IKWYT: How Do Other Languages Say "Bless You?"

I know what you're thinking: How do other languages say "bless you?"

This conversation has come up several times, and is always a fun one to talk about, especially when there is a diverse group of language speakers in the room.

I think the original desire to write this post stemmed from an experience I had in the office. I sneezed and no one said anything. What? No one wants to bless me? Not one of you wishes me well? As an aggressive retaliation strategy, I then waited for the next person to sneeze, and I loudly declared a beautiful "bless you" out into the room. The woman next to me literally gasped and said, "Wow, you really do that?" And thus, another great conversation was born about how different languages 'bless' each other for sneezing.

An important note to consider is the reasoning behind why English speakers say "Bless you" or "God bless you." With this in mind, it becomes easier to understand why the words aren't directly translated into other languages, because the cultural reasonings behind the words aren't there. The English 'God bless you' stems from the belief that when you sneeze, your soul temporarily leaves your body, leaving you vulnerable for the devil to take over. Saying the phrase acted as a little spell to keep the devil at bay.

So what happens when you remove the idea of the devil taking over your body when you sneeze? What are you supposed to say then? For many Namibians, this means that that they will say nothing. Most say that they will completely ignore a sneeze, and see no reason to interact with it at all.

A few people who live up north, and especially in the Zambezi region, told me that while they won't say anything in particular, they will make a couple clicks that are very similar to an old, disappointed grandma going *tsk tsk tsk* at you, but the tongue is pushed up against your molars to get the correct sound. They demonstrated this for me the next time I sneezed by not looking at me or acknowledging me in any way, except for a very disappointed clicking sound directed at me. It wasn't my favorite.

In my last conversation I had on this topic, I was told that in Nyemba, the proper way to handle a sneeze is to say "Go away." Can you imagine fighting your way through a sneezing fit, and the person next to you looks you square in the eyes and tells you to go away? The reasoning behind this is actually very similar to English's creation. Instead of blessing your soul against the devil, Nyemba speakers are simply telling the devil to go away. Which...is nice...but still is an odd one to hear.

Anyway, I am still aggressively bless you-ing everyone and anyone in my office who dares sneeze.