Glenn's thread Και νεκÏός ενίκα and his explanation of that phrase recalled a mythical language spoken by the Tamarian people in an episode of Star Trek. The usually useful "universal translator" failed with this language, since it used almost no specific "words" but was virtually all metaphorical phrases, the meaning of which would require an understanding of Tamarian culture and history, and that wasn't in the Federation database yet. This was a first encounter between the two races.
For example: "Darmak and Jalad at Tanagra" meant "cooperation" since it alluded to a story of two allies facing a common foe.
If you're not familiar with the plot line of that Star Trek episode, read this synopsis.
Of course, there are many metaphorical phrases in English with similar cultural origins. For example, "a herculean task." With no knowledge of our own mythology, that doesn't mean much to younger generations these days.
So here's my question, since I have no training in linguistics: Are there any languages (on Earth) that come even close to Tamarian? What's the language with the greatest number of metaphors in use? My first pure guess was perhaps some of the Aboriginal languages, but Wiki didn't bear that out. And a Google of "most metaphorical language" got me nowhere.
I loved that episode!
My favorite cultural reference example in English is not an idiom but would have nearly universal meaning: she was Juliet on her balcony.
I'm not sure about the language with the most metaphors, but Chinese has to be up there. Many common words are highly metaphoric: the word for "thing" consists of the two characters for east and west.
Chinese is loaded chock full of these infernal four-character phrases. Encountering a new one, I would recognize or look up each word, and still have no whit of an idea what it meant. One fairly easy one was "play guitar in front of a cow". Ie. "casting pearls before swine". They are loaded with cultural references.
Glenn said: My favorite cultural reference example in English is not an idiom but would have nearly universal meaning: she was Juliet on her balcony.
Heimhenge, his eyes opened!
Funny you should mention that episode just now. I just picked up Douglas Hofstadter's newest book Surfaces and Essences, which is all about metaphor in language. (For those who haven't followed his career, Hofstadter is famous for his work on analogies of all kinds, from the interlinked self-references of Gödel, Escher, Bach to the giveaway title Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies to his tour de force Le Ton beau de Marot about how difficult it is to translate the meaning of a poem along with the actual words.)
Anyway, it struck me as I was making my way through chapter two of the new book that while he's talking about words that encapsulate metaphors we no longer think of consciously until we try to explain them to someone less familiar with the language, that Darmak and Jalad would have been a great reference for him to make. Checked the index, though: nothing.