John Koenig: Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions
ジョン・ケーニック: とらえ難い心情を表す素敵な新語の数々
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
about the meaning of words,
話したいと思います
is a magnificent sponge.
スポンジのようです
I'm glad that I speak it.
話せるのを嬉しく思いますが
という語があって
意味があります
a thunderstorm on the horizon
rooting for the storm.
という言葉があって
じゃありませんが
to feel intensely again
望む気持ちを表します
hypothetical conversation
play out in your head.
of course in German,
怖れを表す言葉があります
of getting what you want.
かなってしまうという—
この感覚はよく分かります
so I know exactly what that feels like.
if I would use any of these words
嬉しく思います
is because I made them up.
私がでっち上げたからなんです
of Obscure Sorrows,"
for the last seven years.
in the language of emotion
隙間を見つけて
about all those human peccadilloes
話題にすることのない
but may not think to talk about
小さな過ちのようなものを
できるように
という言葉を定義しましたが
as the main character
私たちはみんな自分が主人公で
見ていますが
we're all the main character,
エキストラだということです
in someone else's story.
to something I had felt all my life
表せる言葉がなかった気持ちを
ありがとう」と
人々の孤独を和らげたのです
この言葉が
in conversations online,
目にするようになりました
そばにいる人が
耳にもしました
in an actual conversation in person.
独自の命を持ち始めるのを見るのは
than making up a word
take on a mind of its own.
ぜひ作りましょう
for that yet, but I will.
考えるようになりました
about what makes words real,
I got from people is,
I don't really understand."
造語なんですよね?」
分かりませんでした
ひとたび広まったとき
are real and what aren't.
果たして自分に決められるのか?
語っていた洞察を 私自身感じました
who described his epiphany
as we go through the day,
壁にぶつかるのを避けようとし
bouncing against the walls too much
変わらない人間によって
ひとたび気付くと
by people no smarter than you,
and touch those walls
the power to change it.
あると気付くのです
と聞かれたとき
"Are these words real?"
that I tried out.
試してきました
通らないものもありますが
Some of them didn't.
本物になる」というのがあります
if you want it to be real."
because people wanted it to be there.
思ったから存在するように
よく生じるもので
campuses all the time.
呼ばれています
what people are really asking
本当に聞いているのは
they're really asking,
will this give me access to?"
ということだということです
大部分がそうですから
a lot of how we look at language.
ある種の人々の頭へと
それが誰の頭かによります
使えそうだとなります
access to as many brains as you can.
なるたけ多くの頭に通じる言葉だということです
知る価値が出てきます
by this measure is this.
本物の言葉はこれです
to a master key.
マスターキーのようなものです
understood word in the world,
誰も知らないらしいことです
what those two letters stand for.
of "all correct," I guess,
綴り間違いだとか
略だとか諸説あって
but the fact that it doesn't matter
そんなことは実際問題でないという事実は
how we add meaning to words.
何かを物語っています
in the words themselves.
あるのではなく
我々自身だということです
that pour ourselves into it.
for meaning in our lives,
自分の人生の意味や
something to do with that.
関係していると思います
for the meaning of something,
良い出発点でしょう
もたらしてくれます
とても限られていて
簡略表記を生み出すことで
with patterns and shorthands
a way to interpret it
意味づけるために言葉を必要とします
to define ourselves.
言葉の使い方によって
感じていると思います
ということを忘れてしまいます
All words are made up,
すべての言葉は作られたものです
わけではありません
必ずしも合わない自分の語彙に
trapped in our own lexicons
with people who aren't already like us,
捕らわれています
a little more every year,
なっていくのだと感じます
私たちなのです
引用したいと思います
"Calvin and Hobbes."
your values and satisfies your soul
自分の魂を満足させられる
まれなものだ
意味を生み出すのは
happier for the trouble."
人はより幸せになれる」
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