Ella Frances Sanders - Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World

Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567

Copyright 2014 by Ella Frances Sanders

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sanders, Ella Frances.
Lost in translation : an illustrated compendium of untranslatable words from around the world / Ella Frances Sanders.
pages cm
Summary: An artistic collection of 52 drawings featuring unique, funny, and poignant foreign words that have no direct translation into English Provided by publisher.
1. Language and languagesForeign elements. 2. Translating and interpreting 3. Picture-writing. 4. Visual communication. 5. Semiotics. 6. Iconicity (Linguistics) I. Title.
P324.S26 2014
410dc23
2014010259

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-60774-710-9
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60774-711-6

Sources: BetterThanEnglish.com, MentalFloss.com, Other-Wordly.tumblr.com, and The Meaning of Tingo by Adam Jacot de Boinot.

v3.1_r1

I too am not a bit tamed,
I too am untranslatable.

Walt Whitman

Contents

INTRODUCTION

How you do introduce the untranslatable?

In our highly connected and communicative world, we have more ways than ever to express ourselves, to tell others how we feel, and to explain the importance or insignificance of our days. The speed and frequency of our exchanges leave just enough room for misunderstandings, though, and now perhaps more than ever before, what we actually mean to say gets lost in translation. The ability to communicate more frequently and faster hast eliminated the potential for leaving gaps between meaning and interpretation, and emotions and intentions are misread all too often.

The words in this book may be answers to questions you didnt even know to ask, and perhaps some you did. They might pinpoint emotions and experiences that seemed elusive and indescribable, or they may cause you to remember a person youd long forgotten. If you take something away from this book other than some brilliant conversation starters, let it be the realization (or affirmation) that you are human, that you are fundamentally, intrinsically bound to every single person on the planet with language and with feelings.

As much as we like to differentiate ourselves, to feel like individuals and rave on about expression and freedom and the experiences that are unique to each one of us, we are all made of the same stuff. We laugh and cry in much the same way, we learn words and then forget them, we meet people from places and cultures different from our own and yet somehow we understand the lives they are living. Language wraps its understanding and punctuation around us all, tempting us to cross boundaries and helping us to comprehend the impossibly difficult questions that life relentlessly throws at us.

Languages arent unchanging, though they can sometimes hold a false sense of permanence. They do evolve and occasionally die, and whether you speak a few words of one or a thousand words of many, they help to shape usthey give us the ability to voice an opinion, to express love or frustration, to change someones mind.

For me, making this book has been more than a creative process. Its caused me to look at human nature in an entirely new way, and I find myself recognizing these nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the people I walk by on the street. I see boketto in the eyes of an old man sitting at the oceans edge, and the resfeber that has taken over the hearts of friends as they prepare to journey across the world to an unknown culture.

I hope this book helps you find a few long-lost parts of yourself, that it brings to mind fond memories, or that it helps put into words thoughts and feelings that you could never clearly express before. Perhaps you ll find the word that perfectly describes your second cousin once removed, the way you felt two summers ago that you were never able to fully describe, or the look in the eyes of the person sitting across from you right now.

Eckhart Tolle wrote, Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which isnt very much. Im hesitant to agree. Words allow us to grasp and hold onto an extraordinary amount. Sure, all languages can be picked apart and reduced to just a few vowels or symbols or sounds, but the ability that language gives us is incredibly complex. There may be some small essential gaps in your mother tongue, but never fear: you can look to other languages to define what youre feeling, and these pages are your starting point.

So go and get lost in translation.

PLEGG

n. Anything and everything you can put on a slice of bread.

It seems that Norwegians are vague but generous when it comes to sandwiches, as this word can cover most anything that you might consider putting on (or in between) slices of the versatile carbohydrate that is bread. Cheese, meat, peanut butter, lettuce leaves you name it, and it is probably plegg.

noun

COMMUOVERE

v. To be moved in a heartwarming way, usually relating to a story that moved you to tears.

Maybe you had a single tear rolling down your cheek, or maybe you were crying for days afterward. Touching and powerful stories hit you in the most inexplicable, unexpected, and undeniably human ways.

verb

MNGATA

n. The road - like reflection of the moon in the water.

Perhaps people dont notice these glimmering, lyrical moments enough anymore, but the way the moon reflects and leaps across the black water of the ocean at night is surely a sight to behold.

Next page

1234567

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World»

Look at similar books to Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Endryu Tejlor

The Greeks Had a Word for It: Words You Never Knew You Can’t Do Without

Tom Read Wilson

Every Word Tells a Story

Tim Lomas

Happiness--Found in Translation: A Glossary of Joy from Around the World

Fee Gordon D.

How to choose a translation for all its worth: a guide to understanding and using Bible versions

Christopher J. Moore

In other words: a Language Lovers Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World

Gowers Ernest

Plain words: a guide to the use of English

Timir Naha

Mastering the art of English Pronunciation : A Beginners guide: English Phonetics and Phonemics

Joseph Piercy

1000 words to expand your vocabulary

Ella Frances Sanders

The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World

Cantrell Asher.

The Book of Word Records: A Look at Some of the Strangest, Shortest, Longest, and Overall Most Remarkable Words in the English Language

Rosalie Baker

In a Word

Elizabeth Morrison

The Right Word: Correcting Commonly Confused, Misspelled, and Misused Words

Discussion, reviews of the book Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.