How to say “I’m going to stab you in the gut” in Indian?
Stephen Colbert picked up a story by LA Times - one of the world’s 7,000 distinct languages disappears every 14 days, an extinction rate exceeding that of birds, mammals or plants. At least 20% of the world’s languages are in imminent danger of becoming extinct as their last speakers die off, compared with about 18% of mammals, 8% of plants and 5% of birds.
One such language facing extinction is Sora, spoken by 288,000 natives in South Orissa in eastern India. More information here on the Living Toungues. The Sora language is unique in that entire sentences maybe expressed by one word. David Harrison, the guest on Colbert Report show, borrows a word from Sora to prove his point - phu-phoon-kun-tam, which in English translates to “I’m going to stab you in the gut”.
Who says you don’t learn anything from Comedy shows? Watch the video clip here, very funny! I only wish Comedy Central didn’t screw up in writing the description text for the video. India has 22 official languages and hundreds of regional languages and dialects, but none called “Indian”.
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