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In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this ebook
When ideas fail, words come in handy. But sometimes you can't find the right word, and what you want to say can't be found in the dictionary. English has its limitations, but the expression you're searching for may exist in another language. In Other Words is a unique collection of well-known and absolutely obscure "untranslatables"-linguistic gems that convey a feeling or notion with satisfying precision yet resist simple translation.
This quirky lexicon of hard-to-translate words gives the reader a new way to look at the world and how words relate to us. The words are arranged by region or country of origin, and a brief introduction to each section-each done by a respected translator-gives insight into the culture of the people as well as the language. Each of these singular words is cleverly and thoroughly defined, with interesting details and references throughout. The search for that elusive mot juste may be over.
This quirky lexicon of hard-to-translate words gives the reader a new way to look at the world and how words relate to us. The words are arranged by region or country of origin, and a brief introduction to each section-each done by a respected translator-gives insight into the culture of the people as well as the language. Each of these singular words is cleverly and thoroughly defined, with interesting details and references throughout. The search for that elusive mot juste may be over.
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Reviews for In Other Words
Rating: 3.3269231730769233 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
52 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I love words. I love them singly. I love them together. I am fascinated by the way that language originated and the way it is still changing today. I love idioms and word origins. I am tickled when I learn about words that have no translation and wonder why one culture needs a word to describe a certain phenomenon and why another culture doesn't. In short I am your stereotypical word nerd. So Christopher J. Moore's In Other Words was completely and totally the type of book I was guaranteed to buy, inhale, and enjoy.This is by no means a comprehensive list of words and phrases that we don't use or have a translation for in English; it is more a sampling of those that Moore found most interesting. He showcases many different and diverse cultures' languages, offering tidbits of history or etymology in explaining the phrases. His phrases range from Turkish to Maori, Navajo to Gaelic, Greek to Norwegian, Yiddish to Mandarin, British English to Bantu, and more. Interestingly, some of the words Moore includes (and he originally published a very similar book with much of the same content in 2004) have made their way into English and no longer need to be included in the words that have no translation. They no longer need one because, as English is wont to do, we have appropriated them wholesale and use them cheerfully, having adopted them and embraced their concepts (hygge comes to mind here). The book is organized into roughly geographical or historical chapters with a few oddballs thrown in. The illustrations are simple and in a paper collage kind of style, leaving the words and phrases themselves to be the stars of the show. Because of the nature of the book, it is probably better as a thing to dip in and out of rather than reading straight through. It is entertaining and generally informative but could easily have be longer. It would be interesting to see what lexical gems Moore left out that someone else might think worth including. Over all though, this is a brief word nerd's delight, an amuse bouche of books.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5[In Other Words] by [[Christopher J. Moore]]An illustrated sampling of words and phrases whose meanings are unique to a language and therefore illuminate something about the culture of the country. And about the cultures that don't include a word or saying that is similar. It is a nice little book, but not thorough enough to be really interesting. Just a small sampling of examples.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Word per page (on average) like trivia. Cute, but no real insight, short.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Needs to be longer.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is intended as a collection of words, not in English, that convey concepts that are unfamiliar, or simply not so succinctly put. The book is divided into section by language or geography, with separate sections on indiginous languages and creoles & pidgins. Pronunciation is given, although I had understood that "feng shui" is pronounced more like "fung schway" than "feng shoo-ay". The book includes an index.Moore seems to be seeking to introduce other cultures, as much as different words. I am not quite certain how to take his generalizations about national character. Presumably for this reason, he introduces a lot of idiomatic expressions, as well as individual words. Around the same time that I got this book, I got Made in Japan, about Japanese commercial art. Makes me somewhat skeptical that something that doesn't have "wabi", tranquility, isn't Japanese.I don't find this one of the best of its type. For one thing, I find Moore's introductions somewhat patronizing, not the least to English speakers. He also includes a number of works, like yinyang, Schadenfreude, demi-monde and guru that I think are already part of the English-speaking vocabulary. He sometimes explains the meaning in terms of English-language idioms that aren't familiar to me.This is interesting, but not the first book that I would buy.Interested readers might also want to check out They Have a Word For It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words & Phrases by Howard Rheingold, and The Meaning of Tingo: and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World by Adam Jacot de Boinod. (tingo: to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them.)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5English is a language with kleptomanic tendencies and has appropriated vocabulary from just about every corner of the globe it has come into contact with. And for good reason – contact with different cultures brings English into contact with ideas and concepts that are new. Some terms just cannot be directly translated because these is just no English equivalent. And such expressions give a window into the culture which coined them.This book is a collection of around 250 “untranslatables”, collected from over 55 countries. As editor CJ Moore explains the words are chosen randomly and he has made no attempt to be exhaustive either in language or in words. He draws on the work of linguists across the globe to take the reader on a tour of cultures as diverse as Hopi Indian and along the way drops in fascinating cultural and historical notes. The result is a quirky little book that is great fun to dip into and Moore’s writing is entertaining rather than pedantic. It’s impossible to read this book and not acquire a few new favourites. I loved “did baagh baagh ho – gaya” - “my heart is become a garden” and the Greek word "meraki" which means doing something with soul, creativity and love and "craic" which is essentially an Irish get-together but now means a combination of all the elements adding up to a good time.It isn’t often that I rave about the physical appearance of a book, but this little volume is as pleasing aesthetically as it is for its contents. The layout is attractive, the book feels good in the hands and Neil Packer's illustrations which look like papercuts are charming. This book is a keeper, or an ideal Christmas stocking filler for word lover.