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kakkawornendi (Kaurna Warra, Australia) to nod when sleeping

itanochi (Alabama, USA) to go to sleep on the floor or by a fire

yum (Car, Nicobar Islands) to sleep with someone in one’s arms

Staying up

Among the Cheyenne people of the USA, sleep may be the last thing they get up to at night:

vóonâhá’ené to cook all night

vóonâhtóohe to howl all night

vóona’haso’he to ride a horse all night

vóonâše’še to drink all night

vóonêhasené to play cards all night

vóoneméohe to run all night

vóoneóó’e to stand all night

vóonévánéne to fart all night

vóonóé’ó to float all night

vóonôhtóvá to sell all night

vóono’eétahe to have sex all night

vóonó’eohtsé to travel by wagon all night

vóonotse’ohe to work all night

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

To take a sledgehammer to crack a nut

mogi jabeeryuda chogasamgan da taewonda (Korean) burning your whole house trying to catch a mosquito

tuo kuzi fang pi (Mandarin) to take your trousers off to fart

pire için yorgan yakmak (Turkish) to burn the duvet because of one flea

kee chang jahb thak-a-thaen (Thai) ride an elephant to catch a grasshopper

met een kanon op een mug schieten (Dutch) to shoot a mosquito with a cannon

gubbi mEle bramhAstravE? (Kannada, India) a nuclear weapon on a sparrow?

18.

Animal Magic

hilm il-’utaat kullu firaan (Arabic)

the dream of cats is all about mice

When humans looked around them and saw the animals that inhabited their world they often came up with names that described what each animal looked or sounded like, or how it behaved. Among the Amerindian tribes the Navaho word for squirrel is the phrase ‘it has a bushy tail’ and the word from the Arapaho for elephant is ‘it has a bent nose’. The Mingo language was particularly expressive in this regard:

uæhkwëönyö’ a peacock (literally, it puts suns all over it)

teyunö’kêôt a sheep (literally, it’s got two horns attached)

këötanëhkwi a horse (literally, it hauls logs)

teka’nyakáíte’ a mole (literally, both of its hands are slanted)

tewathsistúkwas a firefly (literally, it scatters sparks)

tsyúwë’staka’ a seagull (literally, it is known for being around sea-foam)

uthëhtææhtáne’ a caterpillar (literally, its fuzz itches)

teyu’skwææt a bull (literally, two standing stones – referring to the bull’s testicles)

The great rat with a pocket

Likewise, when Chinese voyagers first saw the kangaroo they described the way it looked to them: dai shu, pocket rat, or great rat with a pocket. The Yoruba of West Africa, unused to zebras, called them ‘striped horses’. The Indian nations of the Americas were astounded at the sight of the horse when it appeared, brought by the early Spanish conquerors. The Aztecs thought it was a hornless deer. The Sioux named it shuñka wakãn, supernatural dog, and the Cheyenne referred to it as mo-eheno’ha, domesticated elk. Another animal new to the Cheyenne, the pig, joined their language as eshkoseesehotame, dog with sharp nose.

False friends

snog (Danish) grass snake

asp (Pahlavi, Iran) horse

dud (Arabic) caterpillar, worm

formica (Latin) ant

hunt (Estonian) wolf

hunt (Yiddish) dog

lamb (Amharic, Ethiopia) cow

long (Chinese) dragon

moron (Munduruku, Brazil) toad

Fluttering and kicking

Those peoples living closely with animals developed vocabulary to describe all sorts of precisely observed behaviour on land …

vweluka (Mambwe, Zambia) to jump from branch to branch (said of a monkey)

gigigigigi (Tsonga, South Africa) to stand about dispersed and all looking intently at something in the distance, as cattle seeing a lion

telki (Swahili) the quick ambling gait of a donkey, half walk, half run

thakgantse (Setswana, Botswana) to kick in all directions (as an ox when one leg is held by a thong)

glamarsaich (Gaelic) the noisy lapping (as of a hungry dog)

shebwoso (Potawatomi, USA) a rabbit running fast

… of fish and other creatures at sea:

tekab (Maguindanaon, Philippines) a fish opening its mouth and producing bubbles

siponaina (Yamana, Chile) to go along