\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Never do I ever want to hear another word. (There isn’t one I haven’t heard.”)
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Eliza Doolittle, the heroine of Lerner and Loewe’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Fair Lady,” which came from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pygmalion,” by George Bernard Shaw, said\/sang that pronouncement when being courted by Freddie Eynsford-Hill, at a time when Eliza wanted action, not words.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0To boast, honestly, that you’ve already heard all the English words would be quite a feat, even a hundred years ago, when \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pygmalion” was written.<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Is it possible to have heard all of them, or most of them? With some 600,000 words in its arsenal, English tops all other languages, some by a factor of six. Because English borrows words from every other language, when it’s helpful, we can find contributions from many tongues as part of our daily fare.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Imagine, for example, the many words English has for the same object, or at least similar items.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We bought a couch a few months ago and made arrangements for delivery. When I called, I identified myself and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We ordered a sofa. When can we expect delivery?”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The person at the other end, cupped the phone long enough to ask the manager, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What about the davenport the Trujillos ordered?”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The answer came back: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tell them we’ll be delivering the divan this afternoon.” And when they arrived, one of the deliverers said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your ottoman is here. Want us to take out your settee?”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Six terms: couch, davenport, divan, ottoman, settee and sofa, to represent something soft that I fall asleep on while watching TV.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I became more interested in this million-words-for-the-same-thing phenomenon when Sara Harris, a consummate polyglot and former colleague at Highlands, gave me a bilingual version of instructions for having school pictures taken.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Now the Santa Fe company that contracted to take the photos has a Spanish name, and with that, the assumption that a Spanish translation of English instructions would be fairly simple. Bad assumption.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But before we examine the two-page memo the kids took home to their parents, let’s emphasize that Santa Fe has huge numbers of students whose first language is Spanish, not English. And they probably read Spanish better than English. The photo company, in order to practice equal opportunity for understanding, took a stab at translating.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But wait. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Took a stab at,” we all understand, means to make an effort, the way Jack the Ripper did. But to render that idea in Spanish would be murderous, as my Spanish dictionary uses \u00e2\u20ac\u0153acuchillar” for the Macbeth-type deed.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And there was a restaurant in Las Vegas that boasted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153happy hour” by calling it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153La hora de la contenta,” which comes out as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the hour of the contented (woman.)”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A year of teaching at the United World College revealed many insights for the English language, but not a lot of praise. For the most part, my students, from far-away climes, mastered English. That’s something too many American students apparently haven’t accomplished yet. But in the UWC students’ quest to learn English, they understandably picked up a slew of concerns.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A comment by a student from China, for example, was Americans’ use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fix” for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153prepare.” \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do people here say they’re going to fix dinner, when it’s not broken?”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A student from the Ukraine said he had trouble deciphering repetitious patterns in locutions such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’ve got to go.” \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you say \u00c5\u2019have,’ you don’t need need \u00c5\u2019got’.” He’d got a point: why not just \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have to go”?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And a girl from Norway said that the English idiom in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153carry out the plans” should mean literally \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to remove the plans from the room, as one would a cat.” But if we use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153execute” for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153carry out,” we’re being murderous again.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A trip through standard dictionaries generally shows far fewer Spanish words than their English equivalents. And that’s why the flippant use of words and idioms that make perfect sense to us in English, often misfire when rendered in another language.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The Santa Fe portrait studio invited kids and their parents to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153choose from an appealing selection of print sizes.” The difficult word here is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153appealing,” which is confusing even in English.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0For example, in the 1960s, a group of Italian hookers complained of police harassment, particularly around the Vatican. So they filed an official appeal to the then-pope, with the result that the headline in Rome’s leading newspaper the next day read, in perfect ambiguity, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Prostitutes appeal to pope.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The portrait studio’s translation of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153appealing” was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153suplicante,” which implies that people ought to get on one knee and beg the studio for the right size of portrait.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It asks the students to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153have your hair styled to look its best.” The studio’s equivalent of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153styled” is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153llamo,” which is the past tense for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is called or named.” So how does one take such a giant leap, from a hair style to being called something? Well now, my dictionary lists among several definitions, a possible explanation. When a person styles himself as an expert, for example, he identifies, or names himself as such. But the studio owners dug too far into the dictionary to find any word that would even remotely correspond to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153style.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And it asks students, on picture day, not to wear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sleeveless outfits.” \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ropa sin mangas” would suffice, but here, the translator equates \u00e2\u20ac\u0153outfit” with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153equipment” and even \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hunting gear” and uses \u00e2\u20ac\u0153equipo” for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ropa,” meaning clothes.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0English dictionaries generally list a plethora of meanings, each one being more and more implausible. And between the first listed definition and the last, words undergo many permutations.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And that’s why my mommy told me never to call a girl \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nice.” Why?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Because nice means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sweet”; sweet means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153luscious”; luscious means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sumptuous”; sumptuous means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153voluptuous”; voluptuous means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fleshy”; and fleshy means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fat.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Never do I ever want to hear another word. (There isn’t one I haven’t heard.”) \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Eliza Doolittle, the heroine of Lerner and Loewe’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Fair Lady,” which came from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pygmalion,” by George Bernard Shaw, said\/sang that pronouncement when being courted by Freddie Eynsford-Hill, at a time when Eliza wanted action, not words. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0To boast, honestly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}