todamane (Tulu, India) entertaining a son-in-law or mother-in-law for the first time
bruja (Spanish, South America) a mother-in-law (literally, a witch)
biras (Malay) the relationship between two brothers’ wives or two sisters’ husbands
Chercher la femme?
When it comes to the family unit being threatened, why is there is no such thing as an homme fatal? Caribbean Spanish differentiates between a woman who prefers married men (comadreja, literally, a weasel) and one who lures them into extramarital relationships (ciegamachos). Can it really be that women are more predatory than men? Or is it that by luridly painting women as lustful (aa’amo in Hawaiian means ‘an insatiable woman’) and conniving (alghunjar is Persian for the feigned anger of a mistress), men the world over have cleverly avoided any blame for their own adulterous behaviour? Even when they’re guilty, they try to keep the linguistic upper hand, if the German word Drachenfutter is anything to go by. Literally translated as ‘dragon fodder’ it describes the peace offerings that guilty husbands offer their spouses.
One cure for adultery
Rhaphanidosis was a punishment meted out to adulterous men by cuckolded husbands in Ancient Greece. It involved inserting a radish up their backside.
An avuncular solution
The Western ideal of a monogamous husband and wife is not universal. There is, for example, no word for father in Mosuo (China). The nearest translation for a male parental figure is axia, which means friend or lover; and while a child will have only one mother, he or she might have a sequence of axia. An axia has a series of night-time trysts with a woman, after which he returns home to his mother. Any children resulting from these liaisons are raised in the woman’s household. There are no fathers, husbands or marriages in Mosuo society. Brothers take care of their sisters’ children and act as their fathers. Brothers and sisters live together all their lives in their mothers’ homes.
Polygamy on ice
Other societies replace the complexities of monogamy with those of polygamy, as, for example, the Inuit of the Arctic:
angutawkun a man who exchanges wives with another man or one of the men who have at different times been married to the same woman
areodjarekput to exchange wives for a few days only, allowing a man sexual rights to his woman during that period
nuliinuaroak sharing the same woman; more specifically, the relationship between a man and his wife’s lover when the husband has not consented to the arrangement
False friends
dad (Albanian) wet nurse or babysitter
babe (SiSwati, Swaziland) father or minister
mama (Georgian) father
brat (Russian) brother
parents (Portuguese) relatives
loo (Fulani, Mali) storage pot
bang (Albanian) paper bag
sin (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) son
Special relations
Whether it’s because they have big families, time on their hands in large empty spaces, or for another reason, the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia have highly specific terms for family members and relationships: goaski are one’s mother’s elder sisters, and sivjjot is one’s older sister’s husband; one’s mother’s younger sisters are muotta and one’s father’s younger sisters are siessa; one’s mother’s brothers are eanu and her brothers’ wives are ipmi; one’s brother’s wife is a mangi. The nearby Swedes exhibit a similar subtlety in their terms for grandfathers and grandmothers: farfar is a father’s father, morfar is a mother’s father, farmor is a father’s mother and mormor is a mother’s mother.
This pattern of precise names for individual family members had a parallel in an older society. Latin distinguished patruus (father’s brother) from avunculus (mother’s brother); and matertera (father’s sister) from amita (mother’s sister).
Of even earlier origins, the Australian Kamilaroi nganuwaay means a mother’s cross-cousin’s daughter and also a mother’s father’s sister’s daughter as well as a mother’s mother’s brother’s daughter’s daughter as well as a mother’s mother’s brother’s son’s daughter.
Tahitian taio
Meanwhile, in the warm climate of Tahiti, the word taio (Maohi, French Polynesia) means a formal friendship between people not related by ancestors, which involves the sharing of everything, even sex partners. A taio relationship can be male-to-male, female-to-female or male-to-female.
