#untranslateable

Lauren: But words are connotation magnets. I mean, it’s why we need new euphemisms all the time, because as soon as we start using a word in a particular context, it just amasses all these connotations. So when they're negative, that’s how euphemisms get cycled through to become slurs again, which is not great. But even when they're positive, they attract all these other cultural inferences, like hyperbole gradually weakening as it keeps getting used. Gretchen: Yeah, and I think this is one of the things that we forget when talking about words as “untranslatable.” Even though it can be satisfying to say, “Oh wow, here’s these new concepts!” or “Here’s the thing that I hadn’t thought about in this way before,” in some respect, every word is untranslatable and yet we managed to learn them all anyway. Lauren: Yeah. Gretchen: How do we learn any new word if no word has an exact equivalent somewhere? Well, you know, we live a life and we figure it out! And in many cases, the word side of translation is very easy. It’s the grammar side and the aesthetic side that’s a lot harder. Lauren: And all those connotations! I know when I learnt Nepali, I had to keep track of three different formality levels, which, like, I know how to be polite to different people to different extents in English, but suddenly I had to do it in another language and in the grammar. I remember just knowing who to use which level of formality with was a whole set of translation that I took a long time to really feel comfortable with, so I would definitely agree that the kind of grammatical encoding of things adds a translation complication that can be quite hard to master. Gretchen: Yeah, and yet you don’t see different forms of “you” in “difficult to translate” lists, even though maybe they should be there. Lauren: We’re gonna start our own very exciting list. Gretchen: Let’s make a “difficult to translate for linguists” list! I’d be down for this!

An Untranslateable Turkish Word

If you think about it, the idea of gender is probably un-translatable to aliens.

Pochemuchka.