# E-mail



## modgirl

Do you know of a language that has a separate word for _e-mail_ that is not literally _*e-mail*_?  

The reason I ask is that it seems that _e-mail_ has become a universal word, and individual translations into various languages don't exist.  But, I don't know that for a fact.


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## Whodunit

Well, in German everyone understands "E-Mail" or "E-mail", because there's no German word for that. We often shorten that word to "Mail", which is obviously wrong, but considered a correct translation into German.


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## MingRaymond

In Chinese, it is 電郵 or 電子郵件。Of course, it literally means e-mail.


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## amikama

modgirl said:
			
		

> Do you know of a language that has a separate word for _e-mail_ that is not literally _*e-mail*_?


 
In Hebrew, in addition to אי-מייל (_e-mail_), we also have דואל (_doel_), abbreviation of דואר אלקטרוני (_doar electroni_, electronic mail).


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## elroy

Same in Arabic.  We have بريد الكتروني, which literally means "electronic mail."


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## Sev

In France, people who are afraid that french language could die if we accept too many english word tried to make up a new word : 

*courriel* (mix of "courrier" = mail / "el" = beginning of électronique).

Unfortunately for them, everybody use e-mail, email or even mail.


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## Whodunit

Sev said:
			
		

> In France, people who are afraid that french language could die if we accept too many english word tried to make up a new word :
> 
> *courriel* (mix of "courrier" = mail / "el" = beginning of électronique).
> 
> Unfortunately for them, everybody use e-mail, email or even mail.



If "el" is the abbreviation of "électronique", is it pronounced the same way then? I mean if it's pronounced "courriel" or "courriél".


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## Sev

Whodunit said:
			
		

> If "el" is the abbreviation of "électronique", is it pronounced the same way then? I mean if it's pronounced "courriel" or "courriél".


It's not an abbreviation on its own (maybe you already understood that but I write it for others too  ), it was only used that way to create the word courriel. It's pronounced "courriel", like the "el" of "electronic" in english.
[Ich denke dass heute für mich genug ist : ich habe schon zuviel Fehler gemacht. I'm off ]


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## jorge_val_ribera

modgirl said:
			
		

> Do you know of a language that has a separate word for _e-mail_ that is not literally _*e-mail*_?
> 
> The reason I ask is that it seems that _e-mail_ has become a universal word, and individual translations into various languages don't exist. But, I don't know that for a fact.


 
In Spanish we use the word _e-mail, _but there's also *correo electrónico *(electronic mail). Both are used and it seems like a personal choice which one do you want to use (I use e-mail because it's shorter).


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## Merlin

In Tagalog we use it as the same. *E-mail *We don't have any substitute to this word unless translated word-by-word which is confusing. It's like the word *Xerox*. No substitute  All Original


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## meili

Merlin said:
			
		

> In Tagalog we use it as the same. *E-mail *We don't have any substitute to this word unless translated word-by-word which is confusing. It's like the word *Xerox*. No substitute All Original


Yes, we use e-mail in the Philippines.  As far as I know there is still no equivalent of the word in Filipino.
Merlin, when you say *xerox*, what exactly do you mean? Do you refer to the copies? In this case I say *photocopy*.


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## Merlin

meili said:
			
		

> Yes, we use e-mail in the Philippines. As far as I know there is still no equivalent of the word in Filipino.
> Merlin, when you say *xerox*, what exactly do you mean? Do you refer to the copies? In this case I say *photocopy*.


I think we don't have a Tagalog word for Xerox unless you're going to change the spelling. Dou you have any idea? I can still remember my Filipino teacher saying that there's no Tagalog word for Xerox. I have no idea...completely clueless...


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## Whodunit

Sev said:
			
		

> [Ich denke*,* dass heute für mich genug ist : ich habe schon zu viel*e* Fehler gemacht. I'm off ]



Perfekt! Du solltest weiter Deutsch lernen.


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## ericaustin1305

MingRaymond said:
			
		

> In Chinese, it is 電郵 or 電子郵件。Of course, it literally means e-mail.


 
I saw some Chinese people use "依貓" for e-mail. It is a direct sound translation.
Anyway, it is just for fun or a gimmick and never be a formal use.


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## Merlin

Hi guys. Is there an equivalent word of e-mail in Latin or Italian? Thanks


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## Whodunit

Merlin said:
			
		

> Hi guys. Is there an equivalent word of e-mail in Latin    or Italian? Thanks



By no means in Latin! When Latin was spoken, people didn't even know what an e-mail is.


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## Merlin

Whodunit said:
			
		

> By no means in Latin! When Latin was spoken, people didn't even know what an e-mail is.


That's odd. I wonder why. So I guess it's just the same. E-mail. Thanks who! (I was wondering whodunit... it was you)  hehehe...joke....


