lost in translation: foreign words for familiar concepts

I came across this post about untranslatable words from other languages via the wonderful blog A Cup of Jo. I just loved the illustrations, and it's a theme I often studied (and found fascinating) in many of my college linguistics classes. We tend to think that since English is so powerful and dominant, it can easily express any concept--but sometimes it simply lacks the conciseness and elegance of other languages. Here are a few examples, ranging from the familiar French and Spanish to the lesser-known Inuit and Urdu.

(Soon to be a familiar feeling)

(Perhaps the most enjoyable part of Spanish culture)

See the full post here.

Originally posted on Maptia, also mentioned on A Cup of Jo.

digital language

I read an interesting article published by Idibon, a company that helps other companies analyze their digital language data. I am so far from a techie that this last sentence was even a challenge to type, but it proved worthwhile reading. The author presented a report of a breakdown of the world's languages, and how often they are used in comparison to other "languages," such as texting and email. Here are some fascinating findings (just don't tell older generations, who will mourn 'the good old days'):

• By word count, almost 7% of the world's communication is now mediated by digital technologies
• If considered its own language, email spam would account for more communication than any other language except Mandarin
• Texting and instant-messaging account for 2% of the world's communications, making "short message communication" the most popular and linguistically diverse form of written communication that has ever existed
• If Facebook's 'like' was considered a one-word language, it would be in the top 5% most widely spoken languages (!!!) (And if this were posted as my Facebook status, chances are high it would receive more than a few likes.)

We've come a long way from cuneiform. In a few years, will sixth-graders even bother learning about ancient writing systems? Or will T9-texting be as ancient as it gets?

(The graphic above illustrates the comparative size of the languages most used in face-to-face communication, as compared with digitalized or technologically-mediated communication. Note the bottom-right corner.)

hella smoke

Photo credit: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Yesterday's news story about a South Korean airplane crashing upon landing at San Francisco Airport was tragic, and confirmed all my worst fears about flying. It will take the remaining two months I have until Spain to garner enough courage to get on a flight. What's more, my best friend is about to take off from SFO to China and later South Korea, the two locations the flight originated from. 

I just landed at SFO five days ago, returning from a trip to New York. The man seated next to me made fun of me for crossing my fingers on take-off and landing, but you can never be too sure.

The contents of the news story were of course upsetting, but I couldn't help smiling at this one bit of linguistic relief, nestled into a quote from an airline mechanic:  

"It landed straight, then went to the side and then all you saw was hella smoke coming off it," he said. 

You know the story takes place in Northern California when the term "hella" finds its way into formal journalism.  Everyone reading this from Southern California will cringe at both the contents of the news article, and the use of such a widely loathed term. 

a language map of the U.S.

A statistics student from North Carolina State came out with this fun linguistics study to see how where you live shapes your language. Give it a try! My results showed that not only am I indeed from California, but I was linguistically shaped by my very county! (The rest of California says "drinking fountain," but just north of San Francisco we prefer "water fountain." A truly profound distinction.)

Were your results representative of where you are from? I really enjoyed the study, until I reached the last question and learned that California is missing out on drive-through liquor stores. Ignorance was bliss, and now I am contemplating a move to Virginia.

(P.S. His next study should focus on rates of drunk driving in correlation with "brew thrus.")

graduation

This weekend I graduated from UC Santa Barbara, officially becoming a Gaucho Alum.

It was a jam-packed weekend full of dinners, graduation parties, pictures, ceremonies, and final nights with friends.

My roommate Maddy and our sisters

The women of the family

Out to dinner at Blue Agave

The Fam

Graduation picnic with families and friends

I'll miss these guys

Most academic departments on campus held small receptions for their graduates. My housemate Deniz, who studied Computer Engineering, said hers was catered with gourmet mini quiches, French-inspired hors d'oeuvres, and artisan pastries. My Linguistics reception had some chips and dip, and a store-bought cake with erroneous icing: "Congratulations LINGUSTICS Graduates." (The department that studies language can't even get English right.) UCSB seems to play favorites when doling out party budgets. Regardless, it was a touching little send-off.

It's been a great four years, and I'll miss everyone so much. Now I'm returning home to sleep for three days straight, and eventually worry if fourteen pairs of jeans is overkill as I transplant my life to Spain.

Isla Vista, I'll miss how wonderfully weird you are

feminist linguistics in Deutschland

I just finished my last German final, and now I can begin the swift process of forgetting a year's worth of material. But even if verb order and plural endings don't stick with me, a recent linguistics study about German articles made quite the impact. At the University of Leipzig, academics are taking feminism to the next level by attempting to change the grammar of German. In English we have no distinction between the gender of nouns--a table is a table, and that is that. Most Romance languages, like Spanish and French, have two genders: masculine and feminine. But German has three--masculine (der), feminine (die), and neuter (das)-and so there has been a big debate since the 1980s over the political-correctness of such forms. In many written documents both the masculine and feminine forms are included, but given the unbelievable length of some German words already (like the mouthful "Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung" for the simple concept of a speed limit), this can make for a cumbersome read! When addressing a group in general, it has been common practice to use the male form. However, many linguists have shown that this can indirectly shape a person's thought--remember this blog entry?

Think of it this way: In German,
                   male president = der Bundespräsident
                female president = die Bundespräsidentin

But when the question is asked in general (thus employing the masculine form), "Who will be the next Bundespräsident?" an image has already formed in most listeners' minds of a male president, since that's what the grammar suggests. Little fräuleins' dreams everywhere of holding high office are dashed.

Some linguists in Germany hope to someday replace the masculine and feminine forms with the simple neuter, representing both. How avant garde of them! Germans are at the cutting edge of automobile and sausage trends--why not grammar, too?

If you're interested, read the full (fascinating) article here.



What do you think about these changes? Should a language be forcibly shaped by progressives and scholars? Or is it best to leave well enough alone, and have any language change be only the result of a naturally occurring process?

prepositions

Prepositions (those little words like on, at, before, with, as, for . . . ) are often the most difficult part of any language for new learners to grasp. For instance, why do we say "John is waiting for you AT the bus stop," "He's waiting IN line," and "He's waiting for you ON the street?" (Yes, of course there is a very detailed linguistic explanation, but they're all places, for heaven's sake!) I am dreading having to teach the nuances of these little words to some unsuspecting, wide-eyed Spanish student.

In fact, prepositions are single-handedly the source of all my negative feelings towards German, and if I decide to give up and stop studying the language, I will have only them to blame.

But here is one argument in defense of their importance (and the dire consequences of getting them wrong):