[Lexicog] Re: Words that are absent in particular languages

[Kenneth C. Hill]

One has to be careful with quick assessments as to whether a language has
a term for a given concept. Hopi has long been famous for the wrong claim
(by Benjamin Lee Whorf) that it has no word for time. In fact Hopi has
many words for 'time'; two that translate as English 'time' are taawa and
qeni:

taawa (which also means 'sun' or 'day') refers to time as some sort of
entity, as in Taawa a'ni hòyta. [time very be.moving] 'Time is really
moving fast.'

qeni (which also means 'space') means 'time' in the sense of time to do or
for doing something, as in Pay naat itamungem a'ni qeni. [well still
for.us very time] 'There is still plenty of time for us [to do it].'

Hopi also has various expressions things like 'at that point in time', 'an
occasion', 'have time for'.

Of similar interest along with the question of lexical gaps is the fact
that sometimes quite distinct concepts are conflated under the same term.
An example is the usage in English of 'hot' to refer to temperature and to
certain kinds of spiciness, the sensory effect of chile peppers and of
mustard (which in turn are very different sensory experiences). In Spanish
these concepts of temperature and of spiciness are clearly distinct:
caliente has to do with temperature and picante has to do with the
spiciness. The confusion in English is such that some people refer to the
property of chile as 'heat' and commercial packages of foods containing
chile often have little thermometer icons on them telling how 'hot' the
contents are. I suspect such icons would not work very well in Mexico.

--Ken Hill

--- David Williams <david at dwdw1.com> wrote:

> --- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, "David Williams" <david at ...> 
> wrote:
> >
> > HI I'm researching words which some languages omit. I'm trying to 
> > build up some examples. I believe, for instance, that in Swedish 
> there 
> > is no direct counterpart for 'mind'.
> > If anyone has any examples I'd be delighted to hear them.
> > cheers
> > DW
> >
> Many thanks to those who have offered suggestions. Just to clarify, 
> I'm particularly interested in the abscence of words which by their 
> omisision might reflect the culture of the language group. I remeMber 
> reading many yers ago of a tribe who saw the ability to deceive as a 
> virtue and their language refelcted this. This might well have been an 
> apocryphal tale, but it's this avenue I'm looking at.
> best wishes to all,
> DavidW
> 
> 
> 
> 


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