hätäkutsu_ 'an emergency call, a distress signal'
(2) pl. _kutsut_ = a party, an invitation (social gathering)
(3) _kutsumus_ = vocation, calling, eg. _kutsumus papin tehtävään_ '~ to working as a priest'
(4) pl. _kutsunnat_ = call-up (for military service)
(5) _kutsuva_ = inviting, luring


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## ThomasK

er targyn said:


> Tsar' is from Latin Caesar, it's a fact.


That seems quite plausible, and I find it confirmed at etymonline.org. I would love to believe Ancalimon's explanation though because it is attractive and not implausible as such - but I have suffered from wishful thinking before ;-(.


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## Ёж!

ThomasK said:


> The root is not the same as in Czech, or is it?


No it is not. The root is 'zov', but the verb omits the 'o'. By the way, the verb can mean 'to invite' as well, though no derivation from it makes a noun meaning 'invitation'; for invitations, we have the verb «приглашать» and the noun «приглашение», both of which have the root 'glas', meaning 'voice'.


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## ThomasK

Well, this link with 'voice' and Latin 'vox', 'voc' (-ation, -al, vowel) might be another interesting thread to develop. But not here now... ;-)


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## bibax

Ёж! said:


> «Звать». «Я позвал его, мне надо было с ним поговорить». The same is for naming. That's it – no more meanings. No phones, seldom any memories. There is a list of perfective verbs that correspond to «звать», but they make only minor additions to the two meanings that it has ('to call by voice' and 'to name').





Ёж! said:


> No it is not. The root is 'zov', but the verb omits the 'o'. By the way, the verb can mean 'to invite' as well, though no derivation from it makes a noun meaning 'invitation'; for invitations, we have the verb «приглашать» and the noun «приглашение», both of which have the root 'glas', meaning 'voice'.


It seems that the verb *volati* (= to call by voice, to phone, root *vol-*) exists only in the West Slavic languages.

In Czech the verb *zváti* (звать in Russian, root *zov-*) means only 'to invite'. No connection with the phone neither in Russian nor in Czech.

In Russian the verb that means 'to phone' is *звонить* (zvoniti in Czech, root *zvon-*) = to ring (a bell).

Thus, 'to phone' is *volati* (= to call) in Czech and *звонить* (= to ring) in Russian. There are also some prefixed verbs like *obvolati, обзвонить* = to call/ring round.


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## Ёж!

bibax said:


> It seems that the verb *volati* (= to call by voice, to phone, root *vol-*) exists only in the West Slavic languages.


At least, Russian does not have anything like this.


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## mataripis

In Tagalog, the common word for "Call" is "Tawag". 1.) A phone call= tawag sa telepono.   2.) Call him.= tawagin siya.    3.)call them as  an emergency signal.= Tawagin sila bilang hudyat ng babala.    But  To shout is "humiyaw"(shouting in mountain region or isolated places) and making a noise as shouting someone is "Sumigaw" is common in public places.


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## ThomasK

Not so sure I understand the last two though... Could you make those clearer?


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## mataripis

The last two words 1.) Humiyaw  and 2.) Sumigaw  both mean "to shout". When the situation is too late and you need to shout someone, 1.) Humiyaw  and 2.) Sumigaw can be used to call a person.


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## ThomasK

I think it's clear now. But then there are very few nouns based on _tawag_. 'My name is ThomasK' is not translated using 'to call', is it?


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## mataripis

Ok. When no one is asking your name but you know they want to know your name, you may use "Tawag" in this case. Tomas ang tawag sa akin.= ( they) call me thomask.or to make it clearer use "bansag"(nickname title).= Bansag sa kin ay Tumas.


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## arielipi

ThomasK said:


> I think it's clear now. But then there are very few nouns based on _tawag_. 'My name is ThomasK' is not translated using 'to call', is it?



Actually in hebrew we (shouldnt but) ask how are you called (instead of whats your name), to which we reply im called arielipi.
the correct form is whats your name ma shimcha? my name is shmi arielipi.


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## ThomasK

^Could you translate that "wrong" question (and transcribe it, indicating the _call _word) ? Thanks!


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## arielipi

^
איך קוראים לך? eich kor'im lecha (for male). kor'im is called, lit. how do they call you?
קוראים לי kor'im li (both for male and female), they call me.


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## ThomasK

But where is the _likor_? In the _kor _?


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## arielipi

^yes.


