Words like tennis or rugby don't have equivalent terms in other languages. They are simply known worldwide by their English terms. Of course, this phenomenon isn't unique to the English language. Pad Thai, burrito, taco, Tae Kwon Do, and wienerschnitzel are foreign words that are used worldwide as well.
Words or phrases are considered untranslatable when there is no precise corresponding meaning in a target language. This linguistic phenomenon isn't exactly new for professional translators, but you may not know how to tackle untranslatable words and expressions when it comes to your business.
The most common reasons for words being deemed untranslatable are cultural differences and nuances in language that cannot be conveyed with one single word. For example, the German word Schadenfreude roughly translates to “enjoyment from others' misfortune” but does not have a direct translation in English.
Interestingly, the hardest word in the world to translate is Ilunga. This word belongs to the Luba-Kasai or Tshiluba language, which is spoken by more than 6 million speakers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
For example, Odia is a language spoken in India with more than 38 million speakers, but no support on Google Translate. Meanwhile, languages like Czech, Hungarian and Swedish which have just 8 to 13 million speakers have support from various AI translation services.
That's because animals and humans communicate in significantly different manners, making a true “translation” nearly impossible, at least with the amount of knowledge we currently have on animal communication systems.
Word Creation When Faced With Untranslatable Words
This is basically taking words from another language and adjusting their usage to the rules and grammar of the target language. Sometimes the spelling may be changed to correspond with the word's pronunciation in the target language.
That word is “huh”. According to a recent study it seems to be pretty universal. The scientists (in what sounds like an excellent idea for a research trip), recorded bits of informal language from 5 continents, and of the 31 dialects they compiled, all had this same word in common.
The researchers have suggested that the reason 'huh' is the only word to have spontaneously adopted the same meaning in almost every language is because there is no other word that is capable of filling its place.
Nepal's Kusunda language has no known origin and a number of quirks, like no words for "yes" or "no". It also has only one fluent speaker left, something linguists are racing to change.
There are few, if any, words that are the same across all languages and language families, but a team of linguistic researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands think they might have found one: “Huh.”
The Scientific Reason Dogs Can't Talk
Your dog can vocalize in different ways to notify you of different wants and needs—plus, dogs combine body language with these vocalizations to convey meaning. However, since their cognitive functioning hasn't evolved, they are unable to master the complexity of human language.
Here's why. Dogs' brains cannot distinguish words that differ by a single speech sound, such as "sit" versus "set." You probably think your dog is the smartest (and cutest!)
Can dolphins communicate with humans? Dolphins and humans can communicate to a limited degree. Dolphins are capable of learning skills based on human instruction and expressing certain desires. Any dolphin trainer will tell you that dolphins and humans can indeed communicate in a limited in fashion.
Kawishana is the rarest language in the world.
And it was determined that the weirdest language, spoken by a total population of 6,000 people worldwide, is Chalcatongo Mixtec. Chalcatongo Mixtec is spoken mainly in Oaxaca, Mexico, and is considered the weirdest language because it is the most unique when compared to the other languages spoken throughout the world.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis meaning
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a string of Latin terms that together describe an inflammatory lung disease caused by long-term inhalation of silica dust.
A single translator, however, will need at least four hours to finish working on a file that has 1000 words. These calculations are applicable when clients ask for rush translations.
All the Latin-based languages, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Romanian are also a good bet, especially Spanish. All of these languages have thousands of words that are almost identical to words we already know in English, owing to the Latin roots.