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What do you do if you meet a cigerci? And would you ever areodjarekput?Word collector, Adam Jacot de Boinod, sheds some light on extraordinary words during his interview with Michelle McGrane
Did you know that people in Bolivia have a word that means "I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault"? Or that the Albanians have twenty-seven words for moustache? Or that the Dutch word for skimming-stones is plimpplamppletteren? Drawing on the collective wisdom of over 154 languages, Adam Jacot de Boinod's book The Meaning of Tingo (and other Extraordinary Words from around the World) is divided thematically into short chapters so readers can compare attitudes all over the world to subjects such as food, the human body and the battle of the sexes. In The Meaning of Tingo, readers will find words for which there are no direct counterparts in English, for example pana po'o in Hawaiian ("to scratch your head in order to remember something important"), the Persian word nakhur ("a camel that won't give milk until her nostrils have been tickled"), and the Japanese age-otori ("looking less attractive after a haircut"). Many of these words describe strange or unbelievable things. When and why, for example, would a man be described as a marilopotes, Ancient Greek for "a gulper of coaldust"? And could the Japanese really have used the verb tsuji-giri, meaning "to try out the sword on a passer-by"? Others express concepts that seem all too familiar. We have all met a Zechpreller, the German word for "someone who leaves without paying the bill"; spent too much time with an ataoso, Central American Spanish for "one who sees problems with everything"; or worked with a neko-neko, Indonesian for "one who has a creative idea which only makes things worse". In Jacot de Boinod's book one can discover exactly how many Inuit terms there are for snow, along with words which sound confusingly the same as those in English; for example, gin in Turkey means "to dry out". Tingo, incidentally, is a Pascuense word from Easter Island meaning "to borrow things from a friend's house one by one until there's nothing left". The author's interest in foreign languages was engaged when he was doing research for the BBC programme QI. It subsequently developed into a full-on vokabulyu (Russian, "passion for foreign words"). While searching through 280 dictionaries, 140 websites and numerous books on language, the author developed an undoubted samlermani (Danish: "mania for collecting"), came close to being fisselig (German: "flustered to the point of incompetence") and narrowly avoided karoshi (Japanese: "death from overwork"). He lives in Notting Hill, London, and is now intending to nglayap (Indonesian: "wander far from home with no particular purpose"). Adam, can you tell me something of your family origins? I come from an old Swiss family from Neuchatel that involved itself in watch- and clock-making for centuries, priding itself on its precision. Do you have a background in linguistics? Yes, from the age of seven I was reading Kennedy's, Latin Grammar, learning long vocabulary lists for which I sometimes didn't even know the English equivalent before sustaining my interest in the Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek) right through to Cambridge University. Since then, however, I have been involved in a number of activities, including running an art gallery and researching for recondite information for the BBC Quiz Programme QI. How are you currently earning a living? By writing this book! You've written: "The richest source of words is often spoken language. Words used by particular groups of people can tell us a lot about their habits and customs - but they might not be the officially sanctioned version of the language." How can you define a language? By the methods used to communicate with one another: strictly speaking either written or spoken, but interestingly there are other forms of communication (apart from sign and body language) such as on the tiny mountainous Canary Island of La Gomera there is a language called Silbo Gomero that uses a variety of whistles instead of words (in Spanish silbar means "to whistle"). There are four "vowels" and four "consonants" which can be strung together to form more than four thousand "words". This birdlike means of communication is thought to have come over with early African settlers over 2 500 years ago. Able to be heard at distances up to two miles, silbadors were until recently a dying breed. Since 1999, however, Silbo has been a required language in La Gomera schools. The Mazateco Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, are frequently seen whistling back and forth, exchanging greetings or buying and selling goods with no risk of misunderstanding. The whistling is not really a language or even a code; it simply uses the rhythms and pitch of ordinary speech without the words. Similar whistling languages have been found in Greece, Turkey