#Microblog Monday 394: Labels
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I saw a tweet about a new book that asks an excellent question: “Why do we label some things but not others?”
I don’t expect any language to have a word for everything, but once we see a gap in our language, why don’t we fill it? With information exchanged globally, why aren’t we looking at words that don’t exist in our own language and creating an equivalent? Things that are important get labeled — the Sami have 180 words for snow — but there can be both initially-labeled and labeled-in-retrospect words.
Something to think about.
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3 comments
Fascinating… I love languages that are very specific in their words that capture a feeling. Like German, which has:
Kummerspeck: literally, “grief bacon,” or the food you drown your sorrows into.
Backpfeifengesicht: literally, “slappable face,” a face begging to be slapped/punched.
Morgenmuffel: someone who doesn’t like to get up early, who is a morning grump.
AMAZING.
I have a favourite book that is filled with words that other cultures and languages have that we don’t have in English. The back of the book tells me that people in Bolivia have a word that means, “I was rather too drunk last night and it’s all their fault!” And that the Albanians have 27 words for moustache! And the Dutch word for skimming stones is plimpplamppletteren. Isn’t that fantastic?
The book is The Meaning of Tingo, and I thank you for this post because I’m now flicking through the book rediscovering all the fascinating words in the book.
PS. I love Jess’s words. I’m a Morgenmuffel!