July 2012 - Culture
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A Message to Hollywood |
Global Words
We're all familiar with words in English that have their roots in other languages: "deja vu" from the French, "aficionado" from Spanish, etc. But we seemed to have missed a few.
Who knew, for example, that Persian has a word for “a camel that won’t give milk until her nostrils have been tickled” (akhur) ? Or that the Inuits have a verb for “to exchange wives for a few days only” (areodjarekput) ? Why does Pascuense, spoken on Easter Island, offer tingo, which means “to borrow things from a friend’s house, one by one, until there’s nothing left”?
This article provides a fascinating look at some very interesting words around the world.
Who knew, for example, that Persian has a word for “a camel that won’t give milk until her nostrils have been tickled” (akhur) ? Or that the Inuits have a verb for “to exchange wives for a few days only” (areodjarekput) ? Why does Pascuense, spoken on Easter Island, offer tingo, which means “to borrow things from a friend’s house, one by one, until there’s nothing left”?
This article provides a fascinating look at some very interesting words around the world.
In Japan, Fax Machines Are Still ThrivingIn Japan's businesses and home offices, the fax machine is still king.
The continued fax devotion may be an endearing quirk, particularly from a country that's been a pioneer in developing high tech electronics and microchip devices. But it may also represent a deeper sign of the nation’s inability to change and to accommodate global standards. |
Image: Flickr/Andres Rueda
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