I’m hoping you can help me. I am trying to remember a word...it is a the polynesian word for "the truth that everyone knows but no one speaks." Do you know what it is. I think it is 4 syllables—but I have yet to bring it to mind. I read it several years ago in some kind of organizational article???

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… the polynesian word for "the truth that everyone knows but no one speaks."

They Have a Word for it Howard Rheingold, publ.  Sarabande Books, Lousiville Kentucky has lots of obscure foreign words for ideas we lack in English and argues that we are deprived from using ideas that we cannot express.

Anyway the word you want is mokita from Kiriwina spoken in New Guinea.

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Anyway the word you want is mokita from Kiriwina spoken in New Guinea.

Great! I’ve been hoping someone would know this ever since speedbumps posted it. In exchange for this knowledge I offer you nuannaarpoq, an Inuit word meaning "taking an inordinate pleasure in being alive".

Grant

nuannaarpoq

I’d like to use this one.
Do you know how it’s pronounced?

Ilka

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nuannaarpoq

I’d like to use this one.
Do you know how it’s pronounced?

Sort of. I can tell you the sounds, but I’m not sure where the syllabic emphasis would fall. The first syllable is sounded with two vowels: noo’en; the double "a" in the second syllable represents a long ah sound; the last syllable is pronounced like "pock", except with the "k" coming from ‘way back on the soft palate - the phonetic term would an unvoiced uvular plosive, if that’s any help. (Imagine a small tablet has stuck to the back of your soft palate in a public place. Now try to dislodge it discreetly; ie without sticking your fingers in your mouth or actively gagging. That’s the sound you’re after.)

So: noo’en-naahr-poK.

Grant

While we are flinging about wonderful words from other traditions, let me throw "moondah" on the pile. Its an Australian aborigine word meaning "the ability to see beyond the horizon."  Its carved over the original entrance of the Mt Eliza Managment Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

Dan Pryor
Dallas, Texas