Missing words

Working every day in the linguistic space between Polish and English, I always find it interesting to winkle out those blank spots in either language. Having spent all of my life inhabiting that space, I am sure they say so much about the difference between the two nations and cultures.

And today's word is: 'grumpy'.

Getionary gives the best Polish word for 'grumpy' as zrzędliwy, which the Oxford PWN dictionary confirms. I must say, I've never heard this word in Polish - ever!

My Polish colleagues suggested marudny - which Oxford PWN indeed gives as 'grumpy', but grumpiness is rather a passive state of mind, and not the more active marudzić, which I'd rather translate as 'moaning' or 'whinging'.

Could this be that the English are less able or willing to externalise their woes than Poles? Is one nation more emotionally open than the other?

Interestingly, Grumpy* of the Seven Dwarfs in Polish becomes... Gburek. Gburek is the diminutive of gbur, which means 'a boor,' with overtones of surliness.

We had been discussing the stereotypical phlegmatic nature of the English, in reference to Rudyard Kipling's If... The Brits (especially Victorian ones), were expected to keep their emotions under control. Poles, on the other hand, are prone to dramatic gestures, such as this one.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis made the link between language and thought (you cannot communicate a thought if your language lacks the words that express it). The corollary to the hypothesis is that if your language lacks certain words, you cannot even think that thought, leading to differences in behaviour between speakers of different languages.

This, then, is why languages introduce loanwords. It is the epitome of revanchist schadenfreude**.

*Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey become Mędrek , Gburek, Wesołek, Śpioszek, Nieśmiałek, Apsik, Gapcio respectively.

** There's chutzpah for you.