Within a culture, there are culturally rich items or ‘key’ words that are important for –and are instantly recognized by– members of this cultural group. These ‘key’ words (and phrases) reflect values, ideals, ideas and beliefs that the people hold dear, even if not each and every individual member of this cultural group fully subscribes to these values and beliefs. For example, “saudade” could be proposed as a ‘key’ word for Portuguese-speaking cultures; for Americans, this could be “American way of life”.
Though I am particularly interested in Spanish-speaking cultures, I would be happy to receive your ideas about 'key' words in various world languages and cultures. Thank you.
When I saw the word "Saudade" I thought it is a word from my local language - Hausa, which is a very prominent, if not the most prominent, African language. Indeed, there are so many cultural things which are culture specific especially related to my language. For example, things like "tashe" and "Zaurance" are cultural things which to my knowledge are peculiar to my language.
Larisa, I can help you with "labels (=etiquetas)" on the right of my own blog, that runs since 2011. It is related with different aspects and dialogues between Culture & Religion (in Argentina). The website is: www.teologiayculturadesdeargentina.blogspot.com.
You should check the network Iberconceptos (http://www.iberconceptos.net/) - conceptual historians who try to "iberize" history of concepts. Some of their works go in your direction.
Hi Larisa,
I am from Mexico and the first key work that comes in my mind : "pinche". Here you have one article in the newspaper.
http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2014/01/26/actualidad/1390728691_731336.html
http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/asele/pdf/23/23_0047.pdf
One key word, I guess, would be "madre". Another one would be "bola", "bolas". If you have questions, feel free to ask.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Philology
- Language