The gulf between language and experience is something ever-present, endlessly considered and ultimately irreconcilable. It is highlighted all the more by the gap between language and language; that is, for example, Russian and French, or even English and Welsh. Translation is complicated by the presence of words which defy literal translation, words which exist only in a certain language system. Does the experience not exist because there is no word for it in a given language? How does one approach an 'unspeakable' or 'untranslatable' experience in language?
'The Unspeakableness', a project by Pei-Ying Lin, considers these strange gaps between human emotion and expression and attempts to bridge the gap with a rather lovely, slowly expanding, 'Untranslatable Words' database (http://untranslatable.peiyinglin.net/data.html). It includes videos of native speakers discussing a given word in the original language, as well as a brief attempt at an English 'definition'.
The project delves into various issues of language and translation, considering multilingualism and the association of different languages with certain emotions as well as the presence of the 'untranslatable' words, and can be found online here: http://uniquelang.peiyinglin.net/
'The Unspeakableness', a project by Pei-Ying Lin, considers these strange gaps between human emotion and expression and attempts to bridge the gap with a rather lovely, slowly expanding, 'Untranslatable Words' database (http://untranslatable.peiyinglin.net/data.html). It includes videos of native speakers discussing a given word in the original language, as well as a brief attempt at an English 'definition'.
The project delves into various issues of language and translation, considering multilingualism and the association of different languages with certain emotions as well as the presence of the 'untranslatable' words, and can be found online here: http://uniquelang.peiyinglin.net/
