Evolving wrote:

Blackadder wrote:A Hindi/Urdu word that found its way into the English language during the colonial era is "pukka". It's assumed to mean "good" by Brits. Which is true, but in Hindi or Urdu it has a much wider set of meanings which in English would be translated as any of the following

Good
Sound
Solid
Cooked
Ripe

So, a plan, a friend, a road, a curry and a fruit can all be described as 'pukka'.

Good road
Sound fruit
Solid curry
Cooked plan
Ripe friend

Hah!

The thing, though, is that none of this really has anything to do with one language versus another. It's just that people only seem to notice it when they are faced with a different language. That's when the "oddness" becomes apparent.

But it's just what happens all the time in every brain. It's not even a feature of language per se. All cognition, even the reasoning that people imagine is abstract, works like this.

It's just that brains get used to it. This should not be a surprise, as getting used to things is the primary function of the brain. But it works so well that when you try to think about these things using a brain that gets used to things, you're so used to them that you don't notice.

That's one of the problems of the traditional classical models of thought. They describe what the brain thinks about what's going on in the brain and how it's used to thinking about it. It doesn't describe what's happening in the brain at all.

There are three different phrases for "thank you" in Chinese, and each has its specific use. Thus, m'goi (Cantonese) to express thanks for a service rendered; doh che when in receipt of a gift; and yau sam when paid a compliment.

I read somewhere being multi-lingual keeps the brain stimulated and retards ageing. Well I hope so.

I suspect there are no end of murders, and mistaken love affairs, which have resulted directly from the amusing or terrifying difficulties in translation.

One of my smaller hobbies, is purposely mistranslating wise sayings and old cheap jokes. It's a bit on the obtuse, and angular side of amusement processes, I freely admit.