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## Outsider

> How do you translate 'to call [someone by shouting (out)]" in yourlanguage? (E.g. I called him because I wanted to speak to him)


In Portuguese *chamar* < L. *clamare*.   This is also the verb used in "What's your name...? / My name is...", and more generally to say what someone/something is named/called.  





> And what words can you deduce from that same root? What derivations do you have? Think of English: a phone call, a calling(voc-ation), to call upon someone,... But I only want derivations based on your call-root, not translations of the latter words.


*Chamada*: roll call; *chamada (telefónica)*: phone call; *chamamento*: (animal) calling. There's also the learned cognate *clamar*, "to cry out".


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## 涼宮

*Japanese*:

To call using your voice is 叫ぶ _sakebu_. When it's an animal that calls you use 鳴く _naku_. Both use the radical 口 _kuchi_ (mouth). You can't use _sakebu_ to mean ''phone call'' or ''name something'', those two use different verbs. So, you'd be asking about the words that use _kuchi_ in them, right? If that's the case you have thousands of words as the kanji for mouth is too common for making words. For example:　古い　_furui_ (old), 号 _gou_ (number)、史 _shi_ (history)、可 _ka_ (possible)、叶う _kanau_ (something comes true)、吸う _suu_ (to suck)、合う _au_ (to match/suit)、台 _dai_ (pedestal)、名 _na _(name)_,_ 石 _ishi_ (stone)、右 _migi_ (right - opposite of left-), and a big etcetera.


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## ThomasK

I am quite surprised about the enormous frequency of mouth, whereas it is of course essential... I cannot imagine that many derivations of mouth in a Germanic language. Or are there more than I see right now?


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## 涼宮

I doubt other languages have that many derivations . Since Japanese uses an ideographic system as its writing system it is natural to find thousands of words connected by the same radical when their meanings have nothing to do with each other. For instance, take the examples I gave above, I can't imagine any relationship between a stone, history and a pedestal with a mouth! Yet they're connected by the same word. The only way for this to be possible in other languages like English, French, Russian, etc. is that every single letter on its own carries a full concept, a whole meaning, just like every kanji and its composition do. In that way, for example, the article ''the'' would have 3 meanings at least if broken down t-h-e, as each letter has a full meaning.


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## ThomasK

I am beginning to see the light! ;-)


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## Maroseika

ThomasK said:


> The root is not the same as in Czech, or is it?


No, this root - *volat *(to call) is encountered only in Western Slavic languages, cf. Polish *wołać *- the same. According Rejzek's Český etymologický slovník, this root can relate to Latvian *valoda *- speech, language, probably onomatopoetic.


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## bibax

ThomasK said:


> I am quite surprised about the enormous frequency of mouth, whereas it is of course essential... I cannot imagine that many derivations of mouth in a Germanic language. Or are there more than I see right now?


AFAIK the occurrence of the pictogram 口 (= mouth) in many kanji (Chinese) characters has little in common with the Japanese/Chinese language itself. For example the above mentioned character 古 (= old, ancient) is a compound of the simple characters 十 (= ten) and 口 (= mouth). It can be interpreted as "retold by ten mouths" (it's a convenient mnemonic as well), however the Japanese/Chinese word "old" is not a derivation neither of "mouth" nor of "ten".


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## arielipi

^how do they write on computers with such a character list language?


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## 涼宮

^That's very easy. Even though there are over 40k kanji/hanzi you use a romanization system, romaji for Japanese and pinyin for Mandarin or jyutping for Cantonese. So, for example, you put your Japanese keyboard on Windows 7, now you're using a Japanese keyboard. If you type k + a you get か (a syllable for the hiragana syllabary), whenever you write something and you press the spacebar a big list of all the kanjis for that syllable will show up. Kanji will show up automatically as you continously write, although the PC can't always guess the correct kanji for the right context, so you usually have to press the space key and open the list. The same goes for Mandarin, if you type 'li' all the hanzi for li will show up, you select the one you want, again, as you type your PC will use the context to properly input a hanzi, but sometimes there are mistakes since the PC isn't perfect at evaluating the context.

For the Japanese keyboard there is also the option to change to kana mode, which means now every single key represents a whole kana (one syllable of the syllabaries), with that you can type way faster and only need to press the space key from time to time, the problems is that you need to learn the location of the keys. This is how a full JP keyboard looks like, the key next to Alt Gr allows you to switch between the two Japanese syllabaries, hiragana and katakana: http://files.myopera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/540px-Computer-keyboard-Japanese.svg.png
http://files.myopera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/540px-Computer-keyboard-Japanese.svg.png


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## arielipi

^thought thats whats being done, but it still stands - a language that doesnt have a set list of chars will suffer greatly in writing.


