09.02Hungarian Semantics
For those who know me, you will know why I read, and enjoy reading, a book like “The Medicalization of Everyday Life” by Thomas Szasz.
Now…I’m not going on a rant about what this particular book is about, but I wanted to post a particularly interesting quote.
This comes from page 51 from the essay, “Defining Disease”:
“…Perhaps our very explanation [of defining disease], framed in ordinary language, is biased by our deep-seated conceits and fashionable preconceptions. The Hungarian term for “explanation” suggests that such, indeed, may often be the case.
“The Hungarian word for “Hungarians” is magyar. The same term serves as the root for “explanation,” which is magyarazat; “to explain” is megmagyaraz; “inexplicable” is megmagyarazhatatlan, literally “it cannot be said in Hungarian”; and the command to say something clearly is mond magyarul, that is, “say it in Hungarian.”
“Hungarians are not aware that their term for “explanation” and therefore their concept of it are so linguistically self-centered. Perhaps one has to change cultures and retain an interest in the idiosyncrasies of one’s mother tongue to appreciate such a semantic oddity”