35 People Share What Words In Foreign Languages They Absolutely Love Using
Every language boasts words that are one of a kind. While certain ones are easier to pronounce, others might make a foreigner sound like Pink Panther trying to buy a dam-burrr-gheur. Some, though, are charming because they are oddly specific. For instance, the Japanese word for a lonely mouth (kuchisabishii) or the Finnish one describing a person drinking in his underwear in just several syllables (kalsarikännit).
Here at Bored Panda, we have gathered some of these fascinating linguistic gems for you to read. Shared by the r/AskReddit community members, they might be something you want to add to your vocabulary.
If you enjoy learning about unique terminology, don’t miss the chance to browse the list of times people were confused by the English language for some more entertaining content about languages.
Komorebi (木漏れ日)
Japanese for sunlight that shines through trees. I like the sound of the word but also the fact that a word for such a concept exists in the first place.
According to Ethnologue, there are currently over seven thousand languages, however, more than half of the world’s population only use 23 of them. Sadly, as much as 40% of the languages are spoken by less than a thousand people, which puts them on the endangered list.
Data from 2022 shows that out of the 23 languages, the most popular one is English, followed by Mandarin Chinese. The third on the list is Hindi, then Spanish, and French taking fifth place by a thread, as Standard Arabic is left a close sixth.
Saudade – Portuguese for ‘a nostalgic longing for something that no longer exists and knowing that it may never return’. What a lovely word.
Verschlimmbesserung – German noun for an attempted improvement that only makes things worse.
In some countries, citizens speak more than one language. This is true for some countries in Europe, such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, or Belgium, and beyond—South Africa and India, for instance. But one of them stands out from the rest. The country with the most languages is Papua New Guinea with an astonishing number of nearly 850.
Home to such a variety of speech, the country has a population of fewer than 9.5 million people. A large part of it comprises indigenous groups, some of which have less than a thousand people speaking their mother tongue. Unfortunately, that puts these exceptional languages in danger of disappearing.
kalsarikännit – originating in Finland, in which the drinker consumes alcoholic drinks at home, dressed in as little clothing as possible, mainly in underwear with no intention of going out.
It is a phrase not a word, but in Italian, to say “I love you”, you usually say “ti voglio bene”, which literally means “I want well for you”. In english “love” means so many different things and I feel like this idea “I want well for you” encapsulates what love really means.
Papua New Guinea alone has 35 times more languages than there are official ones in the European Union. However, Europe has more than the 24 official ones that can be seen on the EU documents.
The continent is home to roughly 200 languages, ranging from well-known English, Spanish, and French, to the less widely-represented ones, such as Basque, Gaelic, or Flemish. Based on the number of native speakers, the most popular one in Europe is Russian, followed by German, French, and Italian. English takes fifth place for the number of native speakers, however, it is the golden prize winner when it comes to learning a second language.
This article was first published by Miglė Miliūtė and Vėja Elkimavičiūtė on 29th January 2023 on BoredPanda.com
You can read the article in full here.