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## 涼宮

^What do you mean? If you mean the most common/used kanji/hanzi they do have one. 2136 is the basic list for Japanese and 3k for Mandarin.


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## arielipi

^yes - thats a huge amount of constructive chars, look at english, you have 26; hebrew 22. how did you guys get tyo so many? (its unique to languages from the far east btw)


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## ThomasK

Just by the way: it might be interesting if we could have some space at the site, where this kind of general and essential considerations about meaning and word structure (in Japanese and Chinese, but also elsewhere) could be found. I have been falling into this 'trap' (due to my own lack of insight, I admit) myself many times, due to the fact that I read ideogrammes/ kanji/... in the wrong way...


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## bibax

> how do they write on computers with such a character list language?


Simply speaking you have to know the phonetic value of the words you intend to write then you enter them in the computer by means of any convenient phonetic alphabet (it can be a problem even for an untrained Chinese) and the computer will convert them in the Chinese characters.

A Chinese mechanical typewriter would be more interesting. 

@Thomask:
Here you can find all characters that contain the pictogram 口 kou "mouth". The corresponding Chinese words are not etymologically related, although some of them may be homonymous to the word that means "mouth" and some of them are connected to mouth merely by idea (e.g. yán = to speak).


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## ThomasK

That is quite impressive, Bibax. Thanks !


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## Yondlivend

You can also type characters by the way they're written - either by  stroke order or by shapes.  There are different systems out there (like this one).   It's important to have input methods not based on pronunciation because  the same writing system is used by people who speak a variety of  languages and with a variety of accents.  Inputting by pronunciation  requires a knowledge of the way it's pronounced in the standard  language.  Another problem with inputting by sound is that there can be  many characters that correspond to the same pronunciations.

English lost a couple of verbs which could be used in ways that "call" is used today: hote and clepe.  The forms _hight _and _yclept_ are slightly better known.  Clepe actually still shows up in Merriam-Webster's dictionary, but it's listed as archaic.

These had derivatives in Middle English, which I found in the MED:
_clēper, clēping_
_hōtere, hōtestre, hōting,_


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## 涼宮

arielipi said:


> yes - thats a huge amount of constructive chars, look at english, you have 26; hebrew 22. how did you guys get tyo so many? (its unique to languages from the far east btw)



I guess it is. And even though 2136 is the basic list and could suffice to read a newspaper, in fact you need to know around 2300 or more if you intend to be pretty good at the language and read literature and all that. But that ''huge'' amount is relative. Many kanji/hanzi are simple and have few strokes, therefore they're easy to memorize, and it also depends on your memory. I find such amount to be easy because my memory allows me so, but others have many troubles even for memorizing the first 100 kanji. I don't know how so many characters came into existence, having over 40k is indeed just too much, most of them aren't used.


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## ThomasK

Yondlivend said:


> English lost a couple of verbs which could be used in ways that "call" is used today: hote and clepe.  The forms _hight _and _yclept_ are slightly better known.  Clepe actually still shows up in Merriam-Webster's dictionary, but it's listed as archaic.o
> 
> These had derivatives in Middle English, which I found in the MED:
> _clēper, clēping_
> _hōtere, hōtestre, hōting,_


How interesting. However, I suppose I suppose the first one is about naming especially. I did wonder whether there is any link with _clap_, _clapper _and the Dutch equivalents, but it is not so easy to prove, as they'd suppose a link with the noise caused by clapping (I investigated links between talking and banging, clapping elsewhere). We also have a _klepel _in Dutch, a clock clapper or tongue _[(!), which again makes me wonder if there is no link]_. --- Could the _hoting _be linked with hooting, honking, sounding the horn??? I cannot find this root on the internet...


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## SuperXW

In Chinese, 
call = 叫
I'm calling him (by shouting out). 我在叫他。 
He's called ABC. (= His name is ABC) = 他叫ABC。
If a machine (video chat program, electronic alarm etc.) "calls" you, in general, you can use the word: 呼叫. 

However, we usually use a special verb for "to make a phone call", which is not related to 叫 "call", but 打 "hit/dial".
For the noun of "a phone call", we only use the word of "phone" 电话, but not "call".


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