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False friends

air (Indonesian) water, liquid, juice

blubber (Dutch) mud

shit (Persian) dust

nap (Hungarian) sun

sky (Norwegian) cloud

pi (Korean) rain

Highland mist

Either there is more weather in the cold, wet places of the world or people have more time to think about and define it. The Scots may not have as many words for snow as the Inuits, but they have a rich vocabulary for their generally cool and damp climate.

Dreich is their highly evocative word for a miserably wet day. Gentle rain or smirr might be falling, either in a dribble (drizzle) or in a dreep (steady but light rainfall). Plowtery (showery) weather may shift to a gandiegow (squall), a pish-oot (complete downpour), or a thunder-plump (sudden rainstorm accompanied by thunder and lightning). Any of these is likely to make the average walker feel dowie (downhearted) as they push on through the slaister (liquid bog) and glaur (mire), even if they’re not yet drookit (soaked to the skin). The track in front of them will probably be covered with dubs (puddles), as the neighbouring burn (stream) grows into a fast-flowing linn (torrent).

The very next day the weather may be different again, and the walker beset by blenter (gusty wind). Or if it’s grulie (unsettled), there’s always the hope that it might turn out leesome (fair) with a lovely pirl (soft breeze). And then, after the next plype (sudden heavy shower), there may even be a watergow (faint rainbow). In deepest winter it will generally be snell (piercingly cold), and sometimes fair jeelit (icily so) among the wreaths (drifts) of snow.

For a precious few fair days in summer, there may even be a simmer cowt (heat haze), though the more austere will be relieved that the likelihood of discomfort remains high on account of the fierce-biting mudges (midges).

On reflection

My underground oven

Riddles are found the world over. Here are some intriguing ones from Hawaii:

1 ku’u punawai kau i ka lewa my spring of water high up in the clouds

2 ku’u wahi pu ko’ula i ka moana my bundle of red sugarcane in the ocean

3 ku’u wahi hale, ‘ewalu o’a, ho’okahi pou my house with eight rafters and one post

4 ku’u imu kalua loa a lo’ik’i my long underground oven

Answers

1 niu a coconut

2 anuenue a rainbow

3 mamula an umbrella

4 he the grave

Hearing Things

quien quiere ruido, compre un cochino (Spanish)

he that loves noise must buy a pig

Sound bites

The sounds of most of the words we use have little to do with their meanings. But there are exceptions in other languages, too. For best results try saying the words out loud:

ata-ata (Rapa Nui, Easter Island) to laugh

ba’a (Hausa, Nigeria) ridicule, mockery

baqbaq (Arabic) garrulous

bulubushile (Bemba, Congo and Zambia) a stammer or lisp

capcap (Maltese) to clap

chopchop (Chamorro, Guam, USA) to suck

cizir cizir (Turkish) with a sizzling noise

karkara (Arabic) to rumble (of a stomach)

kekek-kekek (Malay) to giggle

kitikiti (Tulu, India) the ticking of a watch; or giggling, tittering

pes pes (Pashto, Afghanistan and Pakistan) whispering

pshurr (Albanian) to urinate, to wet one’s clothes

raxxax (Maltese) to drizzle

ringongo (Gilbertese, Kiribati) to snore

taptap (Maltese) to patter

yuyurungul (Yindiny, Australia) the noise of a snake sliding through the grass

xiaoxiao (Chinese) the whistling and pattering of rain or wind

zonk zonk (Turkish) to throb terribly

Making a splash

Local experience shapes local language. The Tulu people of India, for example, have a fine array of evocative, specific words to do with water: gulum describes a stone falling into a well; gulugulu is filling a pitcher with water; caracara is spurting water from a pump; budubudu is bubbling, gushing water; jalabala is bubbling or boiling water; salasala is pouring water; while calacala describes the action of children wading through water as they play.

Ding dong

The sound of an altogether noisier culture can be heard in Indonesian: kring is the sound of a bicycle bell; dentang, cans being hit