About

Untranslatable is a collaborative, multilingual dictionary dedicated to capturing words and expressions that need more than just a translation.

Our entries have cultural context, regional identity, or emotional nuance. From slang to sayings to emojis, we welcome the language people actually use.

Note: Untranslatable is an independent project made possible by sponsors and individual supporters.

Why?

Many of the world’s most interesting words and phrases live outside “standard” language.

They're said without thinking, typed in group chats, shared in jokes, heard in pop-culture, hard to translate, and even harder to understand as a non-native speaker.

We want to change that.



Support image

"Tu me manques" (you are missing from me) by Quebecois illustrator Myriam van Neste

Behind the project

Amarens is a linguist and developer from the Netherlands. Born in 1995, she grew up in a multilingual environment (Dutch, Frisian), which along with the languages she learned later (English, Spanish, Portuguese) inspired her to create Untranslatable.

With a background in computational linguistics, Amarens is passionate about exploring uses of language that are often overlooked. She launched Untranslatable after recognizing how digital tools could help preserve and promote minority languages and dialects that are traditionally dismissed as "incorrect" or "non-standard", as well as provide a way for language learners to explore the meaning of words in a more intimate way.

Amarens - Behind the project

Our team

These are the people working on Untranslatable.

Our supporters

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All these amazing people have contributed and helped this platform with their donations on Kickstarter, Substack and on this platform.



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