
Body parts “fall asleep” in English. What about in other languages? - curtis
https://ask.metafilter.com/293609/Body-parts-fall-asleep-in-English-What-about-in-other-languages
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pluma
The German phrases ( _Ameisenlaufen_ , _pelzige Haut_ ) seem odd. As a native
German I've never heard of them and there's a grammatical error in the second
one (it's cited as "pelziges Haut", the grammatical gender of the adjective
and noun don't match up: _Haut_ is feminine but _pelziges_ indicates neuter).
He doesn't seem to be a native speaker so I'd take that claim with a grain of
salt.

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fullmoon
Ameisenlaufen is used in Austria quite a bit. Never heard pelzige Haut.

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gsich
"einschlafen" or the dialect forms are common too.

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oeuviz
The pins and needles part is closest to what it't called in Serbo-Croatian,
guess it's the modernized version of what is found in nature. In SH(BS/HR/SR)
you'd say "trne mi ruka" which would translate to "my hand is thorning" as in
using thorn as a verb.

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Swizec
In Slovenian we say that our hand is ant-y, "mravljinčasta roka" or that we
have ants "mravljince mam".

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interfixus
Is this true? I have never heard of any limb _falling asleep_. They may
_sleep_ , but the _falling into_ sounds strange to my ears.

My native Danish is possibly fooling my perception. My leg can sleep ('sove'),
but no way it could _falde i søvn_ (the exact same construct as _fall asleep_
).

The sleep part refers to the sensation of numbness. The tingling wake-up part
seems to be associated with ants in large parts of the world. But not here.
That would simply be _tingling_ or _prickling_ or some such thing.

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dfee
I am confused by your doubt. If English is not your native tongue, what
instinct leads you to believe the statement is peculiar? Is it because English
can mislead a non-native speaker?

The answer is yes: having lived in 9 of the 50 US States in every cardinal
(and sub) direction - as well as a stint in London - I’ve never encountered
any confusion about this phrase. Limbs fall asleep. Or, a limb is asleep. But,
if you’re sitting on your leg, and you know this to cut circulation, it would
be unsurprising for you to say “it’s falling asleep” with the “degree” being
the amount of paresthesia you expect to encounter when moving the limb.

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interfixus
As I said, I am quite possibly being led astray by my native language.
Danish/Norwegian is so very, very close to English in so many areas of vocab,
grammar, and idiom, it's sometimes hard to keep the instinctives of one from
bleeding into the other.

I did search my memory before commenting, and came up blank: I _have_ never
heard about limbs _falling_ asleep. Hence my initial question, which you
hereby seem to have answered.

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smnrchrds
I didn't know "fall sleep" worked in English too. The phrase used in Persian
[0] would translate to the same thing.

[0] خواب رفتن, transliteration: "khab raftan"

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hessart
As a native Portuguese speaker from Brazil (Sao Paulo), the use of
“formigamento” sounds too formal to me.

I have always used “dormiu”, which translates to “fell asleep” (past tense).
However, using it in the present (either simple or continuous) would sound odd
to my ears.

That being said, Brazil has over 200 million speakers distributed across 3.2
million square miles, and the city of São Paulo accounts for only 5% of our
total population (roughly).

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hliyan
In Sinhalese
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhalese_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhalese_language)),
there is a specific word for numbness and local anesthesia: "හිරිවැටීම".
Literally translated as "falling into numbness".

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xbmcuser
I am typing in Roman but for Urdu we have a word for it suun but also use
sleep like in english

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userbinator
The formal medical term is related to the "running ants" expression:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formication)

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justinram22
In Chinese they go “ma2” (麻）which means “numb” or “tingly”. Interestingly the
character is also used for their spicy hot pot (麻辣火鍋) which uses a spice
called Sichuan peppercorn (花椒) which makes your mouth go numb like novocaine.

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stratosgear
In Greek it's "μούδιασε" (moó-thee-a-se) which is a completely standalone
word, having the meaning of falling asleep, but not literally meaning that.

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red75prime
In Russian they don't fall asleep by themselves, it is you who make them so.
'Я отлежал руку' \- I made my arm fall asleep by lying on it.

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p1esk
"рука затекла"

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red75prime
Right, it seems to be more commonly used.

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nobrains
In Urdu they sleep as well. "Mera paoun so gaya hai". "My foot is sleeping"
i.e. my foot has that intense tingling feeling.

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innocentoldguy
In Japanese, they go numb (痺れる). The kanji 痺 means numb, palsy, or paralyzed.

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limaoscarjuliet
Polish has ants or stiff hand or pins and needles sort of (ciarki).

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singularity2001
that's interesting I talked to a New Zealander once and he didn't know what I
mean until he finally said: "oh you mean pins and needles"

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neosat
exactly the same expression in Hindi as well.

