Names for the Milky Way

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.

Look up into the night sky and imagine that you’ve never heard the term Milky Way. What would you call that glowing band of stars across the heavens?

In English, we think of those stars as a milky path across the sky, and we have the Greeks and the Romans to thank for that idea. But it’s not the same in other languages and other cultures.

For example, in Sweden, it’s called Vintergaten, which means simply winter street. And that alludes to the fact that the galaxy is far easier to see there during the winter months, unlike summer, when the sun’s glow continues long into the evening and can make it harder to see.

And in Hawaii, the Milky Way is sometimes called Ialele Iaka, and that name translates as fish jumping in shadows. Isn’t that gorgeous?

Oh, that’s lovely. And in the Cherokee language, there’s a name that translates as where the dog ran. And the idea here is that there was a dog that was once caught eating cornmeal from someone’s bowl. And as the dog is chased away, that last mouthful of cornmeal scatters across the sky.

I love the idea of looking up into the sky and imagining that that’s cornmeal scattered all the way. Yeah, the scamp getting away with his little crime, running off. And the people chasing him probably laughing because they recognize a kindred spirit when they see one.

Yeah, so now when I look up at the night sky, it’s a great reminder that we all divide up the world differently. You know, we give different kinds of names to things.

Well, there’s a lot to be said for knowing how the other people who speak other languages look at the world. We try to help you do that, and you can help us do that by sharing your multilingual experience with us and the world.

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