Here’s a start…
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My favorite is Swahili, but only because I just randomly got inspired to try Duolingo, and found that Swahili was the only interesting language on it.
The funnest detail I’ve learned so far is that m before a country name makes into an adjective, but if the subject is plural, then the m turns upside down to a w (and gets an a, because m-consonant is wonderfully East African sounding, and w-consonant is just physically impossible to say).
Also “how is it going” uses the word for “news”, so a literal translation would be more like “what news?”
In Libreria, the polite thing to say when passing someone on a trail out in the bush is “how far?” More empathetic than Swiss “greutzi”!
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Welsh would like a word on that subject.
One of the ways of saying “how are you?” in Irish is Cad é scéal agat? which is literally “what story do you have?”/“What’s your news?”
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IIRC, the Thai “How are you?” translates literally as “Have you eaten?”
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Cén scéal? - whats the story?
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I’m bit weird so I say “systeemi viritelmä juttu” [system jury-rigged thing].
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When we first moved to England, people would ask “You OK?” and “You alright?” with an inflection that, to my USAn ears, had me checking body parts to see if there was blood, or if something had dropped off. Turns out it was just a “how ya doing?” kind of greeting.
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https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-assyriologie-2022-1-page-113.htm?ref=doi
This article presents two previously unpublished Old Babylonian tablets on which are inscribed similar bilingual vocabularies. The language in their right-hand columns is Old Babylonian Akkadian. The language in their left-hand columns is mostly North-West Semitic, with some admixture of Akkadian. Editions of the two tablets are accompanied by a commentary which finds parallels for this language in the grammar and vocabulary of other Semitic languages. Evaluation of the results of this enquiry lead to the conclusion that the language of the left-hand columns is a variety of Amorite. The main part of the article concludes with consideration of the two vocabularies’ content, composition and intellectual background. An appendix offers an edition of a Middle Babylonian synonym list related in part to MalkuV. It contains a passage on domestic and wild animals which collects mainly North-West Semitic words for domestic and wild animals and probably provides several further items of Amorite vocabulary. Finally we add an index of the words in the Amorite columns of the two Old Babylonian vocabularies.
Français
Cet article présente deux tablettes paleo-babyloniennes inédites sur lesquelles sont inscrits des vocabulaires bilingues similaires. La langue de la colonne de droite est l’akkadien paléo-babylonien. La langue de la colonne de gauche est principalement du Nord-Ouest sémitique, avec un certain mélange d’akkadien. Les éditions des deux tablettes sont accompagnées d’un commentaire qui trouve des parallèles pour cette langue dans la grammaire et le vocabulaire d’autres langues sémitiques. L’évaluation des résultats de cette enquête permet de conclure que la langue des colonnes de gauche est une variété d’amorrite. La partie principale de l’article se termine par l’examen du contenu, de la composition et du contexte intellectuel des deux vocabulaires. Un appendice propose l’édition d’une liste de synonymes médio-babylonienne liée en partie à Malku V. Elle contient un passage sur les animaux domestiques et sauvages qui rassemble principalement des mots Nord-Ouest sémitiques pour les animaux domestiques et sauvages et fournit probablement plusieurs autres éléments du vocabulaire amorrite. Enfin, nous ajoutons un index des mots des colonnes amorrites des deux vocabulaires paléo-babyloniens.
Alas, the article isn’t free, and it awaits liberation.
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My acnestis is itching!
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More crappy examples of Duolingo demanding idiomatic translations:
A more literal translation would be something like, “let’s see the state of it”.
A more literal translation would be something like, “his story is from a strange place”.
While the idiomatic meanings are a bit clearer to an English speaker, they do absolutely nothing to help the learner understand what’s actually being said.
I’m seeing this pop up more and more as the lessons get more advanced and it’s really frustrating.
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This is actually pretty advanced, but 「～なところがある」 is a set grammatical structure (and ところ really should be written in kana) that is closer in meaning to “there is something ~ about it.”
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Thanks for clarifying. That one sentence immediately triggered my “this is bullshit” meter which made me research further.
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More, “usage.” I’m on a Zoom with a group of people, and the host asked us to do an icebreaker to describe whether we are a “keeper or a tosser,” and then spoke for two minutes about what a “tosser” he is.
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Good news: I’m a keeper!
Bad news: I’m also a tosser!
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I’m not sure why Duolingo focused on these three ailments: headache, toothache, and stomachache. Now I’m trying to figure out the difference between Bauchschmerzen und Magenschmerzen. 
Ok, maybe teaching Kopfschmerzen wasn’t a bad idea since this app is trying to give me one! 
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There isn’t one, really. Colloquial term vs more formal term.
Abdominalschmerz if you want to get technical…
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