Friday, June 25, 2004
Congo word 'most untranslatable'
BBC NEWS | Africa: "The world's most difficult word to translate has been identified as 'ilunga' from the Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern DR Congo. Ilunga means "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time". In second place was shlimazl which is Yiddish for "a chronically unlucky person". Third was Naa, used in the Kansai area of Japan to emphasise statements or agree with someone. Miss Zilinskiene's own bete noir is "googly", a cricketing term for "an off-breaking ball disguised by the bowler with an apparent leg-break action"."
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