När jag satt här och pillade med att sätta upp min nya blogg, slog det mig att jag inte vet vad flaskpost heter på engelska. Och eftersom jag har många bra ordböcker installerade på min dator tog det mig inte många klick att konstatera att ordet saknas!
Det är alltså så som det brukar vara när det fattas ett ord: man måste ersätta det med en beskrivning – i detta fall a message enclosed in a bottle, enligt Norstedts stora svensk-engelska ordbok. Jag blev nyfiken och kollade genast också flaskskepp, eftersom jag upplever det som något typiskt engelskt – och visst, ordboken ger mig en annan beskrivning: ship in a bottle.
Dessa är bara två exempel på hur frustrerande det kan vara med ordböcker – när det är tomt i huvudet är det alltför ofta därför att det är tomt också i ordboken!
Jag skrev om det för fem år sedan i min dagbok, och när jag kollar upp det (den 6 juni 2002) finner jag denna passage:
Two years have passed since I abandoned my native language – or maybe the language walked out on me – I’m not certain what really happened, because it was not a conscious decision; I was unaware of it at the time, and noticed it only when reading my notes a few months later.
It’s not entirely uncomplicated: the English language is very flexible and easy to use; it’s said to be extremely rich in words – at least the experts say so – but on the other hand it lacks a number of simple words that I am used to.
The first example they teach the kids at school in Sweden when they start to learn English is that there are no English words for morfar, farmor, etc – just the general grandfather, grandmother, and descriptions like maternal grandfather. For svärmor, you have to use the rather clumsy: mother-in-law, and svärmorsdröm is consequently translated he’s every mother-in-law’s dream. And since I was raised within a church I’m very much aware of the lack of distinction in English language (as well as in Latin, actually!) between fred and frid (peace). (Swedish language on the other hand doesn’t know the difference between being alone and being lonely.)
But there are many other simple words missing in English – nouns, adjectives as well as verbs – like plåt, dunge, dygn, avig, gorma, blunda, etc, where you also have to resort to descriptions: sheet metal, group of trees, day and night, or 24 hour period, turned inside out, scream and shout, close ones eyes, etc. The worst example I have stumbled upon, is the Swedish word raggare, which my dictionary for want of an English equivalent translates member of a gang of youths who ride about in cars!
It’s surprising, but when I find myself in want of a word and try to look it up in a dictionary, I often find that there is no such English word as the one I’m looking for, and that one has to resort to a description:
The good Swedish compound word nedsupen is translated completely ruined by alcohol in my dictionary; stamlokus is translated favourite restaurant – and it’s certainly not the same thing! Mungipa is of course corner of one’s mouth, and ögonvrå, corner of one’s eye; en snorkråka is a piece of snot, and mördarband is a gang of murderers; en skengalen häst, is a horse inclined to bolt.
Many other Swedish compound words you’ll also have to replace with descriptions, like mörbulta – beat black and blue. (In Sweden we beat people yellow and blue of course, and I suppose it’s got something to do with national colours, but it’s not the same as the Swedish expression mörbulta which literally means pound until tender.) Bakvänd is in my dictionary awkwardly translated the wrong way round; synpunkt, of course, point of view; utsiktspunkt – point from which there is a view; miljonaffär – transaction involving millions; halvtimme – half an hour, and nuläge is translated as things are at present.
Beside a number of missing words and expressions, I think that the ease, with which we may create compound words in Swedish, is the one thing I miss in the English language, which doesn’t lend itself to that kind of constructions as easily.
Joseph Conrad wrote in the Author’s Note in A Personal Record:
I’m not Joseph Conrad, and I even if English has been my everyday language for many years, I have never actually lived in an English-speaking country. And yet, the English language has grown on me over a period of 30 years or so, but I can’t say that I share Conrad’s enthusiasm for it. It’s an indispensable tool for everyone in our time – how could you possibly do without it? – and by now it is my language. That’s all!
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Nu har jag I alla fall startat en blogg på svenska! Riktigt varför vet jag inte, men det är väl detta med bredbandet antar jag: jag började läsa Svenska Dagbladet på nätet för några månader sedan och tittar in på en del svenska bloggar… Min startsida är bangkokpost.com – man måste ju hålla kontakten med vad som händer på hemmaplan (home ground)! – och sedan läser jag SvD – understreckarna är ju fortfarande ofta läsvärda!
DN gitter jag inte läsa!
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