Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

[Diable Rouge]

Esprit d'escalier: Perfectly summarises the quintessentially missed quip.
Zugzwang: No concise English term for a situation inflicting disadvantage.
Komorebi: A single phrase for tree-dappled sunlight - excellent!

[Toby Gymshorts]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Erm.....hasn't English already adopted the first one?

[WOM]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

This thread is like deja vu all over again.

[matt j]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Don't get all stinksauer, though.

[Diable Rouge]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Toby Gymshorts wrote: Erm.....hasn't English already adopted the first one?

Apart from Hugh Leonard, I've never heard it in general use.

[Guy Profumo]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Toby Gymshorts wrote: Erm.....hasn't English already adopted the first one?

It's certainly adopted the second.

[Toro Toro]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

There is not, and could not ever be, such a thing as an untranslatable phrase. To recognise that it was untranslatable, one would first have had to understand - and therefore to have translated - it.

[3 Colours Red]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

WOM wrote: This thread is like deja vu all over again.

You talking about the football version of this I started about a fortnight back?

[WOM]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Three Times A Reddy wrote:

This thread is like deja vu all over again.

You talking about the football version of this I started about a fortnight back?

Only if it was posted in World.

[ad hoc]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Toro Toro wrote: There is not, and could not ever be, such a thing as an untranslatable phrase. To recognise that it was untranslatable, one would first have had to understand - and therefore to have translated - it.

What about "Skrilitz !k'noringo polstreg"?

[caja-dglh]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

That was a great Aphex Twin tune.

[Fussbudget]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Toro Toro wrote: There is not, and could not ever be, such a thing as an untranslatable phrase. To recognise that it was untranslatable, one would first have had to understand - and therefore to have translated - it.

Or one could be fluent in more than one language?

[WOM]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Pfft...yeah, right.

[Guy Profumo]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

ad hoc wrote:

There is not, and could not ever be, such a thing as an untranslatable phrase. To recognise that it was untranslatable, one would first have had to understand - and therefore to have translated - it.

What about "Skrilitz !k'noringo polstreg"?

Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und Slottermeyer?

[Toby Gymshorts]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Diable Rouge wrote:

Erm.....hasn't English already adopted the first one?

Apart from Hugh Leonard, I've never heard it in general use.

Hanging about with the wrong sort, clearly. Either that or you're all so sharp you cut yourselves.

[Beatle Simon]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Splundig vur thrigg

[Toro Toro]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

ad hoc wrote:

There is not, and could not ever be, such a thing as an untranslatable phrase. To recognise that it was untranslatable, one would first have had to understand - and therefore to have translated - it.

What about "Skrilitz !k'noringo polstreg"?

How do you know that's not translatable? To say that it isn't, you must be able to say what it means, which is - precisely - to translate it.

Fussbudget - sure, you could. In which case, you know how to translate it.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Guy Potger wrote:

Erm.....hasn't English already adopted the first one?

It's certainly adopted the second.

Just got this. Belated

[ad hoc]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

I can't say what it means because it's untranslatable

[Guy Profumo]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Toby Gymshorts wrote:

Erm.....hasn't English already adopted the first one?

It's certainly adopted the second.

Just got this. Belated

Go on. Explain how. Why was I more cleverer than I thought what I was?

[Balderdasha]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Often when children are bilingual, for several years they are able to speak both languages but are incapable of translating them. They'll speak to their parents in one language and their teachers in the other, but if anyone asks them "How do you say X in the other language?" they'll be meet with looks of blank incomprehension or fear. Translation is quite separate from the ability to speak or understand a language.

[Toro Toro]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

ad hoc wrote: I can't say what it means because it's untranslatable

To show that it's untranslatable, you must be able to state its meaning. And once that can be stated - in any language, but in words that are translatable into another - it's not untranslatable.

balders - but isn't that an issue of small children's cognitive limitations? That is, the ability to translate and the ability to speak/understand are different things; but the translatability of the language per se is directly linked to its comprehensibility.

[Balderdasha]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

I'd say that generally humans are closely linked enough that anything there is a word for in one language can be described sufficiently in another language for another human to get the general gist of it, but it might not be fully translatable. Some concepts are heavily bound up in cultural traditions or life experiences and just describing a word might not fully impart its meaning.

As a simplistic example, for someone who lives in a tropical environment, there might be no indigenous word for snow. You could describe snow to this person, show them pictures, etc, but they wouldn't fully understand it unless or until they went to a cold country and experienced snow themselves.

There are other even weirder examples, like in France loads of people are diagnosed with 'heavy leg syndrome'. Again, you can describe this to people from other countries, but no-one else seems to suffer from it or really get what it is. It appears to be a culturally specific psychosomatic illness.

So I guess it depends what you mean by translatable. How fully do you need to understand something for it to have been translated?

[ad hoc]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

Toro Toro wrote:

I can't say what it means because it's untranslatable

To show that it's untranslatable, you must be able to state its meaning

why?

[Guy Profumo]

Untranslatable phrases English should adopt

ad hoc wrote:

I can't say what it means because it's untranslatable

To show that it's untranslatable, you must be able to state its meaning

why?

Because that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know..

Oh sod it. I can't be arsed