Tag: Culture

Words that don’t exist in English

January 26, 2015

Here are a few sites that document words that exist in other languages but not in English.

What does it mean that these words don’t exist in English? Do these words tell us something about the cultures they come from? About us? Is it generally random chance that cultures invent words for some concepts but not for others? If a word can’t directly be translated, does it mean that the concept cannot truly be known to nonnative speakers of those languages?

http://www.babbel.com/magazine/untranslatable-01

http://mentalfloss.com/article/50698/38-wonderful-foreign-words-we-could-use-english

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/23-charming-illustrations-of-untranslatable-words-from-other#.qk1KZvJ4M

RSA Animate – Language as a Window into Human Nature

January 22, 2015

Why do we indirect language and innuendo?
What does the language we use tell us about our social relationships?
How does the language we use reflect ideas of personal and shared knowledge?

In this new RSA Animate, renowned experimental psychologist Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings.

Why Save a Language?

January 22, 2015

“Asked to elaborate, he says that if indigenous people want to give up their ancestral language to join the modern world, why should we consider it a tragedy? Languages have always died as time has passed. What’s so special about a language?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/opinion/sunday/why-save-a-language.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=1