Wednesday, March 7, 2007

For What?

Most Singaporeans will be familiar with this typically Singlish demand, largely (but not always) synonymous with why.

It may therefore come as a surprise that this is exactly how the word why is derived in French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese: pourquoi (Fr.), perché (It.), por qué (Sp.), por que (Pt.) are all formed from the words ‘for’ + ‘what’.

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