So I recently got my wisdom teeth removed, and to cope, rewatched Arrival on a whim. Early on in the movie, I was reminded of a scene that confused me when I first watched the movie many years ago. [ Minor spoilers for Arrival ahead ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]
The movie’s main character, Dr. Louise Banks, a professor of linguistics, is confronted by US Army Colonel Weber to do some alien translations but is rejected when Dr. Banks tells the Colonel she’ll need to interact with the aliens to gain any real information. At this, the Colonel leaves to pursue another translator.
However, before the Colonel leaves Dr. Banks poses this challenge “before you commit to [the other linguist], ask him the Sanskrit word for ‘War’ and its translation.”
Later, the Colonel returns with the other linguist’s answer.
“Gavisti. He says it means an argument. What do you say it means?”
Dr. Banks responds “a desire for more cows.” She gets the job.
When I first saw the scene back in middle school, I had absolutely no idea what just happened. I was just like “damn that was pretty cool I guess.” But now, older and theoretically wiser, I’ve come to understand the scene a bit better.
First I should mention that Sanskrit is one of the oldest surviving languages in the world and has multiple words for “war” as both a noun and a verb. The noun form of war would actually be युद्ध yuddha, which translates to war or battle (Macdonell). Let’s just hand-wave this away and assume both linguists use the verb definition of war. The word the two linguists both settle on is गविष्टि gavisti, which more directly translates to an ardor or fervor or desire for battle. However, what I found most interesting is that the entomology of gavisti comes from गविष् gavis which translates to “wishing for cows” or “desirous”.
Ignoring the shoddy linguistics and phrasing of the question, what separates Dr. Banks translation is her translation provides a better understanding of the context of the language and the people who speak it. When the first linguist merely translates gavisti as “argument” he loses sight of the cause of the argument. When Dr. Banks highlights the desire for more cows, she demonstrates that she better understands the underlying cause or meaning behind the word.
The film argues that Dr. Banks translation isn’t better because it’s more correct or accurate, but because it better portrays the nuance of the language. Dr. Banks understands the people who spoke Sanskrit were mainly nomadic, and as such these themes are reflected in the language. What would have caused war for the people would not have been an argument or dispute, but a fight for resources–such as cows. This is a recurring theme throughout the film, especially during the film’s climax where many nations are spooked by the apparent translation for “weapon” and Dr. Banks tries to determine if the aliens know the difference between a weapon and a tool. The movie tends to argue that these nuances in language can be lost in translation and that to truly understand a language you must understand its speakers.
Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. “A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary with Transliteration, Accentuation, and Etymological Analysis Throughout.” The Digital South Asia Library, London : Oxford University Press, 1 Jan. 1970, https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/macdonell_query.py?qs=%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9F%E0%A4%BF&matchtype=exact.
