vocabulary question: African and Australia/Pacific languages

December 21, 2008 10:31 PM

Do you know any African language or any Australia/Pacific native language? If so, I have a vocabulary question.

I want to expand my list of non-English words for composer (of music).

If nouns in your language are gendered (are different depending on whether the word refers to a male or a female), I need the word that refers to a female. I need the most current word -- the word a newspaper or reference book would use today. For example: in English, an old-fashioned word for female poet is "poetess"; today the word for a female poet is "poet."

Right now, my list includes only one African language (Igbo) and no Australia/Pacific languages, so I would love to hear more words from those regions. (I would also love to add words from anywhere else in the world, if they're not on the list yet.)


Arabic: ملحنة
Bulgarian: композитор
Chinese: 作曲家
Croatian: skladateljica
Czech: komponista
Danish: komponist
Dutch: componiste
Finnish: säveltäjä
French: compositrice
German: Komponistin
Greek: συνθέτρια
Hindi: racayitā
Igbo: oroegwu
Indonesian: komposer
Irish: cumadóir
Italian: compositrice
Japanese: 作曲家
Korean: 작곡가
Norwegian: komponist
Polish: kompozytor
Portuguese: compositora
Russian: композитор
Serbian: композитор
Spanish: compositora
Swedish: tonsättare
Thai: คีตกวี
Ukrainian: композитор
Urdu: مصنف
Hebrew: ‮מלחינה‭

posted by kalapierson to writing & language (10 comments total)

Maori: Kaitito waiata (the adding of "waiata" specifies that it is a composer of songs). It's gender neutral.

Also, I think "kompositör" might be better than tonsättare for your Swedish one.
posted by ryanbryan at 11:20 PM on December 21, 2008

In Hungarian, it's "zeneszerzőnő," which means something like "music-feeling-woman." But there's a synonym (obviously borrowed from some Indo-European language), "komponistanő," which means "composer-woman."

In Romanian, it's "compozitoare," which is the feminized form of "compozitor."

I suspect in many non-Western cultures, there isn't a word which directly translates as "composer" in the sense that most of us have of it.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 11:32 PM on December 21, 2008

I know you weren't asking this, but I feel constrained to point out that 'Racayata' (रचयता) for Hindi would more accurately translate to 'writer'. A 'music composer' would more accurately be संगीतकार ('saṅgītakāra')

For added points, I prefer the term 'sangIta sraSTa' (संगीत स्रशट, could have mangled up the spelling a trite) in Sanskrit, and Sanskrit-inspired languages other than Hindi.
posted by the cydonian at 1:24 AM on December 22, 2008

Hawaiian: "haku mele". This was originally used in the context of Hawaiian music, not exactly equivalent etc. etc., but it is nevertheless used to mean "composer" on Hawaiian Wikipedia pages about Mary Kawena Pukui, Beethoven, etc.
posted by No-sword at 3:10 AM on December 22, 2008

New Zealand Māori for composer is: kaitito
posted by chrisbucks at 4:03 AM on December 22, 2008

Swahili:

Musician = mwanamuziki (wanamuziki pl)
Artist = msanifu (wasanifu)
One who arranges/authors = mtungaji (watungaji . . . had to look this one up, don't know how common it is)
Composer of ballads/minstrel = shehe (mashehe)
posted by anansi at 8:12 AM on December 22, 2008

Yes, I'm very grateful for corrections of anything already on the list too.

Thank you all, this is excellent so far!
posted by kalapierson at 8:44 AM on December 22, 2008

And great point, Dee Xtrovert. The farther we get from western-European culture, the less direct the correspondence may be. So I'm also very interested in any responses to that effect (e.g., "The __ language has no word for a single person who creates music.")
posted by kalapierson at 8:52 AM on December 22, 2008

I'm not a native swedish speaker, but "kompositör" also sounds better to me. "tonsättare" is literally "tone/note placer".
posted by beerbajay at 12:14 PM on December 22, 2008

Many thanks. So here's a more expanded list:

Arabic: ملحنة
Bulgarian: композитор
Chinese: 作曲家
Croatian: skladateljica
Czech: komponista
Danish: komponist
Dutch: componiste
Finnish: säveltäjä
French: compositrice
German: Komponistin
Greek: συνθέτρια
Hawaiian: haku mele
Hindi: saṅgītakāra
Hungarian: zeneszerzőnő
Igbo: oroegwu
Indonesian: komposer
Irish: cumadóir
Italian: compositrice
Japanese: 作曲家
Korean: 작곡가
Māori: Kaitito waiata
Norwegian: komponist
Polish: kompozytor
Portuguese: compositora
Romanian: compozitoare
Russian: композитор
Serbian: композитор
Spanish: compositora
Swahili: mtungaji
Swedish: kompositör
Thai: คีตกวี
Ukrainian: композитор
Urdu: مصنف
Hebrew: ‮מלחינה‭‭
posted by kalapierson at 7:07 PM on February 19