lost in translation an illustrated compendium of untranslatable words

If you do want to find out more about a word, your only course is to search for it online. Its pages are unnumbered and there is no index. However, as it stands, that is as far as the book goes. It is hard to think of anyone who would not be delighted to receive this book as a gift, or who could resist the urge to pick it up and browse through its painted pages. There are several words from European languages, but endangered and unusual tongues are well represented too, including Wagiman (Australia), Yaghan/Yahgan (Tierra del Fuego), and (presumably Scottish) Gaelic. The range of languages called on is also suitably impressive. My favourite unborrowed words, like mittelschmerz (noun, German, mid-cycle pain of ovulation) and schadenfreude (noun, German, taking pleasure in the suffering of others), would have been far too functional and distressing. The choice of words is youthful, itinerant and thoroughly social, and fits the illustrative style. The author’s website contains several examples. The right page in each spread also contains an apposite and often sweet, whimsical and witty illustration. Words which would originally have been expressed in a non-Roman alphabet are transliterated to make them more accessible to the English reader. This exquisite little book is a gathering of 52 of them, one for each week of the year, from ‘akihi (noun, Hawaiian, forgetting directions once you have been given them) to ya’aburnee (noun, Arabic, a morbid desire to die before your loved one).Įach word is acccorded a spread, with a short comment about the word on the left, and the definition on the right.

If acquisitive languages like English see the need, they will steal them, but there are plenty of gems which remain unplundered. Hardback, 19.9 x 17.2 cm (7.8 x 6.8 in), 112 pp., £10.00/$14.99Īvailable for Kindle (£6.65/$10.21) and in the iTunes Store (£6.99).įurther details and illustrations are on the author’s websiteĭictionaries are full of words which cannot be expressed in exactly the same way in other languages. Ten Speed Press / Square Peg / Random House, UK 4 June 2015 / US 16 September 2014 “Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words”

Lost in translation an illustrated compendium of untranslatable words