The Long Vowel

Yakamoz, and the word it is mistaken for

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A one-minute bonus between episodes. Lists of untranslatable words often explain yakamoz as the reflection of the moon on the sea. A listener in Izmir told us otherwise: yakamoz is the glow of tiny sea creatures at night, and in Istanbul the moonlit sea had a name of its own, gümüşservi, a silver cypress.

Send us your word: the address is on the about page.

The word listeners send us most is yakamoz, from Turkish, usually explained as moonlight on the sea. A listener in Izmir set us straight.

(00:00) Your words
(00:18) Two words, not one
(00:42) Keep them coming

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/yakamoz/

Jugaad: the fix that should not work

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Jugaad is a fix made with what is at hand, when the proper part or the proper money is missing, and a little pride comes with it. Kavya Ranade organises a monthly repair café in Pune, where a table fan now runs on a bedside-lamp switch held in a box from a sweet shop.

In this episode

The cart with a water-pump engine
A fan, a lamp switch and a sweet box
When jugaad means a shortcut around the rules

Kavya Ranade runs a repair café in Pune. Jugaad is the clever fix made with what you have, and also the shortcut that is not always correct.

(00:00) The word
(00:33) On the road
(00:59) At the repair café
(01:29) The other side

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/jugaad/

Uitwaaien: walking into the wind

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Uit is out, waaien is to blow. Season two opens outside, on the deck of the ferry between Den Helder and Texel, where Thijmen Oudshoorn watches passengers stand in the worst of the weather, smiling.

Uitwaaien is not a pleasant walk: the wind has to push.

In this episode

Why it has to be properly windy
Funerals, exams and the second day of Christmas
The cheapest cure in the Netherlands

Thijmen Oudshoorn works on the Texel ferry. Uitwaaien is going out into strong wind on purpose to clear your head, and the Dutch have plenty of wind.

(00:00) The word
(00:32) Into the wind
(01:07) On the crossing
(01:38) A cheap cure

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/uitwaaien/

Nunchi: reading a room

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Nun is the eye; nunchi is what the eye measures before anyone speaks. Ok Ha-eun manages the floor of a restaurant in Busan and teaches new staff without rules: after each shift she asks what table seven wanted, not what it ordered.

The last episode of season one.

In this episode

Fast nunchi, and none at all
The quiet table, the glance at the door, the grandfather with the bottle
Teaching something that cannot be told

Ok Ha-eun runs the floor of a busy restaurant in Busan. Nunchi, measuring a room with your eyes, is the part of her job nobody can write down.

(00:00) The word
(00:32) Quick eyes
(00:53) On the floor
(01:26) Learning it

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/nunchi/

Tarab: when the room sings back

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tarab is the state music puts you in when it truly lands: joy, but heavier. Bassel Kanaan mixes concerts in Amman and explains the people who make it happen, the mutrib on stage and the sammi’a in the seats, who hear the turn in a melody a second early and call out before it comes.

In this episode

The singer, the listener and the circle between them
Why a line is sung ten times
Recording a room that answers back

Bassel Kanaan, a concert sound engineer in Amman, on tarab: the enchantment of music that reaches you, and why he leaves the audience in the recording.

(00:00) The word
(00:36) In the room
(01:11) Listeners who know
(01:39) From the mixing desk

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/tarab/

Tsundoku: the pile you mean to read

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tsundoku is written 積ん読: to pile up, a small ん, and to read. It began as a pun on tsunde oku, to pile something up and leave it there, and it has outlived the joke.

Kosuke Nakabori buys whole towers of unread books back when their owners move house, sometimes with the receipt still marking page twelve. He does not find it sad.

In this episode

The pun inside the word
What a bookseller learns from a pile
Guilt, habit, and having a name for it

Kosuke Nakabori sells second-hand books in Tokyo. He explains tsundoku, the pun for books bought and left to pile up, and why a pile is a list of hopes.

(00:00) The word
(00:34) A pun on a pile
(01:02) The bookseller's view
(01:32) Permission

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/tsundoku/

Sobremesa: the meal after the meal

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sobre means over, mesa is the table. Amparo Lezcano interprets at conferences in Valencia and has never once translated sobremesa: she describes it, and finds the description flat every time.

We talk about Sunday lunches that end after dark, the difference between dessert and what comes after it, and a lunch in Helsinki where the thing happened without its word.

In this episode

Why sobremesa is time, not furniture
How an interpreter handles a word with no equivalent
Weekday lunches and weekend tables

Amparo Lezcano, an interpreter in Valencia, on sobremesa: the time at the table after the plates are cleared, when nobody gets up.

(00:00) The word
(00:39) Where it lives
(01:20) When it travels
(01:57) What we keep

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/sobremesa/

Fire and wind: a trailer

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Long Vowel is a short show about words that will not translate. In each episode a guest who grew up with one word explains it in under three minutes: where it lives, what it does, and what gets lost on the way into English.

New episodes every other Tuesday, in seasons of four or so.

In Finnish, one vowel held a little longer turns fire into wind. A short welcome to the show, its two hosts and its single rule.

(00:00) Fire and wind
(00:14) The show

Transcript, chapters and notes: https://podcast.folionine.com/en/episodes/fire-and-wind/