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skeptical_lurker comments on Help with understanding some non-standard-LW philosophy viewpoints - Less Wrong Discussion
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That's quite surprising and interesting. wikipedia says that the philosophers behind idealism were Indian and Greek in classical times, German and British in the 19th century. So I imagine that even if 'mind' doesn't translate, there must be some similar word to allow discussion. Maybe 'soul' or 'spirit'?
If you observe the there were Greek philsophers that found idealism meaningful and observe that in contempory English the notion of a mental world doesn't make much sense, you have two choices:
1) Blame the Greeks as being incohrent
2) Blame the contempory English the notion of a mental world (and mind) as incoherent
It's worth noting that the phrase continental philosophy, with basically means European philosophy not based in English, is much friendlier to idealism than Anglo-thought.
I am aware that language does shape the way we think to some extent, but it seems to me quite a stretch to say that our entire view of reality is largely determined by whether our language contains a word for 'mind'.
And it is interesting that analytical philosophy seems to dominate in English-speaking countries, but the difference between analytical and continental philosophy is far more than just materialism vs idealism.
I don't suggest that a single word shoulders all the burden but it's worth being aware that the premade categories determine which concepts are easily expressible