and China, whilst other forms of wordless communication include the talking drums (ntumpane) of the Kele in Congo, the xylophones used by the Northern Chin of Burma, the banging on the roots of trees practised by the Melanesians, the yodelling of the Swiss, the humming of the Chekiang Chinese and the smoke signals of the American Indians. How does the study of languages contribute to an understanding of diverse customs and cultures around the world? Would you give some examples of languages holding cultural secrets and clues? Simply by the discovery in their dictionaries of a disproportionate number of words relating to a subject: such as the Hawaiians who have 65 words alone for describing fishing nets, sweet potato (108), sugarcane (42) and bananas (47). Or the Albanians with 27 words for moustache and a further 27 words for eyebrow. Most interestingly of all has been the discovery that across the global range one might expect some kind of commonality in expressions of instinctive reactions such as "ouch" or the sounds animals make, but frogs in Afrikaans go kwaak-kwaak, in Munduruku (Brazil) korekorekore, and in the Argentinian dialect of Spanish berp! What effect do you think ever-increasing technology is having on languages worldwide? Inevitably English prospers through the internet and the technology of commerce, but in this book I stress not so much a call for English to adopt foreign words and to maintain its pre-eminence as the international language, but more a call, in this multicultural age, for a celebration of the diversity of tongues and the plea for them to flourish. When did you realise you were going to write The Meaning of Tingo? How long did it take to write? It began as a hobby, became a passion, and then turned into an obsession as I panned for gold to find any foreign word from anywhere that raised my eyebrow, that was telling (such as the Inuit word areodjarekput, which means to exchange wives for a few days only), thought-provoking (such as the Turkish cigerci, meaning a seller of liver and lungs), amusing (such as nedovtipa, Czech for "one who finds it difficult to take a hint"), fun (such as Afrikaans for "jet-ski": waterponie), refreshingly logical (such as the Zulu khali khukweni for a mobile phone - literally: "to make a noise in the pocket"), or mind-boggling (such as marilopotes, Ancient Greek for "a gulper of coal dust"). The whole book took me a year and a half from idea to publication. Do you walk around with a notebook and pen in your pocket so you can jot down words and ideas before you forget them? Yes, every writer has his/her own method, but I rest more easily with regard to ideas with a mind free from memorising things. With the words the vast majority came from dictionaries, so the process was different. How did you decide which words to include in the book and which to exclude? How did you go about verifying meanings? By a long process of editorial decisions with Penguin, but based on my initial instinct of whether it really did amuse me or raise an eyebrow. Verification with any words from hearsay required confirmation from embassies and naturally it meant another visit to the relevant authoritative dictionary! In terms of numbers of speakers, which are the top ten world languages? Different accounts inevitably vary, and of course it is only ever going to
be a rough estimate but: Tell me some of your favourite words that have no equivalent in the English language. My undisputed favourite is nakhur (Persian): "a camel that won't give milk until her nostrils are tickled". It is a beautiful concept and this 6-letter word is nestled in a 1 539-page, two-columned Persian-English dictionary! I lo gem (Mongolian): defect Give me some examples of "false friends" - words which look or sound the same as in English, but mean very different things.
willing (Abowakal, Australia): lips In your chapter The Family Circle you mention pidgin expressions in the Tok Pisin language of Papua New Guinea. Can you describe a few? Well I particularly like: liklik box you pull him he cry you push him he cry (an accordion) and bigfella iron walking stick him go bang along topside (a rifle). When the Duke of Edinburgh visits Vanuatu, he is addressed as oldfella Pili-Pili him b'long Missy Kween, while Prince Charles is Pikinini b'long Kween. What single-letter words can be found among the world's languages? Which is the longest "polysynthetic" term defined in The Meaning of Tingo?
u (Samoan): an enlarged land snail The longest polysynthetic term is from the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes who devised the word lopado-temacho-selacho-galeo-kranio-leipsano-drim-hupotrimmato-silphio-karabo-melito-katakechumeno-kichl-epikossuphophatto-perister-alektruon-opto-kephallio-kigklo-peleio-lagoio-siraio-baphe-tragano-pterugon, meaning a dish compounded of all kinds of dainties, fish, fowl and sauces. How about some Hawaiian riddles, and their answers?
Ku'u punawai kau i ka lewa (my spring of water high up in the clouds).
