Folium: The “Untranslatable” Emotions You Never Knew You Had via BBCFuture
Folium: The “Untranslatable” Emotions You Never Knew You Had via BBCFuture
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Many languages, such as the romance languages and slavic languages, borrow and use words that are similar or identical to words in English and vice versa. This makes language learning much easier for the learner, because you’re able to find cognates that make sense from one language to another. I say this though, with a word of caution, because this is not always the case. There are words in some languages that don’t translate at all to English, and are solely distinct to that language.
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Gigil is a Tagalog word that describes the irresistible urge to pinch or squeeze someone because they are loved or cherished (Credit: Alamy)
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I admit, I have been a victim of an embarrassing, misunderstanding moment when I have felt the ‘lost in translation’ look beam across my face. It could have been their mistake, it could have been mine. Nonetheless, I made an awkward half-smile, pretending like I knew what they said. At this point, it doesn’t even really matter what they said, it matters more how I reacted to the things they blurted out.
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“From gigil to wabi-sabi and tarab, there are many foreign emotion words with no English equivalent. Learning to identify and cultivate these experiences could give you a richer and more successful life.” – BBCFuture
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Our bodies are constantly speaking for us, whether we want them to or not. People who know you well are probably best able to decipher your body language, but you show bodily cues all the time, and mine were definitely showing that I was completely clueless, and uncomfortable.
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Desbundar (Portuguese) – to shed one’s inhibitions in having fun.
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Tarab (Arabic) – a musically induced state of ecstasy or enchantment.
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Shinrin-yoku (Japanese) – the relaxation gained from bathing in the forest, figuratively or literally.
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Gigil (Tagalog) – the irresistible urge to pinch or squeeze someone because they are loved or cherished.
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Yuan bei (Chinese) – a sense of complete and perfect accomplishment.
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Iktsuarpok (Inuit) – the anticipation one feels when waiting for someone, whereby one keeps going outside to check if they have arrived. (BBCFuture)
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I was hopeless, there was no way I was going to be “found in translation” anytime soon. In a quick-stitch effort, my friend read my body language and red face, and led the conversation elsewhere. She knew the word, and knew that I didn’t know it yet. That word was “madrugada.” “Madrugada” was not yet in my vocabulary, and although I had studied Spanish for a while, I still was uncertain of the meaning because of the context. My friend, desperately trying to save me from such an embarrassing moment, quickly tried to explain to me what it meant in English. I understand once she said it, but it didn’t quite translate. She used an entire sentence to explain just one word! There was no direct translation for that word, and my English-speaking brain couldn’t compute.
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ed. Learning more words can help us rationalize and contextualize feelings that we didn’t know we even had!
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Apparently in Spanish, there is a word for the wee hours of the early morning that isn’t just mañana, but somewhere between 1-6am. This word really didn’t mean much until I was enlightened, after being thrown viciously for a large language loop. I wish I wouldn’t have tried to play it off, because the conversation would have made a whole lot more sense had I stuck out the awkward moment.
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ed. This is actually really fun and addicting. Play around with “untranslatable” words! (Click on graphic!)
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In the article, David says that words “…taken from Bantu, Tagalog, and Dutch – have no direct English equivalent, but they represent very precise emotional experiences that are neglected in our language.” The words that aren’t translatable, often convey feelings and emotions that are determiners of how we cope with life. David says of a study done by Lisa Feldman Barrett at Northeastern University, that “emotion vocabulary is a bit like a directory, allowing you to call up a greater number of strategies to cope with life.” It often helps to see the world through an emotional standpoint, wherein, the most non-translatable words may actually make the most sense.
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What kind of feelings or experiences have you had that can not be described in a single word?
Julie Thatcher
LEAF Contributor
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