Lost in Translation: A Brief Look at English

The English language is a wonderful, convoluted mess of words and phrases that somehow manage to convey meaning to countless millions of people every day.

And yet, despite its vastness, it can be confounding and confusing, a language full of contradictions and inconsistencies that make it a real headache for anyone trying to learn it. Words can have various meanings and pronunciations leading to some truly absurd expressions that we all use on a daily basis.

In a comment on last week’s blog post about another confounding and confusing topic – love – one of our readers commented in the comments section about the expression “going south”. This got us to thinking about the same thing. So, we can thank, or blame, @joe.carrillo for this week’s blog journey into the murky world of sayings, language, and the peculiarities of the English tongue.

First things first: “Going south” is a colloquialism (say that three-times fast…) for something that is heading towards failure or decline. A business going south is not making any money. A relationship going south means it’s on the rocks (and not of the cocktail sort). A project going south is falling apart. But why south and not east, west or north?

According to the American Dictionary of Regional English, the term is derived from the Native American belief that “go south” means to die. Another theory is that during the American Civil War, Union soldiers used the phrase to describe Confederate forces retreating towards the rebelling southern states.

We’ll probably never know where “going south” truly originated from. It’s just one of those linguistic mysteries that will continue to baffle us for generations to come. Which got us to thinking about some other expressions - some well-known, some not so much – their meanings and origins. Here’s 12 of our favorites. Six from around the world and six more commonly used English expressions:

Sweden: “There is no cow on the ice” means there’s no reason to panic.

Serbia: “Pretend to be an Englishman” means to pretend you’re innocent and have no idea what’s going on. Apparently, the Serbs have trust issues with the English….

Germany: “Live like a maggot in bacon” means to live the high life. Germans do love their pork!

Portugal. “Feeding the donkey sponge cake” means to give special treatment to someone who doesn’t need or deserve it.

Arabian Peninsula. “God gives nuts to the man with no teeth” comments on the inherent irony of life.

Poland. “Not my circus, not my monkeys” means it’s not my problem.

Let Your Hair Down. Meaning: to relax. Origin: Aristocratic women had to wear their hair tightly up, and when they got home, they’d let their hair down to relax.

Break The Ice. Meaning: to get the conversation flowing. Origin: Referred to the breaking of ice to allow navigation boats to sail through.

Spill The Beans. Meaning: To reveal secret information. Origin: In Ancient Greece, there was an anonymous voting system using black and white beans which, when spilled from their receptacle, revealed the vote’s result.

Raining cats and dogs. Meaning: A heavy downpouring of rain. Origin: Thought to come from the idea that, during heavy rainstorms, stray cats and dogs would seek shelter in the thatched roofs of houses and, when the rain got too heavy, they would fall through the roof and onto the occupants below.

Bury The Hatchet. Meaning: Forget a conflict and be at peace. Origin: When negotiating peace, Native Americans would bury all their weapons to make them inaccessible.

Butter Someone Up. Meaning: Flatter someone to get something from them. Origin: Some believe this originated from Ancient India when people used to throw balls of butter at statues of Gods while asking for a favor.

Of course, there’s countless other strange expressions in the English language like “kick the bucket”, “break a leg”, “cat got your tongue”. But that’s the thing about English, it’s a mishmash of words and phrases from all sorts of different languages and cultures. Which, when you think about some of the literal translations, can be confoundingly redundant. For example:

Chai tea = tea tea

Naan bread = bread bread

Sharia law = law law

Sahara desert = desert desert

Lake Tahoe = lake lake

The Los Angeles Angels = the the angels angels

The La Brea Tar Pits = the the tar tar pits

Hula dance = dance dance

DC Comics = detective comics comics

It’s a language that’s constantly evolving which is what makes it so challenging to learn. About the only thing we remember from English grammar classes was that “every rule has an exception” (which makes learning quite a challenge!) One of our favorite rules was always “I before E except after C”. Simple right? Try telling that to your next-door neighbors. I’ll bet it will weigh pretty heavy on their minds…..

Ever wonder why we get “on” a bus, but “in” a car? Why does the refrigerator and the dishwasher “run”, but the stove and the oven are just “on”? Why in the world would we “hit the sack” when going to sleep?

Then there’s the whole issue of pronunciation. Just think of the pronunciations of “tear” and “tier” versus “tear” and “tear”.

Even correctly pronounced grammar can have multiple meanings:

“Bite me asshole” = a scathing way to put someone down

“Bite me asshole” = a request made by a kinky pirate

The sentence – “I never said she stole my money” - can have 7 different meanings depending on the stressed word:

I never said she stole my money. (Someone else said it)

I never said she stole my money. (I’d never rat her out like that)

I never said she stole my money. (I merely implied that she stole it)

I never said she stole my money. (I said someone did but not who)

I never said she stole my money. (She’s just taking a long time to pay it back)

I never said she stole my money. (But she stole someone’s money)

I never said she stole my money. (But she did steal something)

And we’re not even getting into the “elephant in the room” which are the differences between American English (today's focus) and British English!

To be fair, English isn’t the only language with confusing grammar rules and nonsensical expressions. But it’s hard to deny that we’ve taken it to a whole new level. We use phrases that mean the opposite of what they say, we compare life to a “dog-eat-dog world” (Why dogs? Why not cats or hamsters? And eating each other? Is this some kind of canine Hunger Games we’re talking about? But we digress..), we throw pronunciation around like confetti.

And yet, somehow, despite everything, we all manage to communicate with each other. I guess it isn’t rocket science after all.

For those of you who would like to experience more English language confusion, we close this week’s blog with a link to a classic English poem, The Chaos, written in 1922 by Gerard Nolst Trenite. A virtuoso feat of composition, written from the viewpoint of the foreign learner of English, containing about 800 of the worst irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation.

Do you know any funny and entertaining phrases in English or your preferred language? Let us know in the comments below!

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