Things for which we have no word for

by phil on Tuesday Jan 26, 2010 12:00 AM

A few days ago, Guru sent met a heads up to writer Adam Jacot de Boinod, who is fascinated with words that exist in other languages but have no equivalent in ours.

Coincidentally, I just bumped into this list of international retitles for the film The Sound of Music. Hong Kong's is my favorite:

The Rebel Novice (Brazil)
The Melody of Happiness (France)
My Songs, My Dreams (Germany)
The Melody of Happiness (Greece)
Angelic Music Flies and Heard Everywhere (Hong Kong)
Tears and Smiles (Iran)
All Together with Passion (Italy)
The Rebel Novice (Latin America)
The Most Beautiful Music (Netherlands)
Music in the Heart (Portugal)
Smiles and Tears (Spain)
Truth, Kindness and Beauty (Taiwan)
Love Spell, Heavenly Songs (Thailand)

Comments

Zeb said on January 26, 2010 12:14 AM:

Love this! I've definitely wondered about this before - never heard it applied to our own language before!

Rusty said on January 26, 2010 1:26 AM:

Smiles and Tears (Spain)
>> Emo
The Rebel Novice (Brazil)
>> Wikipedia
The Melody of Happiness (France)
>> Pop
Angelic Music Flies and Heard Everywhere (Hong Kong)
>> Muzak

Zeb said on January 26, 2010 9:42 AM:

Oh. Nevermind. I'm not impressed anymore. Thanks Rusty. Next time do your research Phil!

Philip Dhingra said on January 26, 2010 11:55 AM:

Hah. I just found a new way to come up with hipster band names.