False friends
handel (Polish and Dutch) trade
liszt (Hungarian) flour
berlin (Wagiman, Australia) shoulder
bengal (Malay) temporarily deaf or stubborn
malta (Italian) mortar
bach (Welsh) cottage
pele (Samoan) pack of playing cards
Skin and buttocks
Just for the record, and to avoid confusion abroad, here are the meanings of a variety of English names when written in other languages:
adam (Arabic) skin
alan (Indonesian) comedian
alf (Arabic) thousand, millennium
anna (Arabic) moans and groans
calista (Portuguese) chiropodist
camilla (Spanish) stretcher
cilla (Zarma, Nigeria) basket
doris (Bajan, Barbados) police van
eliza (Basque) church
eve (Rapa Nui, Easter Island) buttocks
fay (Zarma, Nigeria) divorce
fred (Swedish, Danish and Norwegian) peace
jim (Korean) baggage
kim (Ainu, Japan) mountain
kylie (Dharug, Australia) boomerang
laura (Greek) group of monks’ huts
luke (Chinese) traveller
marianna (Italian) accomplice who tells a gambler the cards held by other players
sara (Hausa, Nigeria) snakebite
sid (Arabic) plaster
susan (Thai ) cemetery
vera (Italian) wedding ring
First person singular
Ben in Turkish, Ami in Bengali, Fi in Welsh, Jo in Catalan, Mimi in Swedish, Mama in Sinhala (Sri Lanka) and Man in Wolof (Senegal and Gambia) all mean I.
Speaking in tongues
British first names crop up as the names of languages, too:
Alan (Georgia); Ali (Central Africa); Dan (Ivory Coast); Dido (Russia); Karen (Myanmar and Thailand); Kim (Chad); Laura (Indonesia); Mae (Vanuatu); Maria (Papua New Guinea and India); Pam (Cameroon); Ron (Nigeria); Sara (Chad); Sonia (Papua New Guinea); Uma (Indonesia); Zaza (Iran).
And equally intriguing to English ears may be:
Afar (Ethiopia); Alas (Indonesia); Anus (Indonesia); Bare (Venezuela); Bats (Georgia); Bench (Ethiopia); Bile (Nigeria); Bit (Laos); Bum (Cameroon); Darling (Australia); Day (Chad); Doe (Tanzania); Eton (Vanuatu/Cameroon); Even (Russia); Ewe (Niger-Congo); Fang (Western Africa); Fox (North American); Fur (Sudan); Ham (Nigeria); Hermit (Papua New Guinea: extinct); Logo (Congo); Mango (Chad); Miao (South-East Asia); Moore (Burkina Faso); Mum (Papua New Guinea); Noon (Senegal); Pear (Cambodia); Poke (Congo); Puma (Nepal); Quiche (Guatemala).
Grand capital of the world
The capital of Thailand is abbreviated by all Thais to Krung Thep, and referred to as Bangkok, meaning literally ‘grove of the wild plums’. But, bearing in mind that there are no spaces between words in written Thai, its full correct name is:
Krungthephphramahanakhonbowonratanakosinmahinthara
yuthayamahadilokphiphobnovpharadradchataniburiromudo
msantisug
meaning: City of Angels, Great City and Residence of the Emerald Buddha, Impregnable City of the God Indra, Grand Capital of the World, Endowed with Nine Precious Gems, Abounding in Enormous Royal Palaces which resemble the Heavenly Abode where reigns the Reincarnated God, a City given by Indra and built by Vishnukarm.
It rather leaves the Welsh
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwillantysilioogofgoch
(meaning St Mary’s Church by the pool of the white hazel trees, near the rapid whirlpool, by the red cave of the Church of St Tysilio) in the shade.
A to Y
At the other end of the scale are three places called A (in Denmark, Norway and Sweden), and two more, in Alaska and France, called Y.
Toujours Tingo
1.
Getting Acquainted
bie shi rongyi; jian shi nan (Chinese)
parting is easy but meeting is difficult
Hamjambo
However good or bad we’re feeling inside, we still have to communicate with each other. We come out of our front door, see someone and adopt the public face. ‘How are you?’ ‘Awright, mate?’ we ask at home. Abroad, greetings seem somehow more exotic:
stonko? Muskogee (Oklahoma and Florida, USA)
ah chop? Aramaic (Maaloula, Syria)
oli? Koyo (Congo)
hamjambo? Kiswahili (South East Africa)
‘Fine, thanks!’ we reply. They say:
bare bra Norwegian
dagu dad Adyghe (North Caucasus, Russia)
bash Kurdi (Iran, Iraq)
How is your nose?
