You may have a favorite word in English, but how about one from another language? Martha likes the Spanish term ojalá because it’s handy for expressing hopefulness, and has an interesting history, deriving from inshallah, Arabic for “God willing.” Grant tells a story about what he imagined was Cuban radio personality named Jorge Jueves. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Favorite Words in Other Languages”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Grant, you and I are often asked what our favorite word is.
Yes.
And I like to throw out mellifluous and preposterous.
But I realize that I’m usually throwing out words in English.
And maybe it’s time we shared words in different languages.
So what’s your ancient Greek one?
Oh, gosh.
I know you’re not ready for that.
I’m sorry.
Well, in Spanish, the word ojala is a wonderful word.
It’s from the Arabic, and it roughly means the same as inshallah, hopefully, or if God wills it.
And I love it because it demonstrates that Spanish isn’t that pure Latin language.
Sometimes English speakers think that it is, right?
Yes.
It’s got all this influence from Arabic.
Absolutely.
It’s got this rich history.
Yeah.
Yeah, and the other thing I love about ojala is that it’s followed by the subjunctive,
which we use so rarely in English, and it’s used a whole lot more in Spanish.
Yeah. So, ojalá…
Ojalá que puedas hacer algo.
Right. So, it suggests the possibility of doing something.
You could do that.
Yeah, yeah.
Do something, right.
Yeah.
So, if you’re going to do Spanish, then I’ll do Spanish.
Okay.
But mine’s going to be a little different, too.
When I was young and learning Spanish in junior high from somebody who did not speak Spanish very well, I realized that she was an English speaker who spoke Spanish very poorly in seventh grade.
I listened to shortwave radio, and I listened to international broadcasters, including the propaganda station from Cuba, Radio Havana, Cuba.
I loved the music.
I didn’t care about the propaganda, but that’s how I improved my Spanish.
And so I listened to a lot of Spanish.
And I swear at the time I heard somebody give his name as Jorge Jueves, which translated in English is George Thursday.
And I just loved the way he said his name, Jorge Hueves.
Jorge Hueves.
And so ever since I was about 13, I will just say the name Jorge Hueves.
And now here I am in 2019, and there’s a television show that’s been on for a few years called Endeavor.
This is a story, it’s the Morse story.
It’s the prequel to the Morse TV series, which has been on for a million years in the U.K.
It’s on ITV, I believe.
And in it is a detective whose name is George Thursday.
Oh, really?
Which I think is hilarious.
But anyway, that’s my favorite Spanish words, I guess, is Jorge Hueles.
Jorge Hueles.
And you’re going to have to say it with a special curl of the lip.
Jorge Hueles.
Well, we’d love to hear your favorite word in Spanish or any other language.
Call us, 877-929-9673, or spell it out in an email to words@waywordradio.org.
