There's A Word for That???

Best friends are awesome.  They get you sometimes when you don't get yourself.  They cheer you up, they encourage your pursuits, they make you laugh, they show up just when you need them.  And they bring you presents that are so perfectly you that it's eerie.  Like the book that showed up from my best friend, Colleen, this past Saturday.

This brand new book, What A Wonderful Word by Nicola Edwards and illustrated by Luisa Uribe is self-described as "a collection of untranslatable words from around the world."  The book explains that some words are common between languages and easily translatable - think that "Blue" in English easily becomes "Azul" in Spanish or "Mavi" in Turkish.  But what about a word or a phrase that is more tied to a way of life for a specific culture that may be unfamiliar to another so there's no direct word that translates?  This book is full of examples!

Since I got it, I have had so much fun pouring through these pages.  Do you know what a "Poronkusema" is?  Well, in Finnish it means the distance a reindeer can walk before needing to use the bathroom, which is no more than 4.7 miles. What about a "Pochemuchka"'?  That's Russian for a child who asks "why?" all the time; a person who asks too many questions.  I'm sure this is an idea that parents around the world can relate to but the Russian language has one specific word to represent the concept.  Both of these ideas are important to the culture, so much so that they have their own specific word.  The book goes on to detail that reindeer are so important in northern Finland, the language has around 400 words about the food, tools, and products created from the animal and that the phrase "I don't know" has been banned in a Serbian town to keep officials from making excuses,.  These specifics show WHY those languages have created a singular word to fit just that situation.  How amazing is language??

From Sanskrit to Hopi to Wagiman, there are plenty of examples of similar word to explanatory phrases.  I may start borrowing "gluggavendur" to describe Michigan winter as it is what they say in Iceland when the weather looks beautiful while you're inside but is much too cold when you step outside or perhaps remember to be so thankful that Colleen is my "nakama" what the Japenese refer to as friends who are like family. 

I'm enamored with the text and I think it is a wonderful representation of the power of language.  As the author writes in the introduction "It tells us what an interesting mix human beings are, and it reassures us that we are understood, that we're all the same on some level.  It's nice, isn't it, to know that someone else has had the same feeling or experience as you and given it, at long last, a name of its own?"   I highly suggest checking this book out!