20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words

[Civil War Bugle]

Anyways, what are some English words that don't translate into any other language?

I looked around for these sorts of words a year or so ago and serendipity is the only word I specifically remember from the source I found.

[finlay]

But they can be translated! He just translated them for us!

#9 is 'to prank call someone' nowadays, anyway; I'd say it's squeezed out the old meaning of prank call almost. And I think I have heard "to prank". People tend to say it when they are exchanging numbers, since everyone has caller id on their mobiles: 'prank call me so I can get your number'.

[Bristel]

Anyways, what are some English words that don't translate into any other language?

I looked around for these sorts of words a year or so ago and serendipity is the only word I specifically remember from the source I found.

How about serendipeco in Esperanto?

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

Anyways, what are some English words that don't translate into any other language?

I looked around for these sorts of words a year or so ago and serendipity is the only word I specifically remember from the source I found.

How about serendipeco in Esperanto?

That's merely borrowing.

[Åge Kruger]

But they can be translated! He just translated them for us!

#9 is 'to prank call someone' nowadays, anyway; I'd say it's squeezed out the old meaning of prank call almost. And I think I have heard "to prank". People tend to say it when they are exchanging numbers, since everyone has caller id on their mobiles: 'prank call me so I can get your number'.

I've always called that a "drop-call" or "dropped call".

[Civil War Bugle]

Anyways, what are some English words that don't translate into any other language?

I looked around for these sorts of words a year or so ago and serendipity is the only word I specifically remember from the source I found.

How about serendipeco in Esperanto?

What Yieul said. The basis this thing was claiming for untranslatability was that other languages were just borrowing it wholesale. Also I think the word predates Esperanto by quite some time, so even if I am wrong about its uniqueness or whatever to English, that isn't really the best counterexample.

[bulbaquil]

How about serendipeco in Esperanto?

Esperanto is a conlang and does not count.

[finlay]

But they can be translated! He just translated them for us!

#9 is 'to prank call someone' nowadays, anyway; I'd say it's squeezed out the old meaning of prank call almost. And I think I have heard "to prank". People tend to say it when they are exchanging numbers, since everyone has caller id on their mobiles: 'prank call me so I can get your number'.

I've always called that a "drop-call" or "dropped call".

fair enough - you still have a single compound for it. I mean, it makes the thing thoroughly translatable.

I've also heard "missed call" a lot. Like 'give me a missed call'.

[Opera]

For #9, French has "biper".

[murtabak]

hyggelig -- isn't it similar to gemu:tlichkeit in German? And saudade is an awesome word, same with mamihlapinatapei.

Heh, I snickered upon seeing jayus on the list, because friends used to told me that I was jayus during highschool. The meaning has changed though (within about a decade - I'm not that old! ). Nowadays (nge)jayus = punning, which is sort of true because most puns are cheesy. Another word, garing, originally meaning "crunchy", now fills the void.

Three other Indonesian words I can see joining the list:
- segan -- Putting off doing something out of respect to another person. It can be when you decline to eat at a funeral out of respect to the bereaved family, or when you refrain from criticizing a person because he has been so kind to you. It might seem to be a very "Eastern" concept, but I think it's a very universal feeling. After all, segan is part of how politicians are "bought" by lobbyists...

- prihatin -- This one's a Javanese concept, meaning roughly: to live simply/humbly according to the (hard) times, and out of empathy to people around you who are suffering. It's a wider concept than segan, in that it involves a whole lifestyle. It was probably borne out of the massively suffering conditions of the Javanese peasants during the 19th century, what with the Dutch cultivation system and so on...

- tanggung -- It's an adjective to describe an action that you might as well take to the logical conclusion. For example, if you buy an expensive meal but become full and can't quite finish it, that is tanggung (sunk cost fallacy, I know ). Or if a friend tells you that she just fought with her boyfriend (and this is the umpteenth time you hear about it), you can say "Tanggung amat, putuskan saja dia." (It's very tanggung, you (might as well) break up with him)

But probably there are equivalents to these in languages other than English. Are there?

[Nannalu]

How can they but untranslatable when they just told everyone what they are?.... In English.....

[LinguistCat]

How can they but untranslatable when they just told everyone what they are?.... In English.....

I think what they meant was you can't capture the whole meaning in one word in English. So if you translate to the nearest equivalent, you lose a lot of the meaning. But if you try to translate the meaning, you lose the conciseness. But, yeah, "untranslatable" isn't really the right word...

[ayyub]

fair enough - you still have a single compound for it. I mean, it makes the thing thoroughly translatable.

I've also heard "missed call" a lot. Like 'give me a missed call'.

I just say "call me so I have your number". (Or "text me so I have your number".)

