image credit: pirate treasure, via flickr

This week we’re celebrating languages in honor of the annual European Day of Language, a yearly reminder of the many, many benefits of speaking and understanding more than one language. In our post on Tuesday, we shared some interesting facts about languages and bilingualism, but today we wanted to focus a bit more on the emotional aspect of languages. Though we don’t often stop to think about it, language is alive and it grows and evolves according to the needs of those who speak it. Language helps us define what we’re feeling, but over the course of history humans have felt the need to create new words to express what they are feeling or experiencing.

That’s why I was especially excited when I discovered an interesting initiative called “Language Treasures,” which I just had to share with our readers. The Council of Europe set out to create a database of words many languages which “no translation can do justice to.” Anyone who speaks more than one language knows that there are some words that simply can not be translated, and this database of “language treasures” is a fabulous example of the power of each language to express human emotions and perceptions in new and different ways.

My favorite Spanish/English examples from the database so far are “Ójala” (which they translated to English as “If only”) and “jartible” (translated as “boring”). I would add that one of my favorite “untranslatable” concepts in Spanish is “tener mala leche” (something like to have a bad attitude or be in a bad mood). Íñigo loves the English word “chunky” (”grueso”), and I have to agree. What are your language treasures? The project has already compiled a list of thousands of language treasures from all over the world, but there’s still time for you to add your own treasures to the list. Just don’t forget to leave us a note here first!