Re: Different words for one thing

FFlores wrote:
> Well, _pez_ and _pescado_ in Spanish do, though _pescado_ is often
> countable (while 'beef' and 'pork' are uncountable in English).
But "steak" and "ham" are countable.

> In fact, most people now say _un pescado_ instead _un pez_, and
> only purists bother to correct them.
Fascinating!  So apparently Spanish-speaking people see fish as merely
potential meals.  :-)

> But I was asking about words for the same object or kind of objects,
> that one usually would consider identical or not worth making the
> difference (from one's Western PoV and language environment);
Well, Japanese has "mizu" (cold water) and "yu" (hot water), which
appear to be unrelated.  I don't know if one is borrowed or not, but I
suspect not.  In English, we use a single word for them "water", with
adjectives if we need to distinguish them.  In "Words in Context", by
Takao Suzuki, the author states how this can create some confusion for
Japanese people learning English, as in the following excerpt from a
short story "... she dropped into it a handful of tea from the caddy,
and poured on the water."  Because "water" is typically translated as
"mizu", Japanese people may get the impression that the English drink
their tea cold, while others who have learned that "yu" translates as
"hot water" may assume that the "hot" has simply been omitted.  In
reality, of course, "water" may mean _mizu_ or _yu_ depending on
context.

On the other extreme, Malay uses a single word, "ayer" (breve over the
e) for H2O, whether liquid or solid.  They would presumably see our
distinction between solid and liquid as unnecessary.

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