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## Hakro

In Finnish e-mail is _sähköposti_ or shortened _s-posti. _But if you say or write e-mail everybody understands it.

As far as I know in Swedish (at least in Finland's Swedish) they say _e-post_ instead of e-mail.


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## MingRaymond

Hakro said:
			
		

> As far as I know in Swedish (at least in Finland's Swedish) they say _e-post_ instead of e-mail.


 
That's interesting. How about Sweden's Swedish?

Ming


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## Anna Più

Hi,
In Catalan we also have *Correu electrònic*. I use them both: *e-mail* and *correu electrònic.*

Regards,
A+


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## ceann-feachd

post-dealain (Gaelic)
tölvupóstur (Icelandic)


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## Mulliman

MingRaymond said:
			
		

> That's interesting. How about Sweden's Swedish?
> 
> Ming


The same, but e-mail is also used and is about to take over the Swedish version.


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## gorbatzjov

In Dutch we say "e-mail", "email" or "mail" or "meel" (= how /mail/ would be written in Dutch). 
In Afrikaans people say "e-pos" where "pos" means litteraly mail (courrier in French)


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## nuno

In portuguese we often use _e-mail_. But when we want to say _electronic mail_, we say _correio electrónico_.


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## Jana337

In Czech we say e-mail or only mail. A Czech transcription, mejl, is starting to gain ground.

Jana


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## redwine

I think that *mèl *is used in the textbook-workbook series used in Alliance Francaise de Manille.  it is short for message electronique.


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## bjervell

In Norwegian we have 'e-post' which is just a straight translation of e-mail (post = mail), but e-mail will always be understood. I also think e-mail, or just mail, is the most widely used expression.


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## poul

It's the same in Denmark as in Norway E-Post or Elektronisk post, but most people uses E-mail


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## AkErBeLtZ

Hello,
In Basque we say *e-posta* or *posta elektronikoa*, but everyone would understand if you say e-mail or just mail.


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## Etcetera

In Russian we, too, say either e-mail or электр*о*нная п*о*чта / elektr*o*nnaya p*o*chta (literally, electronic post).


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## karuna

In Latvian we mostly use _e-pasts _that is a translationof the English word_. _Some may use e-mail but it is not considered polite.


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## irene.acler

Merlin said:


> Hi guys. Is there an equivalent word of e-mail in Latin or Italian? Thanks


 
In Italian we say *posta elettronica* (electronic mail), but I think *e-mail *is the most used version.


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## Ssara

Hakro is right, in Sweden we have the word e-post,
but we also use e-mail, just mail or the "Swenglish" word mejl.
The word mejl is what I use most frequently, both when speaking and writing.


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## Trisia

Romanian: Poştă electronică (obviously, electronic mail)

But everybody uses "e-mail", or just "mail". It's a lot shorter


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## irishpolyglot

Irish Gaelic: *ríomhphost
*The "ríomh" prefix ads to words to imply computing, and "post" of course is easy to understand, but needs an 'h' in this case for having a prefix. It's pronounced /ri:ufost/ in my dialect and /ri:v fost/ in other parts of Ireland I believe. 

Despite Ireland being obviously highly influenced by English, our language is very reluctant in many situations to just take a word directly and I'm quite a fan of this purity (although of course there _are _exceptions). On the same note we also translate "Internet" (*Idirlín*), which I have never seen any other language do (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan certainly don't) although the pronunciation of the word might.

Not to be confused with the _Gaelic_ response above, which is probably Scottish Gaelic.


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## Chazzwozzer

In Turkish, we say either* "e-mail"* or *"e-posta"*, and like many other languages, it is shortened as *"mail"*. Neologism by TDK is:* "elmek" *_(elektronik + mektup)_, which would sound odd to use.


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## Zsanna

Hello,

In Hungarian it is better to be written in one word: email. (I've read that in a linguistic paper recently.) 
We like all the funny terms that allow to avoid the use of this strange word like "emil" (same as the first name Emil) and surely there are others, too...


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## Lugubert

Ssara said:


> Hakro is right, in Sweden we have the word e-post,


which I use in translations to the extent that customers allow.


> but we also use e-mail


Sigh. Yes.


> or the "Swenglish" word mejl.


I was very irritated by that word until I compared it to the English _strike_ (for labour market actions) which uncontestedly is _strejk _in Swedish.


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## yukilicious

electronic mail = surat elektronik 

but _e-mail_ / _email_ is widely used.


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## Nizo

In Esperanto, we normally use _*retpoŝto*_ for the service and _*retmesaĝo*_ for the message. _R__etpoŝto_ literally means "net mail" or "net post" and _retmesaĝo_ means "net message."


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## bb3ca201

The "Official" Gaelic term is post-dealain, but most people use "e-mail".  By the way..."address" is "seòladh" (shaw-lugh)


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