18 Feb 07
Originally posted by wormwoodIn King Island Inupiaq (presumably in other Inupiaq dialects, too, but I don't have information about those), one word often expresses what would be expressed with a whole sentence in English. It's quite fascinating. For example:
kumarreksituteskenteleentuvaisehkollaismaisekkuudellisenneskenteluttelemattomammuuksissansakkaankopahan.
(that's a real finnish word, and it's not a compound word.)
Quiktiziqpaglutik.
(They made themselves look very fat.)
18 Feb 07
Originally posted by Nordlysquite a lot of those words just don't have a word-for-word translation, so it needs to be translated as a sentence. don't know about that one though.
In King Island Inupiaq (presumably in other Inupiaq dialects, too, but I don't have information about those), one word often expresses what would be expressed with a whole sentence in English. It's quite fascinating. For example:
Quiktiziqpaglutik.
(They made themselves look very fat.)
18 Feb 07
Originally posted by wormwoodYes, I know. A lot of it is specific to the culture, so there are no corresponding English words. But it's also a completely different grammatical system, where things which are expressed as pronouns, prepositions, auxiliary verbs etc. in English are expressed as grammatical forms, postfixes or infixes. That happens a lot in Finnish, too, but I think even more in Inupiaq (although I may be wrong, as I don't know that much about the language).
quite a lot of those words just don't have a word-for-word translation, so it needs to be translated as a sentence. don't know about that one though.
