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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Einarr Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom einarrslanguagelog.w Joined 4615 days ago 118 posts - 269 votes  Speaks: English, Bulgarian*, French, Russian Studies: Swedish | Message 1 of 35 12 December 2013 at 4:10pm | IP Logged |
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By accident I stumbled upon this picture you'll see right under my ramblings. As I was
reading through the phrases, it got me thinking. Do you have some favorite "untranslatable" phrases (even apart form the ones below)? :) If I have to pick up one from the picture, it definitely would be the Inuit one - Iktsuarpok, just because it somehow made me feel hyggelig (in Danish), that being one of the "untranslatable" words I like the most. It basically refers to a situation, a moment, a place, person or something that can make you feel cozy, homey, nice an uplifted. So here's the picture  Edited by Einarr on 12 December 2013 at 5:02pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Tollpatchig Senior Member United States Joined 4009 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Maltese | Message 2 of 35 12 December 2013 at 4:19pm | IP Logged |
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My favorites are the Urdu and Swedish ones.
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6107 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 35 12 December 2013 at 5:01pm | IP Logged |
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I like the German and Inuit best.
By the way, can someone remind me of a German word that may begin with "T" and expresses: The feeling of being trapped, e.g in a beseiged town, with your time running out and having no power to do anything about it. I know I've expressed that poorly, but I'm sure such a word exists. It could express, for example, a powerlessness in old age with the end approaching. Edited by Mooby on 12 December 2013 at 5:05pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4638 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 4 of 35 12 December 2013 at 5:02pm | IP Logged |
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Italian, Japanese, & Urdu.
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4846 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 5 of 35 12 December 2013 at 5:11pm | IP Logged |
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Inuit is the best, but почемучка is also great from a Russian learner's point of view.
@Mooby: Do you possibly mean "Torschlusspanik"? 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5768 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 35 12 December 2013 at 5:25pm | IP Logged |
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oh they included 木漏れ日
I learnt that word maybe a decade ago, before I actually picked up Japanese, and it's been my favourite word since 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6107 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 35 12 December 2013 at 5:43pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you Josquin, yes!
I checked on-line, and found a definition which expresses it much better than my attempt - Torschlusspanik: Literally translated as a "gate-closing panic". It is sense of anxiety or fear that one's life is passing them by and that their future opportunities are diminishing. Brilliant but chilling. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 35 12 December 2013 at 8:14pm | IP Logged |
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I always thought that this sort of things are utterly pointless and not fun at all, because the fact that something can be written as one word is purely only dependant on the orthography and not the expressional capabilities of each language.
/spoilsportmode In all seriousness people create words for what they need, and these words help us understand the cultural contexts and ways people lead their lives. Edited by Henkkles on 12 December 2013 at 8:16pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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