The Onge of the Andaman Islands don’t ask ‘How are you?’ but ‘How is your nose?’ The correct response is to reply that you are ‘heavy with odour’. Around the world there are numerous other ways to meet and greet:
cead mile failte (Irish) one hundred thousand welcomes
añjalikā (Pali, India) the raising of the hands as a sign of greeting
inga i moana (Gilbertese, Oceania) to greet with open arms but soon tire of
er-kas (Pahlavi, Iran) hands under the armpits in respectful salutation
abruzo (Latin American Spanish) the strong hug men give each other whenever they meet
lamuka usalali (Mambwe, Zambia) to greet somebody lying down on one’s back (a salute generally given to chiefs)
‘And this is …’
The Scots have a useful word, tartle, which means to hesitate in recognizing a person or thing, as happens when you are introducing someone whose name you can’t quite remember. They are not the only ones to suffer from this infuriating problem:
ciniweno (Bemba, Zambia) a thing, the name of which one does not remember
joca (Portuguese) thingumajig, thingumabob
Tongue-tied
That little dilemma solved, not everyone finds it easy to continue:
byatabyata (Tsonga, South Africa) to try to say something but fail for lack of words
vóvôhetâhtsenáotse (Cheyenne, USA) to prepare the mouth before speaking (for example, by moving or licking one’s lips)
dabodela (Malagasy, Madagascar) one in the habit of opening his mouth so as to show his tongue projecting and rolling a little beyond the teeth, and yet not able to speak
bunhan bunahan (Boro, India) to be about to speak and about not to speak
Chatterbox
With others you sometimes wish they found self-expression harder:
láu táu (Vietnamese) to talk fast and thoughtlessly
hablar hasta por los codos (Spanish) to talk non-stop (literally, to talk even through the elbows)
mae hi’n siarad fel melin bupur (Welsh) she talks non-stop (literally, she talks like a pepper mill)
hinikiza (Swahili) to out-talk a person by making a noise
kumoo musu baa (Mandinka, West Africa) to jump into a conversation without knowing the background
nudnyi (Russian) someone who, when asked how they are, tells you in detail
chovochovo (Luvale, Zambia) the tendency to carry on talking after others have stopped
gnagsår i ørene (Norwegian) blisters in your ears: what someone who talks a lot gives you
On reflection
What’s in a name?
First impressions are important, particularly to the people visiting a place for the first time. The name of the Canary Islands (Islands of the Dogs) derives from the wild dogs (canes) that barked savagely at the Romans when they first arrived on Gran Canaria.
Cities
Cuzco (Quechuan, Andes) navel of the earth
Khartoum (Arabic) elephant’s trunk
Topeka, Kansas (Sioux Indian) a good place to grow potatoes
Countries
Anguilla: from the Spanish for eel, so named by Columbus due to its elongated shape
Cameroon: from the Portuguese
Rio de Camarões, River of Shrimps
Faroe Islands: from the Faroese
Føroyar, She
ep Islands
Barbados: from the name Os Barbados, the Bearded Ones: the island’s fig trees sported long roots resembling beards
Keeping in touch
Advances in technology have ensured that we are always on call, but whether that improves the quality of our lives is somewhat debatable:
yuppienalle (Swedish) a mobile phone (literally, yuppie teddy: as they were like security blankets for yuppies when they first came out)
proverka sloukha (Russian) an expression used in telephone conversations, meaning ‘I have nothing special to say – I just called to say hello’ (literally, a hearing test)
telebabad (Tagalog, Philippines) talking on the phone for a long time
prozvonit (Czech and Slovak) to call someone’s mobile from your own to leave your number in their phone’s memory, without the intention of the other person picking up
Tower of Babble
Not that we should ever take communication of any kind for granted. At whatever pace, misunderstandings are all too easy:
geop (Gaelic) fast talk which is mostly unintelligible
beròhina (Malagasy, Madagascar) to be spoken to in a strange dialect, to be perplexed by hearing provincialisms
betenger (Manobo, Philippines) to speak another language with a pronunciation that reflects one’s own native language
tener papas en la boca (Chilean Spanish) to speak in a stuffy or incomprehensible manner (literally, to have potatoes in the mouth)
False friends
Those who learn languages other than their own will sometimes come across words which look or sound the same as English, but mean very different things:
dating (Tagalog, Philippines) arrival
phrase (French) sentence
dating (Chinese) to ask about, enquire
Handy (German) mobile phone
Baloney
And sometimes people just speak rubbish anyway:
höpöhöpö (Finnish) nonsense
prietpraat (Dutch) twaddle
botalo (Russian) a chatterbox, a babbler (literally, a cowbell)
poyipoyi (Tsonga, South Africa) a person who talks at length but does not make sense
bablat (Hebrew) baloney (an acronym of
Beelbool Beytseem Le-Io Takhleet: bothering someone’s testicles for no reason)
ich verstehe nur Wortsalat (German) I don’t understand a thing you are saying (literally, all I hear is the word salad)
Q and A
Information is power, they tell us; but finding out what we need to know isn’t always as straightforward as we’d like. Sometimes we have to adopt special methods:
candrā nā (Hindi) to make an enquiry with a feigned air of ignorance
antsafa (Malagasy, Madagascar) enquiries about things of which one is fully cognisant beforehand
… although of course two can play at that game:
gadrii nombor shulen jongu (Tibetan) giving an answer that is unrelated to the question (literally, to give a green answer to a blue question)
kinkens (Scots) an evasive answer to an inquisitive child
iqsuktuq (Iñupiat, Inuit) to respond negatively by wrinkling the nose
Mhm mmm
So sometimes it’s ‘yes’ …
mhm Lithuanian
hooo Agua Caliente (California, USA)
ow Amharic (Ethiopia)
eeyee Setswana (Botswana)
uh-uh-huh Tamashek (West Africa)
… and other times ‘no’:
mmm Pulawat (Micronesia)
uh uh Shimasiwa (Comoros, Indian Ocean)
yox Azerbaijani
bobo Bété (Cameroon)
doo-yee Kato (California, USA)
halo Chinook (North America)
pepe Chitonga (Zambia)
hindi Tagalog (Philippines)
yuk Tatar (Russia)
Just be sure you know which m(h)mm is which.
