Sour Grapes
Of course we're Fair and Balanced!

Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by Blogger, SDF, my employer or my family, but they should be.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.


Blog home
Blog archives
(don't know where they've
gone since Aug 2006)
Web home
Contact
Legend Consulting
Justin's blog
(not updated since Nov 2006)

Entire web This site
Search this site (powered by FreeFind)

Blogs and such

e-mail lists

Other

Results of 2 Nov 2004 General Election (winners in bold; click on office for more detail)

Tools



since 12 Apr 2004

Locations of visitors to this page
Where in the world are visitors to this page located?
(Month-to-date totals since 15 July 2007)

2004-06-28

Ilunga: most untranslatable word in the world



It would be more accurate to call it "hardest to translate into English." According to Today's Translation, who conducted the poll of translators that led to this conclusion, the top ten hardest words to translate [with definitions in English] are





  1. ilunga [Tshiluba word for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time. Note: Tshiluba is a Bantu language spoken in south-eastern Congo, and Zaire]
  2. shlimazl [Yiddish for a chronically unlucky person]
  3. radioukacz [Polish for a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain]
  4. naa [Japanese word only used in the Kansai area of Japan, to emphasise statements or agree with someone]
  5. altahmam [Arabic for a kind of deep sadness]
  6. gezellig [Dutch for cosy]
  7. saudade [Portuguese for a certain type of longing]
  8. selathirupavar [Tamil for a certain type of truancy]
  9. pochemuchka [Russian for a person who asks a lot of questions]
  10. klloshar [Albanian for loser]



And here are the top ten most difficult to translate out of English [with one-word etymologies]:





  1. plenipotentiary {Latin]
  2. gobbledegook [onomatopoeic]
  3. serendipity {Arabic]
  4. poppycock [Dutch]
  5. googly [unknown]
  6. Spam [™]
  7. whimsy [unknown]
  8. bumf [Middle English]
  9. chuffed [onomatopoeic]
  10. kitsch [German]



[via Plain English Campaign newsletter]


Original post by Hugh at 6/28/2004 04:54:00 PM Eastern time :: 0 comment(s) :: links to this post

0 comment(s):

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link



Blog home
 Blog archives

Justice (Civil Liberties, so-called Intellectual Property, Privacy & Secrecy); Politics & Government (International, National, State, Local); Humor (Irony & the Funny or Unusual); Science & Technology (Astronomy, Computers, the Internet, e-Voting, Crypto, Physics & Space); Communication (Books, Film, Media, Music & the English Language); Economics (Corporatism & Consumerism); and Items of Purely Personal Note (including Genealogy, Photography, Religion & Spirituality).