Adam Jacot de Boinod, author of a book on words from other languages, as well as the book reviewed in our last issue, is namechecked by the author in the introduction to this collection of idioms and other colourful expressions from around the world. Jag Bhalla, a self-confessed and largely unrepentant monoglot, has put together a compendium of over 1000 translated idioms from a dozen or so of the world’s major languages, in order that similarly linguistically-challenged readers can enjoy the wit, wisdom and sheer exuberance of the endlessly-varied ways in which different languages express life’s shared experiences.

Bhalla, described in his brief biography as 'an amateur in fields ranging from triviology to film production', claims to have written the book for his own delight, in the hope of sharing some of this enjoyment with others. The tone is jokey throughout, the style exuberant and playful. He is fond of coinages and linguistic jokes, liberally using words such as listfulness, scienc-ey and vocabularian. The idiomatic expressions are given in English only, ‘for reasons of space and economy (of [the author’s] effort)’. Despite a pseudo-academic presentation, complete with footnotes and citations of authors including David Crystal and Thomas Hobbes, Bhalla explicitly disclaims any educational or academic aspirations. Nonetheless, he has clearly read widely – there are over three pages of bibliography, as well as eight pages of notes. Some amateur!

As is customary, the book is divided into themed chapters, on topics such as love, family, time, food and drink and so on. Each is prefaced by an appropriate idiom. Unless you happen to be fluent in the language from which the idiom comes, these are incomprehensible. I happen to know that in Italian, qui casca l’asino (rendered as 'here the donkey falls') means 'this is the problem' (or, more idiomatically, 'there’s the rub') but I have no idea what go out by the neck of your shirt or seventh water on a starchy jelly might mean! This, of course, is the point of idioms. They are completely understandable to the speakers of a language, while being largely or wholly impenetrable to everyone else.

Each chapter has a discursive introduction, built around the general area of the topic, followed by themed lists of idioms with their meanings and languages of origin. The author suggests that it be taken regularly in small doses, rather than read straight through. Indeed, he suggests that you skip the Introduction and dive straight into the lists, a process he describes inevitably as seren-dipping*.

The book is attractively produced, reasonably priced and enhanced by the cartoons of Julia Suits, who does cartoons for the New Yorker as well as being a ‘geeky pursuer of the odd and overlooked’. As I have suggested, while Bhall may be a self-proclaimed amateur, this book is far from amateurish. Rather, it wears its learning lightly, and as such, may well be enjoyed by readers as much as its production was clearly enjoyed by its author.

*a pun on serendipity, which means the operation of happy chance, and dip into, to read something in small amounts.

I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears
Jag Bhall
National Geographic
2009
ISBN 978-1-4262-0458-6

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