Essential issue
Language testifies to the importance most cultures attach to having children, as well as the mixed emotions the little darlings bring with them. Yiddish, for example, details both extremes of the parental experience, nakhes being the mixture of pleasure and pride a parent gets from a child, and tsuris the grief and trouble:
izraf (Persian) producing ingenious, witty children
niyoga (Hindi) the practice of appointing a woman to bear a male heir who will be conceived by proxy
menguyel-uyel (Indonesian) to hug, cuddle and tickle someone (usually a child) as an expression of affection
gosh-pech (Persian) twisting the ears of a schoolboy as a punishment
abtar (Persian) one who has no offspring; a loser (literally, a bucket without a handle)
Parental ambitions
In contrast with the paternal indulgence of the French fils à papa (a son whose father makes things very easy for him) are some stricter maternal leanings:
kyoikumama (Japanese) a woman who crams her children to succeed educationally
ciegayernos (Caribbean Spanish) a woman who looks for a husband for her daughter
mammismo (Italian) maternal control and interference that continues into adulthood
Home is where the heart is
Not everyone lives in a standard box-like house:
berhane (Turkish) an impractically large mansion, rambling house
angase (Tulu, India) a building where the front part is used as a shop and the back as a residence
vidhvasram (Hindi) a home for widows
And rooms have many uses:
Folterkammer (German) a gym or exercise room (literally, a torture chamber)
ori (Khakas, Siberia) a hole in a yurt to store potatoes
tyconna (Anglo-Indian) an Indian basement room where the hottest part of the day is passed in the hottest season of the year
vomitarium (Latin) a room where a guest threw up in order to empty his stomach for more feasting
Bukumatala
In the Kiriwinian language of New Guinea a bukumatala is a ‘young people’s house’, where adolescents go to stay on reaching puberty. As the main aim is to keep brothers and sisters away from the possibility of incestuous sexual contact close relatives will never stay in the same house. The boys return to the parental home for food and may help with the household work; the girls eat, work and occasionally sleep at home, but will generally spend the night with their adolescent sweethearts in one bukumatala or another.
On reflection
Him b’long Missy Kween
An urgent need to communicate can create a language without native speakers. Pidgin, for example, has developed from English among people with their own native tongues. Fine examples of pidgin expressions in the Tok Pisin language of Papua New Guinea are: liklik box you pull him he cry you push him he cry (an accordion) and bigfella iron walking stick him go bang along topside (a rifle). When the Duke of Edinburgh visits Vanuatu, in the Pacific, he is addressed as oldfella Pili-Pili him b’long Missy Kween, while Prince Charles is Pikinini b’long Kween.
Clocking On
l’argent ne se trouve pas sous le
sabot d’un cheval (French)
money isn’t found under a horse’s hoof
Tinker, tailor…
The Japanese phrase for ‘making a living’ is yo o wataru, which literally means ‘to walk across the world’, and it’s certainly true that when the chips are down there are some intriguing ways of earning a crust:
folapostes (Spanish) a worker who climbs telephone or
electrical poles
geshtenjapjeks (Albanian) a street vendor of roast chestnuts
koshatnik (Russian) a dealer in stolen cats
dame-pipi (French) a female toilet assistant
tarriqu-zan (Persian) an officer who clears the road for a prince
kualanapuhi (Hawaiian) an officer who keeps the flies away from the sleeping king by waving a brush made of feathers
buz-baz (old Persian) a showman who made a goat and a monkey dance together
capoclaque (Italian) someone who coordinates a group of clappers
fyrassistent (Danish) an assistant lighthouse keeper
cigerci (Turkish) a seller of liver and lungs
lomilomi (Hawaiian) the masseur of the chief, whose duty it was to take care of his spittle and excrement
The daily grind
Attitudes to work vary not just from workplace to workplace, but from one side of the office to the other:
fucha (Polish) to use company time and resources for one’s own purposes
haochi-lanzuo (Chinese) to be fond of food and averse to work
aviador (Spanish, Central America) a government employee who shows up only on payday
chupotero (Spanish) a person who works little but has several salaries
madogiwazoku (Japanese) those who have little to do (literally, window gazers)
jeito (Brazilian Portuguese) to find a way to get something done, no matter what the obstacles
Métro-boulot-dodo
This cheery French expression describes life in a none-too-optimistic way. Literally translated as ‘tube-work-sleep’ it summarizes the daily grind, hinting strongly that it’s pointless.
Carrot…
Motivation is a key factor, and employers who want maximum productivity find different ways of achieving this:
Mitbestimmung (German) the policy in industry of involving both workers and management in decision-making
vydvizhenchestvo (Russian) the system of promotion of workers to positions of responsibility and authority
kaizen (Japanese) the continuous improvement of working practices and personal efficiency as a business philosophy
… and stick
paukikape (Ancient Greek) the projecting collar worn by slaves while grinding corn in order to prevent them from eating it.
