Language · 2
Language scholars cite words like Japanese 'komorebi', for sunlight filtering through tree leaves, as real-world examples of which linguistic concept?
Answer
Untranslatability
Untranslatability refers to words or phrases in one language that have no direct one-word equivalent in another, and komorebi is a classic illustration since English needs a full descriptive phrase to convey it.
💡 Did you know?
Japanese "komorebi" describes sunlight filtering through tree leaves. Translators struggled so hard that it became a case study in untranslatability.
Other options people guess
- Diglossia
- Code-switching
- Semantic bleaching
Topics
- language
- linguistics
- japanese
- translation
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