Why we can’t share the language of love

IT is popularly believed that the language of love is the same the world over.

But now an expert has shown that affection is expressed in different ways in different countries.

When English speakers meet the perfect partner they may say they are ‘head over heels in love’ and instantly understand the commonly used expression.

Yet if someone told us ‘love is like mange or a cough – it can’t be hidden’, as they say in Serbia, we might be perplexed.

Linguistics lecturer Dr Emily Nordmann believes her research has shown that there is no universal language of love and the academic, based at Aberdeen University’s School of Psychology, has suggested that romantics could consider ditching their usual clichés and try a phrase adopted from a different language this Valentine’s Day.

For example, instead of saying someone is ‘the apple of your eye’ she suggests using the Romanian phrase ‘A-i arde c lcâiele dup cineva’, which means your ‘heels are on fire’, roughly similar to ‘head over heels’.

Dr Nordmann, an expert in idioms – commonly used expressions that have a meaning not easily deducible from the words – said some studies estimate that nearly 0 per cent of our utterances fall into one of four categories.

They are either fixed expressions, such as ‘I love you’, idioms such as ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’, proverbs, including ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ and clichés such as ‘love conquers all’.

She added: ‘These phrases have become part of our language because they are good at expressing concepts, but they get overused and their literal meaning becomes obscured.

‘Familiarity blinds us to the hilarity of our mother tongue, which is why we find nonEnglish phrases odd.

‘For example, in German they say ‘Flugzeuge im Bauch haben’, so lovers have planes rather than butterflies in their tummies, and in Polish they say ‘Stara miło nie rdzewieje’, which means ‘old love doesn’t get rusty’ – you never forget your first love.

‘The literal meaning of these unfamiliar phrases may seem peculiar, but we will quite happily go on a ‘blind date’, be ‘all loved up’, ‘pop the question’, ‘tie the knot’ and end up with our ‘marriage on the rocks’.

She added: ‘So maybe there is no universal language of love.’