Marnie Chesterton

Very cool.

Tristan, where are you taking us next?

Well, something that really interested me when I was looking into this week's theme were efforts to translate scientific terms into African languages.

There are more than 2,000 languages spoken on the African continent.

And in many cases, translations for words like bacteria or virus or even like dinosaur, they actually don't currently don't exist.

OK, this is fascinating.

I love this topic because this is like, what do you do for words that have just sprung up recently?

So, for example, this show comes from Wales and there were similar issues when it came to Wi-Fi, for example.

Do you invent a Welsh word for Wi-Fi or do you just call it Wi-Fi?

Phyllis, is this something you've come across?

Yes, there are some words that we have found difficult.

For example, now we use Swahili across East Africa and sometimes, you know, there's this word that has been used a lot, gaslighting, and you want to explain it in Swahili, but then you try describing, still you cannot.

Also, when you want to mean...

Like you're my soulmate.

It's just translated the same way.

So the word is impenzi, which also means lover.

But, you know, soulmate is deeper and you want to go deeper, but then you can't.

Oh, language fails.

How unromantic of Swahili.

But maybe it can come up trumps when it comes to science.