Rich Talk

Some favorite words of Stockholm University linguist Mikael Parkvall, from his Limits of Language (2006):

• klunen (Dutch): “to walk or run overland with skates on (usually from one body of frozen water to another)”
• aɣone (Kuot): “to drink from a bottle in such a fashion that drool trickles from the mouth back into the bottle”
• fringsen (German): “to steal coal from railway wagons or potatoes from fields in order to survive”
• knedlikový (Czech): “rather partial to dumplings”
• qamigartuk (Yup’ik): “he goes seal-hunting with a small sled and kayak in the spring”
• baleŋga (Chavacano): “excessive swinging of arms while walking”
• kallsup (Swedish): “a gulp of water that a bather accidentally inhales”
• googly (English): “(of an off-breaking cricket ball) disguised by the bowler with an apparent leg-break action”

Gunwinggu, spoken in northwestern Australia, uses different verbs to describe the hopping of a black wallaroo:

(Macropus bernardus) (kamurlbardme), the hopping of an agile wallaby (Macropus agilis) (kalurlhlurme), the hopping of a male antilopine wallaroo (Macropus antilopinus) (kamawudme),

and the hopping of a female antilopine wallaroo (kadjalwahme).