Futility Closet

Untranslatability

Posted in Language by Greg Ross on July 22nd, 2005

The world’s most difficult word to translate is ilunga, according to a 2004 survey of 1,000 linguists.

The word comes from the Tshiluba language spoken in the southeastern Congo. It means “a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time and to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.”