Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

By Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne

18: Translating the untranslatable

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Published March 15, 2018 6:24pm

Lists of ‘untranslatable’ words always come with... translations. So what do people really mean when they say a word is untranslatable?In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch explore how how we translate different kinds of meaning. What makes words like schadenfreude, tsundoku, and hygge so compelling? Which parts of language are actually the most difficult to translate? What does it say about English speakers that we have a word for “tricking someone into watching a video of Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up?”This month’s Patreon bonus episode is about the grammar of swearing...

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