 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I can think of one word that I would fail to be able to translate into almost any European language and accurately describe the meaning of the word in England, coffee.
Same probably goes for beer and ice cream.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| jbob wrote: |
I can think of one word that I would fail to be able to translate into almost any European language and accurately describe the meaning of the word in England, coffee.
Same probably goes for beer and ice cream. |
That doesn't really make sense to me. You couldn't necessarily translate 'jbob' into another language either, but people you are conversing with will understand that it is your name. I don't think that names of actual concrete things can ever be untranslatable; you need stuff to be fairly abstract before it becomes a challenge to impart its meaning.
Hell, concepts of fermented or infused beverages are fairly pan-cultural, too. The same cannot be said for, say, zaftig or slalom (our use of the latter doesn't even really match with its original meaning that well, I think).
Incidentally, coffee and beer translate almost unchanged into many European languages, with fairly minor changes in pronunciation 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I think he means that what you get for if you ask for coffee/beer/etc in Britain is very different to what you get if you ask for coffee/beer/etc in other countries. The word may translate but the beverage doesn't.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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If you go down that route then *nothing* has any meaning. You can go to different pubs and cafes on the same street in the same town and get wildly different things if you ask for 'coffee' or 'beer'. No two towns or streets or landlords are the same.
This is why we have abstractions, so we can actually communicate. I ask for coffee pretty much anywhere in the world, and I'm going to get a brewed beverage ultimately made from ground, roasted arabica beans. Regardless of the actual words used or the specific interpretation thereof, both I and the person I'm asking are ultimately referring to the same abstract concept. Hence, the words translate... everything after that is just arguing over the details as you've already established common ground.
Where there is no common ground and shared concept, that is where you end up with *actually* untranslatable words whose meaning you may not even be able to grok from context. Anything else seems like sophistry.
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