Answer: niu, a coconut In his book It All Began in Babel, a story of the birth and development of races and people, Herbert Wendt wrote: "Human history has shown us that at all times whole groups of nations, whole civilisations and classes of society have died out and other nations, civilisations and classes come to take their place." Regarding language, you have written in The Meaning of Tingo: "Not just words, but languages themselves change endlessly, some to the point where they go out of use altogether (on average one language a fortnight)." Would you name some recent victims, as well as others which run an imminent risk of extinction? Out of the roughly speaking 6 800 languages that comprise the global range, some recent victims have included Catawba (Massachusetts), Eyak (Alaska) and Livonian (Latvia). Many are in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, which still has more languages than any other country. Others that run an imminent risk of extinction are: Abkhaz (Turkey); Aleut (Alaska); Apurina (Brazil); Archi (Daghestan); British Romany; Monde, Purubora, Mekens, Ayuru, Xipaya (Brazilian); Brapu (Papua New Guinea); Southern Chaco; Chorote; Nivacle; Kadiweu (South America); Diyari (South Australia); Eastern Penan (Sarawak and Brunei); Gamilaraay (New South Wales); Goemai (Nigeria); Guruntum (Nigeria); Iquito (Peru); Jawoyn (Southern Arnhem Land); Jiwarli (Western Australia); Khumi Chin (Western Myanmar); Sandaun (Papua New Guinea); Lombok and Sumbawa: Sasak (Eastern Indonesia); Lakota (The Plains, America); Maku (East Timor); Ngamini (South Australia); Rongga (Flores, Indonesia); Uspanteko and Sakapulteko (Guatamala); Takana and Reyesano (Bolivia); Tofa (Siberia); Thalanji (Western Australian); Tundra Nenets (Arctic Russia and Northwestern Siberia); Urarina (Peru); Vedda (Sri Lanka); Vures (Vanuatu). Did you have many opportunities to interact with people who speak different languages during the process of writing the book? Yes, as many as possible, but of course the main pursuit of combing dictionaries was totally solitary. What has writing The Meaning of Tingo taught you? Ironically, with the plethora of information available, that the process of discovery in this day and age requires deeper delving and burrowing than ever before. The British newspaper The Independent described The Meaning of Tingo as "destined to be the Eats, Shoots & Leaves of the autumn". Are you happy with the reviews and public response you've received so far? Yes, people have been very kind and, most importantly, in a country that has such a strong fascination for its own language, very eager to share the joy, wonder and glory of the diversity of foreign words and expressions. You must have amassed a considerable number of foreign language dictionaries and books as a result of your research. Do you have any particularly old and/or obscure books in your collection? Hobson-Jobson, The Anglo-Indian and, of course, Liddell and Scott's The Ancient Greek Lexicon. Tell me a little about your favourite second-hand bookshop. It's in Hay, where they hold a literary festival and it requires immense patience and strong-bending knees to get through the dust to the best stuff: a process of seeking the recondite that mirrors finding the words itself! Can you name a few books that have made a difference to your life and why they have been influential? Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is my all-time favourite. The time he dedicated to write it and its fantastic precision and rich suggestive language make it everlasting. Virgil's Aeneid, again, is structurally superb and held my fascination throughout my education. What are you reading at the moment? I am rereading Amsterdam by Ian McKewan. What can we look forward to next? Are you working on something new? Yes, I am at work finding more words for as long as people share my interest! So far I have read only 280 languages and there are roughly speaking 6 800 in existence, though not all have romanised versions of their dictionaries. Adam, what are you passionate about? What moves you, what inspires you, what brings you joy? I love Beethoven for the incredible range in mankind of defiance and resolution and also suffering and sensitivity. I love walking for the balance it brings to mind and body, and I love travelling for the fresh horizons it brings. Tell me three things you'd like to do before you die. Have children, go down the Amazon and bowl a maiden over in cricket! Do you have a life philosophy? To acknowledge with joy my ignorance and to keep the company of those who find me amusing to laugh at and not just with!
LitNet: 15 November 2005 |
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