Words, words, words

Learning a completely new language unfortunately means having to cram an awful lot of words into a modestly sized brain. Luckily, language often gives you wonderful clues about cultural patterns of thought. While studying my vocabulary list today I came across the adjective 'walay kalibutan'. 'Walay' means 'no' or 'without' and 'kalibutan' means 'world'. Put together, however, 'walay kalibutan' means 'innocent'. Isn't that wonderful? If you say 'walay kalibutan ang bata', that means 'the child is innocent', but literally it says 'the child has no world'. Somehow, Cebuano connects the loss of innocence to a child's emergence into the world. A whole filosophy in just two words. But then again, when I mentioned this at the dinner table in the missionary house, Father Ben pointed out that to be 'walay kalibutan' is not really a compliment as it has the connotation of being naive. The ambiguous virtue of being 'innocent', no? Being 'unwordly' is being naive...