Linguists will tell you that each language arranges the world differently. No two languages classify objects, activities or emotions in the same way. This is especially true of the words used in farming.

I was reminded of this recently when translating a video script from English to Spanish. The video, from northern India, forced me to grapple with “mulchâ€�, an English word that is also widely used in Spanish, in real life and on the Internet.  Yet the world’s authority on the Spanish language, the Real Academia Española, does not include “mulchâ€� in its magnificent dictionary, the Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española.

It is odd that “mulchâ€� is a new word in Spanish, when it is an old word in English. The Oxford English Dictionary defines mulch as a “Partly rotted plant material, etc.; (Horticulture) loose material consisting of straw, decaying leaves, shredded cuttings and bark etc., spread on soil or around or over a plant to provide insulation, protect from desiccation and deter weeds.â€� “Mulchâ€� comes from a Middle English word, “molsh” or “mulsh” and has been in the language at least since 1440, and possibly much earlier.

I had my doubt about using “mulch� in Spanish. Various on-line dictionaries suggest “mantillo�, literally “little blanket� instead. But a web search of mantillo usually shows commercial bags of chipped bark used for landscaping and suppressing weeds. Not quite the same as the straw, leaves and husks that farmers have on hand.

I wrote to three agronomists I respect, native Spanish speakers who work closely with farmers. They confirmed that “mulch� was the word to use in Spanish. But one offered a little twist: if the video from northern India was being translated into Quechua, we could say “sach’a wanu.� Now there is a term to savor. “Wanu� means dropping, and is the source of the English word “guano,� meaning bird dung. In Quechua, “wallp’a wanu� is chicken dung, “llama wanu� is llama dung, and “sach’a wanu� is forest mulch, or the fallen leaves of trees.

I was back where I started. So, I decided to use “mulch� in the script, although at the first mention I did offer the alternative “mantillo.�

While languages describe the world in different ways, they also level those differences as they aggressively borrow words from each other, for example “silo�, “lasso�, and “stevedore.� These are all recent loanwords from Spanish to English. New words take time to be defined in dictionaries, which cautiously avoid including fad words that may fade away before really entering the language. But one day “mulch� will be included in the Diccionario de la Real Academia, joining “whisky,� “sandwich,� and other recent English loan words that have enriched the Spanish language.

Watch the video

Mulch for a better soil and crop