German work ethic
The Germans have long had a reputation for working hard. Inevitably, though, alongside the Urlaubsmuffel, or person who is against taking vacations, there is also the Trittbrettfahrer (literally, running-board rider), the person who profits from another’s work. And along with the studious Technonomade (someone who conducts most of their business on the road, using laptops and mobiles), you will find the less scrupulous schwarzarbeiten (preferring to do work not reported for taxes).
False friends
biro (Arabic) office
adman (Arabic) offering better guaranty
ganga (Spanish) bargain
mixer (Hungarian) barman
slug (Gaulish) servant
fat (Cantonese) prosperity
hot (Romanian) thief
baker (Dutch) nurse
The deal
Others have less noble ways of getting ahead:
zhengquan-duoli (Chinese) to jockey for power and scramble for profit
jinetear el dinero (Spanish, Central America) to profit by delaying payment
tadlis (Persian) concealing the faults of goods on sale
qiang jingtou (Chinese) a fight by a cameraman for a vantage point (literally, stealing the show)
grilagem (Brazilian Portuguese) the old practice of putting a cricket in a box of newly faked documents, until the moving insect’s excrement makes the papers look plausibly old and genuine (literally, cricketing)
On the take
If sharp practice doesn’t work, then the best thing to do is cast all scruples aside:
bustarella (Italian) a cash bribe (literally, a little envelope)
dhurna (Anglo-Indian) extorting payment by sitting at the debtor’s door and staying there without food, threatening violence until your demands are met
sola (Italian) a swindle in which you don’t share the loot with your accomplice
sokaiya (Japanese) a blackmailer who has a few shares in a large number of companies and tries to extort money by threatening to cause trouble at the shareholders’ annual general meetings
TST (Tahu Sama Tahu) (Indonesian) ‘you know it, I know it’: a verbal agreement between two people, one usually a government official, to cheat the state
In the end, it all comes down to one thing:
lechuga (Caribbean Spanish) a dollar bill (literally, lettuce)
kapusta (Russian) money (literally, cabbage)
mahiyana (Persian) monthly wages or fish jelly
wampum (Algonquian, Canada) strings of beads and polished shells, used as money by native Americans
Spongers
If you don’t have much money yourself, there are always ways around the problem:
gorrero (Spanish, Central America) a person who always allows others to pay
piottaro (Italian) one who carries very little cash
Zechpreller (German) someone who leaves without paying the bill
dar mico (Caribbean Spanish) to consume without paying
seigneur-terrasse (French) one who spends much time but little money in a café (literally, a terrace lord)
Neither a borrower nor a lender be
Indonesian has the word pembonceng to describe someone who likes to use other people’s facilities, but the Pascuense language of Easter Island has gone one step further in showing how the truly unscrupulous exploit friends and family. Tingo is to borrow things from a friend’s house, one by one, until there’s nothing left; while hakamaroo is to keep borrowed objects until the owner has to ask for them back.
What is yours is mine
It’s a short step to outright crime:
mencomot (Indonesian) stealing things of small value such as food or drinks, partly for fun
baderotte (Danish) a beach thief
Agobilles (German) burglar’s tools
ajane (Tulu, India) the noise of a thief
pukau (Malay) a charm used by burglars to make people fall asleep
azote de barrio (Spanish, Central America) a criminal who concentrates on a particular neighbourhood
accordéon (French) an extensive criminal record
A life of crime
Italian offers a rich vocabulary for different types of crime and criminal. Smonta, for example, is a theft carried out on a bus or train from which the perpetrator gets off as soon as possible, while scavalco (literally, climbing over) is a robbery carried out via a window or balcony. A night-time burglary is a serenata (literally, a serenade) which may well involve an orchestra, or gang of thieves, possibly accompanied by a palo, an accomplice who acts as lookout.
Extreme measures
If all else fails one of the following may be necessary:
nakkeskud (Danish) a shot in the back of the head
gusa (Japanese) to decapitate with a sword
rejam (Malay) to execute by pressing into mud
Hiding the evidence
Persian offers a refinement to the crude concept of ‘murder’. The expression war nam nihadan means to kill and then bury someone, growing flowers over the grave in order to conceal it.
Chokey
As most career criminals would agree, the worst downside to a life of crime is getting caught:
kaush (Albanian) a prison cell or paper bag