IDIOMS OF THE WORLD
It’s all Greek to me
People fail to understand each other all the time it seems. The English idiom ‘it’s all Greek to me’ has counterparts throughout the languages of Europe. To the Germans it’s ‘Spanish’, to the Spanish and Hungarians it’s ‘Chinese’, to the French it’s ‘Hebrew’, to the Poles it’s ‘a Turkish sermon’. And, more unusually still, the Germans say
ich verstehe nur Bahnhof I only understand station
2.
The Human Condition
ge ru-wa nhagi mo choe
(Dzongkha, Bhutan)
the nose doesn’t smell the rotting head
Tightwad
However much we like to think that all those odd-looking, strange-speaking people around the world are different from us, the shocking evidence from language is that we are all too similar. Don’t most of us, whether we live in city, shanty-town or rural bliss, know one of these?
hallab el-nammleh (Syrian Arabic) a miserly person (literally, ant milker)
krentenkakker (Dutch) one who doesn’t like spending money (literally, someone who shits currants)
kanjus makkhichus (Hindi) a person so miserly that if a fly falls into his cup of tea, he’ll fish it out and suck it dry before throwing it away
yaalik (Buli, Ghana) sponging, always expecting help or gifts from others without being willing to offer help
False friends
ego (Rapanui, Easter Island) slightly soiled
hiya (Tagalog, Philippines) bashful
incoherent (French) inconsistent
liar (Malay) undomesticated
um (Bosnian) mind, intellect
slug (Swedish) astute
Big-hearted
Fortunately, those are not the only kind of people on our beautiful and fragile planet:
pagad (Manobo, Philippines) to show consideration for a slow-walking person by also walking slowly, so that he can keep up
manàra-drìmitra (Malagasy, Madagascar) to involve oneself in another’s calamity by seeking to extricate him
elunud (Manobo, Philippines) to go deliberately to someone’s aid and share in his misfortune, regardless of the obviously ill-fated outcome
Ulterior motive
If only people displaying such fine qualities were always pure of heart. But the Italians are not the only ones who understand carita pelosa, generosity with an ulterior motive:
mutakarrim (Persian) one who makes pretensions to generosity
Tantenverführer (German) a young man of excessively good manners whom you suspect of devious motives (literally, aunt seducer)
uunguta (Yamana, Chile) to give much more to one than to others
Obligation
Then again, sometimes the totally sincere can be altogether too much:
Bärendienst (German) an act someone does for you thinking they are doing you a favour, but which you really didn’t want them to do
arigata-meiwaku (Japanese) an act someone does for you thinking they are doing you a favour, but which you really didn’t want them to do; added to which, social convention now requires you to express suitable gratitude in return
On reflection
Watching the English
In Greek megla (derived from ‘made in England’) denotes elegance and supreme quality and jampa (derived from ‘made in Japan’) means very cheap. Other languages use rather different standards of Englishness in their idioms:
s kliden Angličana (Czech) as calm as an Englishman
ubbriaco come un marinaio inglese (Italian) as drunk as an English sailor
filer à l‘anglaise (French) to slip away like the English
Hat over the windmill
Rather than being a sucker who takes consideration for other people’s feelings too far, perhaps it would be better to be one of those enviable individuals who simply doesn’t give a damn?
menefreghista (Italian) a person who has an ‘I don’t care’ attitude
piittaamaton (Finnish) unconcerned about other people’s feelings
i v oos nye doot (Russian) not to give a damn (litera
lly, it doesn’t blow in one’s moustache)
no me importa un pepino (Spanish) I don’t care two hoots (literally, I don’t care a cucumber)
jeter son bonnet par-dessus les moulins (French) to throw caution to the winds (literally, to throw one’s hat over the windmills)
Number one
On second thoughts, perhaps not. For the line between self-confidence and self-centredness is always horribly thin:
szakbarbár (Hungarian) a crank who can think of nothing but his/her subject
iakićagheća (Dakota, USA) one who is unreasonable in his demands, one who keeps asking for things after he should stop
kverulant (Czech) a chronic complainer, a litigious person
hesomagari (Japanese) perverse or cantankerous (literally, bent belly button)
Warm showerer
The Germans have pinpointed some particularly egotistic types:
Klugscheisser someone who always knows best (literally, smart shitter)
Warmduscher someone who is easy on himself (literally, warm showerer)
I Never Knew There Was a Word For It Page 12