John Koenig: Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions
John König: Wunderbare neue Wörter zur Beschreibung unklarer Gefühle
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
about the meaning of words,
Bedeutung von Wörtern sprechen,
als wollten sie sich rächen,
is a magnificent sponge.
ist wie ein prächtiger Schwamm.
und bin froh, dass ich sie spreche.
I'm glad that I speak it.
das Wort "Lachesismus".
a thunderstorm on the horizon
ein Gewitter am Horizont sehen
rooting for the storm.
den Sturm heraufbeschwören.
to feel intensely again
wieder intensiv fühlen zu können,
hypothetical conversation
play out in your head.
im eigenen Kopf durchspielt.
of course in German,
-- natürlich im Deutschen --
of getting what you want.
zu bekommen, was man will.
also weiß ich genau, wie sich das anfühlt.
so I know exactly what that feels like.
im täglichen Leben nutzen würde,
if I would use any of these words
is because I made them up.
weil ich sie mir ausgedacht habe.
of Obscure Sorrows,"
[Wörterbuch der seltsamen Leiden],
for the last seven years.
sieben Jahren geschrieben habe.
in the language of emotion
der Gefühle zu finden
about all those human peccadilloes
reden zu können,
but may not think to talk about
aber nicht ausdrücken können,
as the main character
als Hauptdarsteller sehen
we're all the main character,
sind wir alle Hauptdarsteller
in someone else's story.
in der Geschichte eines Anderen.
to something I had felt all my life
benannt, dass ich immer gefühlt habe,
in conversations online,
benutzt wurde.
ich das bemerkt hatte,
richtigen Gespräch neben mir auf.
in an actual conversation in person.
als ein Wort zu erfinden
than making up a word
take on a mind of its own.
wie es ein Eigenleben entwickelt.
aber ich werde eins finden.
for that yet, but I will.
about what makes words real,
zu richtigen Wörtern macht,
I got from people is,
I don't really understand."
Ich verstehe das nicht."
abzuheben, dachte ich:
are real and what aren't.
und welche nicht.
who described his epiphany
der seine Eingebung beschrieb,
as we go through the day,
von uns durch den Tag gehen
bouncing against the walls too much
gegen die Wände zu laufen,
by people no smarter than you,
Leuten als man selbst errichtet wurde,
and touch those walls
und diese Wände berühren,
the power to change it.
die Kraft hat, sie zu verändern.
ob dies richtige Wörter sind,
"Are these words real?"
that I tried out.
Some of them didn't.
if you want it to be real."
wollen, dass es existiert."
because people wanted it to be there.
wollten, dass es ihn gibt.
campuses all the time.
what people are really asking
wollen eigentlich wissen,
they're really asking,
ein richtiges Wort ist:
will this give me access to?"
habe ich damit Zugang?"
a lot of how we look at language.
darauf an, wem sie gehören.
Das hört sich schon besser an.
access to as many brains as you can.
zu möglichst vielen Gehirnen Zugang.
das Wort mit dem größten Zugang dieses:
by this measure is this.
to a master key.
understood word in the world,
verstandene Wort der Welt,
die beiden Buchstaben stehen.
what those two letters stand for.
of "all correct," I guess,
von "all correct" sein,
die Tatsache, dass es nicht wichtig ist,
but the fact that it doesn't matter
how we add meaning to words.
Wörtern Bedeutung zuschreiben.
in the words themselves.
in den Wörtern selbst.
that pour ourselves into it.
for meaning in our lives,
Bedeutung im Leben suchen
something to do with that.
dem Sinn von etwas suchen,
for the meaning of something,
Stenographien behelfen
with patterns and shorthands
a way to interpret it
diese zu interpretieren,
Halt und Bestimmung geben.
to define ourselves.
fühlen sich eingeschränkt,
All words are made up,
doch nicht alle bedeuten etwas.
trapped in our own lexicons
eigenen Wortschatz gefangen,
with people who aren't already like us,
übereinstimmt, die anders sind als wir.
a little more every year,
etwas weiter auseinanderdriften,
Wörter sind nur erfunden.
Lieblingsphilosophen Bill Watterson,
"Calvin and Hobbes."
your values and satisfies your soul
und die Seele befriedigt,
der Anstrengungen glücklicher sein."
happier for the trouble."
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Koenig - WriterJohn Koenig is writing an original dictionary of made-up words.
Why you should listen
John Koenig has spent the last seven years writing an original dictionary of made-up words, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which fills gaps in the language with hundreds of new terms for emotions. This project seeks to restore sadness to its original meaning (from Latin satis, "fullness") by defining moments of melancholy that we may all feel, but never think to mention -- deepening our understanding of each other by broadening the emotional palette, from avenoir, "the desire to see memories in advance," to zenosyne, "the sense that time keeps going faster."
Each entry is a collage of word roots borrowed from languages all around the world. Some entries are even beginning to enter the language outright:
sonder n. The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own -- populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness -- an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you'll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.
His original YouTube series, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which he writes, edits and narrates himself, has drawn acclaim from John Green and Beyoncé to Michael from Vsauce. "Each episode is a soothing meditation on its subject, fortified by a hypnotic soundtrack and Koenig’s twistingly intelligent narration," writes The Daily Dot.
He currently works as a freelance video editor, voice actor, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, director and writer. His writing has been published in countless tattoos, stories, song titles and band names, but never on paper -- though he is currently working on publishing a book adaptation. Originally from Minnesota and Geneva, Switzerland, John lives in Budapest with his wife.
John Koenig | Speaker | TED.com