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Words that only exist in some languages | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Tally Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Israel Joined 5609 days ago 135 posts - 176 votes  Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew* Studies: French | Message 1 of 97 29 April 2010 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are many words that appear in certain languages but don't appear in others, and
would be difficult to translate into other languages. What words like that do you know? Or what words do you think are missing in some languages? I'll start: In Hebrew there is a word called 'fraier', which means someone who lets other people get ahead of him, or he waits patiently while other people go etc. :) I think English is missing a word like 'bon appetit' to say before a meal. Edited by Tally on 29 April 2010 at 10:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kisfroccs Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5410 days ago 388 posts - 549 votes Speaks: French*, German*, EnglishC1, Swiss-German, Hungarian Studies: Italian, Serbo-Croatian | Message 2 of 97 29 April 2010 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi
The word "Sehnsucht" can't be translated into French, which is generally translated as "nostalgie", but this word don't mean that. :) The word "mau" in Swiss German, which means "ja, sicher" but can't be translated in one word into German. I think there a lot of words that are specific to a language :) Szia Kisfröccs 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5374 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 3 of 97 29 April 2010 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's of course the famous example Mamihlapinatapai from the Yaghan language (on the verge of extinction) which means something like "the look two people share when they both desire to initiate something but neither of them wishes to start it". I'm sure everyone must've experienced that at some stage in their life.
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| Tally Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Israel Joined 5609 days ago 135 posts - 176 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew* Studies: French | Message 4 of 97 29 April 2010 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Wow good one! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| apatch3 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6186 days ago 80 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Pashto, English* Studies: Japanese, FrenchA2 | Message 5 of 97 29 April 2010 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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燃えてる "moeteru" means to burn although its common meaning in japanese pop culture has no equivalent I'm aware of. The whole concept of "Moe" is just absent outside of japan. If you were to ask me right now what moe means I wouldn't be able to explain it properly I'd be able to give you examples though XD. Edited by apatch3 on 29 April 2010 at 10:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5613 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 6 of 97 29 April 2010 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
That's an awesome word! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5536 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 7 of 97 29 April 2010 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Korean relationship terms like 오빠 (o-ppa), 누나 (nu-na), 언니 (eon-ni), etc. can be very tricky to translate into English. The first example (오빠) is the term a female speaker uses to refer to her older brother. However, it is also often used to refer to an older male friend, an older male classmate, a boyfriend (as a "cute" term of endearment), etc.
In fact, when used as a title following a person's name, the word is usually just dropped completely from the translation since there is no real equivalent for that concept in English. Actually translating the term would result in something awkward like: "Good evening, my older male friend John." 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 6121 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 8 of 97 29 April 2010 at 11:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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English has lots of words that don't have equivalents in some languages.
I notice that in portuguese/spanish they don't have a word for "afford" (i.e "I can't afford a flat-screen TV") Also they don't distinguish between high, loud, and tall. Edited by tritone on 29 April 2010 at 11:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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