This Week, I had to
opportunity to read an entertaining and interesting book called “Lost in
Translation” written by Ella Frances Sanders. This book has an interesting
collection of untranslatable words in more than 30 languages. I learned that
there is a word in Inuktitut, one of the aboriginal languages spoken in Canada,
which describes when we go more than once to check if someone is coming. The
word is “Iktsuarpok” (ᐃᒃᑦᓱᐊᕐᐳᒃ). More information about the author and other books
written by her can be found in her web page http://ellafrancessanders.com .
This particular leads
me to write today about those
words and idioms in different languages that represent a real challenge for
translators and interpreters. Some of them are funny; there are some that
express particular situations that in other cultures may not be considered, and
those that are used to insult or talk with irony. In the web page http://omniglot.com/language/idioms/index.php
idioms are defined as “expressions that don’t mean what they appear to
mean”. In this page, they give examples
of idioms like this one from French: “pédaler dans la choucroute” that literally means “To pedal in the
Saurkreaut” but this expression is used to talk about going to nowhere.
In English,
there are some interesting idioms that I learned during my stay in the UK or reading
about them in the web page of the BBC. Some of my favourites are:
-It’s not my
cup of tea: An elegant way to say “I don’t like it”.
-To go
Bananas: A verb that describes a situation when somebody behaves
crazily or over excited.
-Scrooge:
A cheap or miserly person. This expression comes from the famous book of
Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”. By the way, the own name of Dickens, also
generated an idiomatic word that is “Dickensian”, to describe situations
of poverty and hard work that are found in the books of this author. Thanks to
the Teacher, from BBC learning English.
-Think
outside the box: To be creative creating new ideas.
I gave an
example in French already. I cannot write all the cases I know or I have read about,
but one of my favourites is “Avoir un poil dans la main” that
literally means: “To have a hair in the hand” and is a very funny way to
describe someone who is lazy.
Canada is also
considered a French speaking country, although most of its population use
English every day. Quebec is the only
province where they use French for all occasions. Quebec has also been able to
contribute with some slang expressions to French that are not easy to get for
speakers of this language from other countries. Two Quebec expressions to
denote that everything is OK are: C’est
tiguidou! - L’affaire est ketchup! The word “Tiguidou” seems not to have a
known meaning in other languages, including French! More can be read in http://generationvoyage.fr/10-expressions-quebecoises-francais-comprendre/
Spanish language, my
mother tongue, is a language which deserves a special attention when we talk
about slang and idioms. Being the main language spoken in more than 20
countries, it has developed a unique set of words with double or more meanings
that change throughout the different regions that use it.
I will start with a
word we used in our university studies: “Puñalear”. This word
comes from “Puñal” that means “dagger”. In Spanish, the real way
to convert this word in a verb is “Apuñalar” so technically the
word “puñalear” is not correct. But my classmates, and later on
my students, use this word to mean “Learn by Heart”, “study assiduously for an
exam”. Some people translate this verb as “To
Swot”.
Spanish language has
many words with so different meanings from one country to another. I had the
opportunity to talk here in Toronto with non native speakers of Spanish who
traveled to many countries in Latin America, and the way they have fun with the
different words an idioms they find in different countries, and that sometimes,
a word you learn in a country may not be very useful in another. I will point
out this word: “Concha”. This word means “Shell” and is used
mainly with fruits. It is a very innocent word that can be used in any formal
written document, cooking book, or use it in any book dedicated to children.
But in other countries, especially in the south, it is considered a word very
rude or nasty.
Many people in the
word has heard the word “Ché”, that is very common in Argentina,
where this word means “Comrade”.
The phrase “Tomar
Once” that literally means “To have eleven” may sound weird, unless you
have been in Chile. In this country, “Once” (eleven) is a special
evening snack. Usually it has tea or coffee and some bakery. I was told that
“eleven” is the number of letters that compose the phrase “Vamos a beber”
(Let’s go to drink). This expression appeared in order to conceal the real
intentions of drink in time that it was not socially accepted.
But this curious
terminology in Spanish is not limited to street slang or daily conversations
among students or workers. In Colombia, during my time working there, I had the
situation where I had to process a document called “Paz y Salvo”.
Literally this name means “Peace and Safe”. This official document is basically
a provisional permit that applies for different occasions. However, if I ask
one of my students of English, who are now Lawyers, to help me process such
document, I am not sure they will know what am I asking for.
In Italian, there are
also some nice Idioms. Here are some that I found in my research:
-Avere le mani
in pasta: (literally: To have
hands in Dough) - when somebody is well connected.
-Prendere
Fischi per Fiaschi: (Taking whistles for Chianti bottles) – To
understand one thing instead of another. Misunderstand.
In Portuguese, I
found this interesting idiom: “É o cão chupando manga”: (It’s the
dog sucking mango) – means basically something “very ugly”. Reference: http://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/10-brazilian-slang-words/
Persian language,
with a very old tradition in literature, has also developed a very interesting
set of idioms and slang language. But I am going to concentrate on a few very
original idioms about Love.
Moosh Bokhoradet : Basically means “You are cute”. But what people may
not imagine is the literal meaning of this expression, and is something like:
“The mice will eat you”.
Jeegare man-ee: literally is “You are my liver”. But this idiom is
used for endearment. A very original way to say “I Love You”. Read more expressions
visiting:
Ukrainian language
has some curious expressions. Today, many people use the word “класно”
(klasno) meaning that something is cool. It is interesting to note that this word
comes from “клас” that is
basically used to describe a lecture or classroom activities. I read that this
word slang also exist in Russian.
For those who want to
have a safe initiation in the infinite world of cursing language in Ukrainian,
and in many other Slavic languages as well, the first word they may spot is “холера” (Kholera)
that means basically “Cholera”. It is used as an expression of anger.
In this article, I tried not to introduce words that
may be used to insult. However, during my research I found an interesting
article about insulting words in different languages, published by the BBC. I
will recommend it because I consider is very professional. It is in http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150306-how-to-swear-around-the-world?
Recently I read a
book called: Zubi! The real Hebrew you were never taught in School, by Danny
Ben Israel. This book is a description of today´s slang I Israel. The slang in
Hebrew is based mostly in expressions that immigrants brought from different
countries and languages, but there are strong influences of languages such
Russian, Arabic, Yiddish and English. Two words I found funny are:
-פקצית (Fakatsit): is the
name that describes the slang used by young Israelis in the Internet. It also
has its own code based on Latin letters, in a way imitating the Hebrew ones.
-מתכלב (Mitkalev): Literally
it means “Dogging”, from כלב (kelev) that means
“Dog”. Basically means: To live as cheap as possible. It is mainly applied by
Israeli backpackers.
Esperanto may be
considered a slang free language by its speakers. But there are some terms that
only an Esperantist knows. One of the most common in Esperanto Meetings is “Krokodili”.
This word comes from “Krokodilo” (Crocodile). When in an
Esperanto meeting, the phrase “Ne Krokodilu!” is said, something
like “Do not Crocodile!”, this is a command not to speak a different language in
an Esperanto environment. Refer to https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krokodili
