Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Teochew Words That are Hard to Translate into English

For a change, I thought I'd make an original (wow!) post, so I wanted to throw in some fun words that I think are relatively hard to translate into English (or require many words to describe). Now, some of these may have easy translations into other languages, but it's takes some creativity to say it in Engbhūng.


Gáogoit
Rubbed off dead skin. This is my favorite, because I don't know of any other languages that have a word for this. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. All good Teochew parents teach their children how to clean themselves, and it takes a daily regimen of rubbing away gáogoit.



Mimi
Something shut closed but with a slit or small crack of showing. Mākmimi is someone's eye's that are closed so tight you can only see the slits. Perhaps "chink" would work.


 


Bhọlẹng-ūi
There's nothing you can do about it, there's no satisfactory way to do anything about this.



Lōng
To slide an object into a relatively small opening. Something like sliding a chopstick into a hole, or reach in with one's hand into a bag.




Tīktō
This one doesn't describe anything unique, but encompasses vacations, play, leisure, and doing anything for fun or enjoyment.

Have any more? Share them in comments!

3 comments:

  1. Something I used to hear more when I was a kid, and then heard a couple years ago for the first time in forever while I was visiting family in Australia, is "det4 leu2 bhit4 sai2". Not sure what the character for det4 is, but it doesn't quite mean "to squish", but more like to put a lot of weight on?

    My little cousin said it and my sister and I had a good laugh because it was such a kiddie thing to say and we hadn't heard it in forever.

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  2. I've never heard of that. According to the dictionary, they use the same character for "iap" (as in iaplak) as "det". I'd say it means weigh down. And what does bhit4 mean exactly? =)

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  3. bhit4 is like flattened, so when my cousin said it, he meant "squish you so flat poop comes out" lol.

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