Weird and wonderful vocabulary from around the world - Features, Books - The Independent

krinn

krinn
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From the page: "Learning a foreign language is, of course, the surest and fastest track to becoming familiar with another culture. But the words themselves offer hundreds of revealing clues to the preoccupations of that culture. Everyone knows that Inuit-speaking races can call on 30-odd... more

Reviewed by krinn Oct 15 2008, 12:23am ( 8 reviews ) • independent.co.uk

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Rated by icequeen057 on Oct 29 2008, 5:37pm

A fascinating list of words that people use in other cultures for concepts which we would need at least a sentence to explain in English. Provides insight into the daily preoccupations of other societies.
Reviewed by ZenHarmony on Oct 26 2008, 11:17am

Amazing what people need a word for!
Rated by heathenlad on Oct 26 2008, 6:02am

most of them arent even individual words. E.g Zechpreller just means bill dodger. zech= cheque, preller= bouncer.
Rated by lostandconfused on Oct 23 2008, 7:41pm

I love foreign words with complicated meanings - one man seeks these words out.
Rated by krinn on Oct 15 2008, 12:23am

From the page: "Learning a foreign language is, of course, the surest and fastest track to becoming familiar with another culture. But the words themselves offer hundreds of revealing clues to the preoccupations of that culture. Everyone knows that Inuit-speaking races can call on 30-odd words for snow. Adam Jacot de Boinod first became entranced by language when he discovered 27 words for "moustache" in an Albanian dictionary - and another 27 for "eyebrows". A world of bushy machismo and stolid dignity sprang to life before his eyes. He began hanging out in second-hand bookshops, looking for foreign dictionaries and the tiny revelations contained therein." A review of "The Meaning Of Tingo," a book about words that English should consider acquiring.

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