Talk:Words hardest to translate

Hmmm. I have my doubts about how useful this list can be, but I'll see how it develops first. Darksun 14:46, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I hope this article could become a story-telling list with lots of short-story-like explainations. -- Toytoy 15:06, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)

If shlimazl is hard to translate, what about shmegegge? Gzuckier 20:17, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Does "Spam" on the English words list refer to the tinned meat or to unwanted email? --MockTurtle 01:16, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Well, I bet that's one part of the word what makes it hard to translate: it can mean both. --Farside 04:33, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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It'd be nice to know why the linguists didn't pick the Fuegian word mamihlanatapai, roughly looking at each other hoping that the other will do something that both want, but neither is willing to do. For English, I found the word spannungsbogen in Frank Herbert's Dune; presumably a German loan, it supposedly means something likethe delay between when one begins to desire something and when one tries to achieve it. thefamouseccles 23:08 07 Sep 2004 (UTC)

German

The German word "doch" is almost impossible to translate into any language. It's used when you disagree with someone and maintain that your earlier statement (which has been contested) was in fact correct. So the argument would go: "Mongolia is a country in Asia." "Nein." "Doch! asf. In other senses it means something roughly resembling "after all", either affirmative or surprised ("Ich bin doch nicht blöd." or "das ist doch der Herr X!"). Weasel

I've always been partial to "gemütlichkeit". (A few years in München will do that to one.) Jpgordon 21:40, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

How 'bout "comfyness"?

A decent "Spannungsbogen" belongs into any action movie or thriller (or sci-fi...) novel. It means "curve of tension". It usually goes up, then comes the catastrophe, then it goes down again. Cheers! Weasel

I think you guys have missed the point - when translating, you don't search solutions for individual words, but for individual meanings. For example, German doch is generally easy to translate since it represents a basic linguistic meaning you can express in any language. The way to express it is not always the same, but the meaning stays the same. For example, "Mongolia is a country in Asia." "Nein." "Doch" -> "No it's not." "Yes it is!", "Ich bin doch nicht blöd." -> "I (really) am not stupid." and "Das ist doch der Herr X!" -> "He really is Mr. X!" Very easy. Individual words that are hard to translate are generally those that represent culturally something unique to the particular language or those that have very much information crammed in a single word. --Farside 19:07, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I find the last two rather awkward/inaccurate. Weasel

I think gemütlichkeit fits into that category. It's not just "comfyness"; there's an entire Bayrisch gestalt wrapped up into it. It's not just comfy, it's Bavarian comfy. Jpgordon 20:14, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Japanese

• Doomo-Good bye, hello, very much
• Gambaru-Fight, do well, struggle hard

--Jondel 04:26, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Gambaru

I don't know if this Japanese word is so difficult to translate. It has multiple meanings. But when used in a sentence, it usually settles on a specific one. "Fight on!" "Word hard!" "Struggle!" "Tough it out!" To a translator, a 80% or 90% approximation is usually possible, I guess. And this word has been over-used over and over in everyday Japanese, it may have already lost some of its subtle meanings.

がん(gam)ば(ba)る(ru)【頑張る】

1.〔踏ん張る〕hold out, hang on

• 援軍が来るまでがんばった
  • They held out [hung on] till reinforcements arrived.
• がんばれ!
  • Stick with [to] it! / [collo.] Hang in there! / [before a test or a match] Good luck!
• 最後までがんばるぞ
  • I'll stick it out!
• もっとがんばらないと進級できないよ
  • If you don't work harder, you won't be able to move up to the next grade.
• 私服が入り口に頑張っていて中に入れなかった
  • I could not get in because plainclothesmen were watching the door closely.

2. 〔主張する〕insist [on]; persist [in]

• 彼はうそをついた覚えはないと頑張った
  • He insisted that he had not lied.

-- Toytoy 02:06, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)

Yiddish

• Nu? Jpgordon 21:40, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

"Whaddaya think?" Weasel