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

How about serendipeco in Esperanto?

Esperanto is a conlang and does not count.

Well, try to translate Esperanto's "serendipo". (Note : Merely an instance of serendipity.) Then, you have the esperanto verb "kieli" (to be how?), which is awesomely badass. Or the krokodilado series, which revolves around the idea of "using the wrong language in a given situation", something quite important in a community where multilinguism is automatic. Or "kabei", "silently disappearing from the community of Esperanto speakers".

Even if it's a conlang, it is used by quite some people, and some original words (highly contextual to its use) do evolve.

[Legion]

Or the krokodilado series, which revolves around the idea of "using the wrong language in a given situation", something quite important in a community where multilinguism is automatic.

In practice it only means "speaking another language than Esperanto".

</snark>

[Skomakar'n]

Both #1 and #20 (both of which always crop up on these lists) can be adequately translated with the Welsh hiraeth (which never crops up on any list.)

As well as the Portuguese saudade and the Cornish hireth.

Also, Schadenfreude is skadeglädje in Swedish.

[Ziz]

Both #1 and #20 (both of which always crop up on these lists) can be adequately translated with the Welsh hiraeth (which never crops up on any list.)

As well as the Portuguese saudade and the Cornish hireth.

Also, Schadenfreude is skadeglädje in Swedish.

That's a calque borrowing, though.

[linguoboy]

Then, you have the esperanto verb "kieli" (to be how?), which is awesomely badass.

Korean has that, too: 어떻다 /e.tteh.ta/. Also, Osage: haakǫ́. And I suspect many more examples from the languages of the world.

[linguofreak]

The thing is that no word has "a meaning". It has a range of meanings, which may overlap partially, but are unlikely to overlap completely. While it may not always be possible to give a *concise* translation of a word, one can always put words together in such a way as to give an arbitrarily close, if long, translation.

[Aszev]

Both #1 and #20 (both of which always crop up on these lists) can be adequately translated with the Welsh hiraeth (which never crops up on any list.)

As well as the Portuguese saudade and the Cornish hireth.

Also, Schadenfreude is skadeglädje in Swedish.

That's a calque borrowing, though.

That has been around for at least 400 years and before that we had skadefägnad, which might also be a calque, but where would you draw the line?

[Astraios]

Then, you have the esperanto verb "kieli" (to be how?), which is awesomely badass.

Korean has that, too: 어떻다 /e.tteh.ta/. Also, Osage: haakǫ́. And I suspect many more examples from the languages of the world.

Lakota (and probably many others have) has verbs for every question word, and every corresponding answer word. I thought it was more awesome that you affix demonstratives to the answer words to get "to be in this manner" vs. "to be in that manner" vs. "to be in the previously specified manner" etc.

[linguoboy]

Then, you have the esperanto verb "kieli" (to be how?), which is awesomely badass.

Korean has that, too: 어떻다 /e.tteh.ta/. Also, Osage: haakǫ́. And I suspect many more examples from the languages of the world.

Lakota (and probably many others have) has verbs for every question word, and every corresponding answer word. I thought it was more awesome that you affix demonstratives to the answer words to get "to be in this manner" vs. "to be in that manner" vs. "to be in the previously specified manner" etc.

Korean has those, too, e.g. 그 /ku/ "that (medial/previously mentioned)" > 그렇다 /ku.leh.ta/ "to be like that (previously mentioned)". I don't know how far back these forms go, but it's worth mentioning that they all contain a contracted form of the light verb 하다 /hata/ "do".

[Astraios]

Korean has those, too, e.g. 그 /ku/ "that (medial/previously mentioned)" > 그렇다 /ku.leh.ta/ "to be like that (previously mentioned)". I don't know how far back these forms go, but it's worth mentioning that they all contain a contracted form of the light verb 하다 /hata/ "do".

Awesome. What resources do you recommend for learning Korean?

[linguoboy]

Korean has those, too, e.g. 그 /ku/ "that (medial/previously mentioned)" > 그렇다 /ku.leh.ta/ "to be like that (previously mentioned)". I don't know how far back these forms go, but it's worth mentioning that they all contain a contracted form of the light verb 하다 /hata/ "do".

Awesome. What resources do you recommend for learning Korean?

I learned it so long ago, I don't have a good idea what's out there now. (I remember browsing the Language Room at my old college bookstore and practically weeping at how much the language-learning materials for Korean had improved since I was an undergraduate and had to make do with a shitty repetitive textbook geared toward missionaries.) There's an extensive list at Unilang: http://www.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=12754. The only textbook among them that I've used personally is You & Cho (http://www.language.berkeley.edu/korean/10/) which is excellent, but it's an intermediate text.

[Astraios]

고맙습니다!