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.pub
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    10 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.