Onderwerp: Question about Languages

Hello, it´s me again.

I have another linguistic question you may help me :

In german there exists the note "die da oben",
in english maybe "they above" or so.

which means people, who can make decisions for others, because they are rich, politicians, or simply have the power to do it.
It is often used here in germany by people to show their own powerlessnes and not to have a chance to avoid things, they don´t want to happen.
"die da oben machen was sie wollen", "they above do what they want"

my question is :
does such a note exist in other languages?

espicially languages from south europe (Turkyie, Italia, Espana, Hellas) and arabic would help me a lot.

many thanks for your inputs

greets
sara
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"Zij daarboven doen wat ze willen"(Dutch)

well in spanish, that translation should be...los de arriba. It refers to the people that, as you say make all the decisions. Altought It's not very common to be heard, well I haven't had heard it with frecuency, but it certantly exists.

there's such an ideom in Russian "сильные мира сего" which stands for "people who have power"

hmmm...

trying to translate your statement in Italian, I would say:
"chi sta in alto fa ciò che vuole".
Or, using something which outlines a "group":
"I potenti fanno ciò che vogliono" (= powerful people does what they want)

Something related to the Sapir-Wharf hypotesis?

Yes, bei us we say so too.

Tepedekiler istediklerini yapiyorlar.

in latin "Ubi maior, minor cessat" = (litteral translation) = "where the bigger, the smaller stops"

it's used not only with a bad meaning: it can also be used to express respect for someone you consider more experienced or important than you..

in italian: "I piani alti" = (litteral translation) = "the high floors" often stands for "they above"

ex:

"Non l'ho deciso io, sono stati i piani alti" = (litteral translation) = "I didn't decide this, high floors did"

:P
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Sara, taking your question about what has written Capt_Yossarian, there was also a joking phrase, that it's used in the last years and only for fun, because is a traslation grammatically scorrect and it is:

C'è chi può e chi non può, io può!!
there is who can do and who can not do it, I can do it!!

but remember that in italian language the last expression "Io può" is scorrect, must be "Io posso"
but for fun, with friend you can tell so :-)))
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cei sus-pusi - Hoch Rumänisch, as you Germans like to say

or

aia de sus - this is a more common language


In Romanian

In Polish also exist popular sentence but it's hard to translate in english with sense, but I can try. Meybe someone help me :)

PL: Co wolno wojewodzie to nie tobie rolniku.

ENG: You (being a farmer) can't do everything what voivode/governor can.
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Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi

= what is allowed to Juppiter is not allowed to every taurus

sapir-whorf is a thing, i may use, tx for input.

my work is an essay about the book
"was lebst du?" , ("what do you live?")
by Aysegül Adcevit.
it´s about experiences by people with parents or grandparents from turkyie, who live in germany.

What do you study?

In Frisian we have:

Hja dêrboppe dogge mar wat se wolle. (They above to what they want).
Hja dêr yn Din Haach dogge mar wat se wolle. (They in The Hague do wat they want).
Hja dêr yn Brussel... (They in Brussels...)
Hja dêr yn de Jeropeeske Kommisje... (They in the European Commission...)
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teacher for elementary school

b-shit :)


@sara

"die da oben" - in Poland we often say "ci na górze" or sometimes simply "góra"

And I have never heard about "Co wolno wojewodzie, to nie tobie, rolniku."
It goes like: "Co wolno wojewodzie to nie tobie, smrodzie" - it makes a rhyme and literally means: "You [can't/aren't allowed to] do what a vaivode [can/is allowed to] do.

But there is one remark: "smrodzie" is instrumental case of "smród", which normally means "stench". Here, however, it concerns a person called so.

I hope, in spite of the fact there may be some obscurity, it will help you at least a bit :)
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nice
in spanish, as the other mate told you, "los de arriba"

there is another expression, used in spain, wich is:

Los que cortan el bacalao

literally means: the ones that cut the fish ( bacalao) meaning the people with power to decide