[lit-ideas] Hardest word to translate
- From: Teemu Pyyluoma <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 05:33:22 -0700 (PDT)
Bit old but still interesting:
The world?s hardest word to translate
By: Agencies
June 25, 2004
---------------------------------
London: The world?s most difficult word to translate
has been identified as ?ilunga? from the Tshiluba
language spoken in south-eastern DR Congo. It came top
of a list drawn up in consultation with 1,000
linguists.
Ilunga means ?a person who is ready to forgive any
abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second
time, but never a third time?.
It seems straightforward enough, but the 1,000
language experts identified it as the hardest word to
translate.
In second place was shlimazl which is Yiddish for ?a
chronically unlucky person?.
Third was Naa, used in the Kansai area of Japan to
emphasise statements or agree with someone.
Although the definitions seem fairly precise, the
problem is trying to convey the local references
associated with such words, says Jurga Zilinskiene,
head of Today Translations, which carried out the
survey.
?Probably you can have a look at the dictionary and...
find the meaning,? she said. ?But most importantly
it?s about cultural experiences and... cultural
emphasis on words,? Zilinskiene added.
The speed at which simultaneous interpreters work only
adds to the difficulty of trying to explain words with
complex meanings. And technical jargon, often found in
politics, business or sport, has difficulties of its
own.
Miss Zilinskiene?s own bete noir is ?googly?, a
cricketing term for ?an off-breaking ball disguised by
the bowler with an apparent leg-break action?. But
then many people find cricket incomprehensible anyway.
Naa.
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