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- Topic: Italian >
- "Non abbiamo una tastiera."
34 Comments
I'm guessing this means a computer keyboard, not a piano-style keyboard - or is it both?
I suspect that it's Germanic, since Dutch, Danish and Norwegian have basically the same word. But then again, so does Romanian! The other Romance languages are different, as is Swedish. Most Slavic languages, and French, have some variant of clavier, which in turn is based on the Latin word for key (and which in German means piano). Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan have variations on teclado, which is also based on clave, or key.
And if you look up the Latin word for keyboard on Google Translate you just get ... keyboard.
274
It's not Germanic at all. It actually was borrowed from now obsolete Italian: tastatura. The other Germanic languages borrowed from German.
Interesting! Looking further I see that it comes from the same Latin root as the English "taste", with the original meaning being to touch.
Bottom line: Italians, Romanians, Germans, Dutchmen, Danes and Norwegians have touch-pads, from the Latin "tastare". Most other Europeans have key-pads, from the Latin "clave". Englishmen also have key-pads, but the word "key" has a completely different etymology.
That's no interesting! Even Portuguese has a similar verb (that maybe is shared with Spanish?) : Tatear (to use the sense of tact). Like tateando no escuro, or finding your way in the dark through touch.
Compare also the French tastevin - the shallow scoop they use in the cellars to taste or check the wines
- 218
Even in Dutch there is a verb 'tasten', meaning 'trying to feel' (something you cannot see) Also: 'Tasten in het duister' (being in the dark, not knowing something but trying to)
- 2104
Sometimes I rush through and instead of "typing what I hear," I accidentally translate it to English. I remember that before when I would do this, Duo would say "whoops, that doesn't appear to be in Italian." Now, it just just marks it wrong without that warning. I wonder why they took that warning away! Really the problem is that I should be paying closer attention to what it's asking me to do, but still.
- 274
Look.. no one said it's not correct.. it's just not included in the answer matrix.. reporting it is the best you can do and is what you should have done. I highly recommend anyone taking duolingo courses NOT to take these 'corrections' personally.
Why 'we have no keyboard' is considered wrong, it means exactly the same thing. I have reported the case several times, but no reaction followed.
'We haven't a keyboard' is alright too (but l've had to tell Duo). Including 'got' or 'do' are for emphasis though very common. Over-use of 'got' is a bit vulgar, or so my english teacher once told us, before telelevision.
hmmm..... read everything below but my question is different! Tastiera, happy with this word, have used it for years. Dictionary says feminine, it ends in an 'a'. Asked to type in 'un' tastiera. I did and it's 'correct' why not una tastiera?
- 218
Why is the translation "We have no keyboard" not accepted? (FYI: I'm not a native English-speaker)
That's grammatically correct, but it sounds very old-fashioned and formal. A shopkeeper might say "We have no keyboards" (plural!) if the store doesn't sell keyboards or if they are out of stock. It's hard to imagine a situation where somebody would say "we have no keyboard".
Duolingo often has weird out of context sentences. As a native English speaker I put 'we have no keyboard' as the translation, but it isn't what it says in Italian, though sounding better to my UK ears.
