I know that both Japanese & Mandarin have a couple of words where it’s a thing, like 施設 (しせつ) from JP which becomes 設施 (shèshī) in ZH, even though they use the same 漢字 since the only difference is that the characters are flipped but retain the same definition between the two languages. Even in Japanese itself there are words where the placement of 漢字 can be reversed, like 礼儀 (“manners”) & 儀礼 (“etiquette”) for instance.

  • Linda R@nord.pubEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    So, you’re asking whether there are languages that have compound words that are in reversed order in other languages? At least you’ve taken a Chinese compound word as an example.

    Yes, they exist.

    In German a rhino is “nashorn”, where “nas” means nose and “horn” means horn. Therefore, the literal translation would be nosehorn. And in Finnish a rhino is “sarvikuono”, where “sarvi” means horn and “kuono” means nose. Therefore, the literal translation would be hornnose.

    Q.e.d.

  • Fallibilist@feddit.uk
    5·
    3 days ago

    Saippuakauppias is the same word either way you read it. It’s finnish and means a soap salesman.

  • balsoft@lemmy.ml
    5·
    3 days ago

    I’m not sure I understand your question fully. Are you looking for two distinct words with the same/similar meaning and etymology but with completely reversed letters? That’s not going to happen in alphabetic languages, because it’s simply not how languages work - completely reversing the actual sounds that come out of your mouth is a phonetic impossibility.

    You will be able to find examples where two morphemes have swapped places, similar to your manners/etiquette example, but usually the meaning will change too. The first example that came to my mind is boathouse & houseboat - the former is a building used to store boats, the latter is a boat which is also a dwelling.

    • balsoft@lemmy.ml
      5·
      3 days ago

      Given the zh/jp examples given, I don’t think the OP is looking for palindromes.

      • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        3 days ago

        Oh, yes. Looking for words that mean the same thing backwards and forward but have different forms.

        That’s probably a bigger ask with a phonetic alphabet. I think if a word consists of a combination of two symbols, the order of the symbols is much less important than that they are both present, but I haven’t studied those languages.