Words hardest to translate
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Words that have rich cultural connotations and overtones often cause problems for translators because such words may not have a direct or concise translation in the target language. Words hardest to translate was a list of words compiled by Today Translations, attempting to identify some of the words that are hardest to translate.
The list by Today Translations
Words hardest to translate (Today Translations, June 2004) was a list of words reported as being the world's most difficult words to translate. The British company surveyed 1,000 linguists to create the list. According to Jurga Zilinskiene, head of Today Translations, the difficulty in translating the words identified by the survey is not finding the meaning of these words, but conveying their cultural connotations and overtones. Not all of the words on the list were legitimate. Some of them turned out to be mistakes and hoaxes.
The following lists present the words hardest to translate as claimed by Today Translations. The first is the absolute list, containing the ten words hardest to translate all over the world, independent of linguistic context:
- Ilunga: Bantu language of Tshiluba for "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time." However, there is no independent evidence that the word actually means what the translation company claims. When asked for confirmation by one reporter, representatives of the Congo government recognized the word only as a personal name. Furthermore, the translation company failed to respond to inquiries regarding the survey.
- Shlimazl (שלימזל): Yiddish for a chronically unlucky person.
- Radiostukacz: Polish for a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain. It is not a real word, only a mistake or a hoax.
- Naa (なぁ or なー): Japanese word only used in the Kansai (関西) area of Japan, especially in Osaka (大阪府), to emphasize statements or agree with someone.
- Altahmam (التهمام) †: Arabic for a kind of deep sadness.
- Gezellig †: Dutch for cosy.
- Saudade †: Portuguese for a certain type of longing.
- Selathirupavar † (ெசல்லாதிருப்பவர்): Tamil for a certain type of truancy.
- Pochemuchka (почемучка): Russian for a person who asks a lot of questions.
- Klloshar †: Albanian for loser.
This list shows the ten English words hardest to translate:
- Plenipotentiary †
- Gobbledegook †
- Serendipity †
- Poppycock †
- Googly †
- Spam †
- Whimsy †
- Bumf †
- Chuffed †
- Kitsch †
Daggers (†) lead to the definition of the word in the wiktionary project.
Theory
Objects unknown to a culture can actually be easy to translate. For example, in Japanese, わさび is a plant (Wasabia japonica) used as a spicy Japanese condiment. Traditionally, this plant only grows in Japan. It would be unlikely that someone from Brazil (for example) would have a clear understanding of it. However, the easiest way to translate this word is to borrow it. Or you can use a similar vegetable's name to describe it. In English this word is translated into wasabi or Japanese horseradish. In Chinese, people can still call it わさび by its Japanese sound, or pronounce it by its Kanji characters 山葵 (pinyin: shan1 kui2). Horseradish is not usually seen in Eastern Asia; people may parallel it with mustard. Hence, in some places, yellow mustard refers to imported mustard sauce; green mustard refers to wasabi.
Specific examples
In the case of translating the English word have to Hebrew, some difficulty may be found. There is no specific verb with this meaning in Hebrew. Instead, this language uses a combination of words that mean There is to me. A similar construction occurs in Russian: here, the verb is replaced by a phrase that, literally, means at me/you/he/she/they there is.
The same things applies to the Russian word пошлость /posh-lost'/. This noun roughly means a mixture of banality, commonality and vulgarity. Владимир Владимирович Набоков (Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov) mentions it as one of hardest Russian words to translate precisely into English.
See also
Reference
- MacIntyre, Ben. Why do Koreans say "a biscuit would be nice" instead of "I want a biscuit"?, The Times, August 21, 2004.