Tingo Lingo!

Culture-specific words finally find a voice in their very own dictionary. We take a look at the liberalisation of language...
Culture has its own language. Ask Adam Jacot de Boinod, the British author of The Meaning Of Tingo. "The dictionary tries to celebrate the joy of foreign words (in a totally non-judgmental way) and say that while English is a great language, there are many words that have no English equivalent at all," he explains.
Research conducted by the writer reveals that there are many words that aren't even known to most native speakers."This may sound odd, until you think of all the unusual English words that are not known by most people." A case in point is Scottish words to do with rain: dreich ��� a miserably wet day; plowtery ��� showery; drookit ��� soaked to the skin.
According to linguist Arindam Sen of DU: "With India reaching every nook and corner of the world, it's high time foreign words also reached India. Dictionaries like Tingo are evidence that a country's dictionary says more about its culture than a guide book."
Hawaiians, for instance, have 108 words for 'sweet potato', 65 words for 'fishing net', and 47 words for 'banana', and the Albanians have 27 words for 'eyebrows' and 27 words for 'moustache'!
Then, Dutch vocabulary confirms the nation's love for the light-hearted ��� uitwaaien is Dutch for walking in windy weather for fun. Maori-speakers of the Cook Islands sound like an enthusiastic bunch: toto is the shout in a game of hide-and-seek to show readiness.
The word areodjarekput, however, could come across as a culture shock. It refers to the exchange of wives for a few days that helps pass time in long winter nights in certain parts of the world.
As interesting is the title of his dictionary The Meaning Of Tingo. "The title takes its name from tingo, a highly particular word in Pascuense, the language of Easter Island, that means: to borrow objects from a friend's house, one by one, until there is nothing left."