Sometimes there is no word to express what you want to say.
When travelling abroad, you might feel the distinct and utterly unique anxiety of having to speak another language. It is such a commonly held experience for the Japanese that they have a word for that feeling. Literally translated, it means "to eat a meal sideways."
And if you have ever watched a Japanese student try to manoeuvre the English language minefield, you have probably felt their anxiety secondhand.
The Japanese have words for a lot of things that we do not, ideas and feelings and experiences expressed with a special Japanese term. Japanese comes through where English fails: a dappled light shining through the leaves (komorebi), the act of leaving a new book unread, adding it to the bedside pile (tsundoku), a mother who relentlessly pushes her child towards academic achievement (kyoikumama), or even to look worse after a haircut (age-otori). The list goes on. And English mutely stands on the sidelines.
German too wrests a linguistic muscle when there is need. A German can talk about the feeling of being alone in the woods (waldeinsamkeit) or a street so crowded with road signs that a person gets lost (schilderwald). A German might look sourly at another German and see a backpfeifengesicht, a face badly in need of a fist.
We can learn a lot about the Japanese and the Germans from these and other unique words. Some words make us laugh. Others make us ache with a yearning, a small melancholic pain that we too could express such subtly.
To wake up early in the morning with the sole purpose of going outside to hear the first bird sing: oh, to be a Swede, to stretch and say, "Gökotta."
But, in all this, we can also learn a lot about ourselves. Why does English lack, a language that does not blush when there is a need to borrow?
We each have experienced at some time the frustration of waiting for friend to show up. Do only the Inuit talk about iktsuarpok?
John Koenig is one person has stepped in to fill the void. His Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows offers newly invented words. We have all lived with the definitions, now he has delivered the newly minted English words:
The moment in which a conversation becomes alive and real: flashover.
The desire to capture a fleeting experience: morii.
A feature of modern society that suddenly strikes you as absurd and grotesque: wytai.
And my favourite, kenopsia: the eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people, but is now abandoned and quiet, a school hallway in the evening, an unlit office on a weekend, vacant fairgrounds now silent and motionless.
But John Koenig's dictionary speaks primarily of sorrow, of loss, missed opportunity, like a disappointing turn down the wrong road. What about the joyous moment, the happy mistakes, the revelations and wonders revealed?
We know the experiences. We yearn for them. Now give us the words:
• The state of knowing you are on the right path, even before the first step is taken. That is the definition. What is the word?
• Or try this one: the realization that one's experiences, hopes and dreams are not unique, but shared by many.
• We have all met a stranger and then, within minutes of conversation, have felt, "I know this person. I have known them for years, possibly lifetimes."
This is something real, tangible and shared, so let's have a word so that we can talk about it.
Richard's question about words in first nation languages which describe relationships made me refer to a book about Australian Aboriginal culture which you would really enjoy reading:
"Mens's Business, Women's Business" (the spiritual role of gender in the world's oldest culture).
The author is Hannah Rachel Bell and it is published in Vermont by Inner Traditions International
ISBN 978-0-89281-655-2
"for thousands of years the Ngarinyin Aboriginal culture of Australia has existed with almost total division of responibility between the sexes. Rather than making one gender feel superior to the other, however,this division enables both to respect the power, wisdom and essentiality of the other. The Ngarinyin Law of Relatioonship holds that in all of nature there are two parts of everything and only when the two work in harmony does the world function as it should.
...(this book) presents the experience of living in a society in which every action is governed by the laws of nature and myth, rather than those of commerce and politics.
... It is a deeply inward journey that speaks to the soul, a journey that if travelled collectively, could change the direction and experience of modern culture."
Since reading Rosalie's comments I have been trying for days to pronounce the word "musjkala" and remembering how often Shri Mataji would hear a word and then refer to it's possible Sanskrit roots, I resorted to the grammar books and came up with a combination of "moksha" from the root 'muc' - release, and "kala" from 'kal' - drive, produce. So we arrive at Moksha-kala which would be to speak of this being the season of Mokshakala: or the due season of humanity's release.
(the first 'a' in kala is a long vowel.)
No wonder your daughter laughs - she must be delighted to find herself here at this time, with a mother who speaks the language of the gods instinctively.
The lecturer was quite vague in this respect. Honestly she is not a very great professor. Essentially she just told us that First Nations language is like that, didn't give any examples and then made some comparisons to German and how that language differs from English. If I come across a specific example in the future I will share it.
Fro the German example she used, they did some studies for the different ways people explained a picture they saw. In this case it is a picture of a person riding a bike. In English people would say, "That is a person riding a bike." In German people would say, "That is a person riding a bike to a store (or a park, or school)." So whereas in English we have this tendency to describe actions in a constant state, as they are. In German the people felt the need to describe what that action on display would eventually lead to. If that makes sense. There are some very interesting videos and writing out there on this subject. I remember once a long time ago going on a bit of a binge in the subject.
I want to know more about this. If English and other similar languages describe mostly things and actions, what is an example of a word in a First Nations language that describes a relationship. What would that even be like?
Do you mean a language like Squamish or Salish or Haida, or is it other North American languages?
That was an awesome read dad. Its really quite incredible how much language unconsciously shapes the way we think. In the First Nations Studies class I am taking we spoke about this sort of thing briefly. The point being made in the course was how the English language is representational, words represent actions or things in mostly present form. They did some tests with Germans to express this reality. Interestingly however, in many First Nations languages this is not the case. The language often describes the relationships between things and not those specific things. It was an example used to explain how language and the naming of things can be a powerful tool for colonialism. Its a shame that the lecturer did not go into more depth about how many First Nations languages differ from English. I think it was difficult for her as well as myself to comprehend. It sounded so extremely foreign.
I've had some bilingual friends actually tell me that they don't like speaking a certain language because they feel that it changes who they are. It is proven (apparently) that different languages do activate different parts of the brain. Someone told me this in conversation. Apparently hindi activates the full brain while a language like English only activates certain parts of the rights side of the brain, or something like that.
Often said twice in a row!
There is also a word in Arabic ' Mushkila' meaning ' no problem'.
Musjkala ( jk pron 'sh') Stress on first syllable.
DEFINITION #1: the unspoken language of the heart, inaudible, but clearly understood by those who are spiritually connected, especially children, even infants.
What is the word?
Dear Richard,
Thank you for your wonderfully poignant observations. The more languages we learn, the greater our cultural understanding and understanding of others. I love the joy and subtlety of expression through words, and we all know how powerful a mantra can be...so yes, let us find new words for our collective feelings and conscious experience...it is a beautiful task to be set.
Interestingly, since becoming a mother, I have found that , quite naturally, an inspiration of new words and a language of intimacy has come to me when I wish to soothe, settle or simply make my daughter laugh! And she does! It is an eternal language of the heart, and yet, until now, I have never thought of writing it down ....;)