look out! Its an education!

Lijkt me leuk! Misschien kun je een tekst maken die we moeten vertalen, zodat iedereen dezelfde tekst hier neerzet, maar dan in een andere taal?

(Sounds like fun! Maybe you could compose a message for us to translate, so everyone posts the same message, but in a different tongue?)

But then again, just doing the odd phrase that springs to mind might be fun to do as well:

Mijn tepels exploderen van genot! (My nipples explode with delight!)

Both the above and this post was Dutch by the way.

now now mister moderator! i did say not to put anything dodgy here! what makes it worse is that you actually admited it! i will look over it this time.

anyhoo thanks for those contributions!

perhaps we could have some phrases such as:

>Good morning/afternoon etc. how are you?
>What are you hobbies/interests?
>whats your view on quantum physics?

General useful stuff but please do keep on coming with the random stuff. love it!

and any way - nipples exploding?! ouch!

@OB: thanks again for showing the beauty of mother tongue, I sometimes forget the mere delight of words

Random Dutch stuff that might be useful in particular occassions:

* Dank u, vijf schepjes suiker zou voldoende moeten zijn - Thank you - five spoons of sugar should suffice.
* Nee, ik weet niet waar de coffeeshop is - No, I don't know where the coffeeshop is located.
* Wazeggie - Ibegyoupardon
* Tulpen komen oorspronkelijk uit het Midden-Oosten - Tulips originate from the Middle East
* Wist je dat klomp en sabotage een etymologische relatie hebben? - Did you know that clog (wooden shoe) and sabotage have an etymological link?

[edit]And after reading Wyrd Sisters today:
* Dinges... - Wossname...
* Zij ruste in vrede - Maysherestinpeace

Meiner Meinung nach ist Grinsi Kleinpo meine Lieblingszwergin in der ganze Scheibenwelt. Naturlich ist Hauptman Karotte auch ein tolle Zwerg, aber er ist zwei Meter gross, also man konnte sagen, er kein echt Zwerg ist.
Gibt es andere deutschsprachigen Leute hier?
Wer ist dein Lieblingszwerg?

Deutschsprachig bin ich nicht, aber ich wohne sehr nahe zu der Grenze also kann ich, wenn noetig, auch in Deutsch ein bisschen mitteuhn.
Hauptmann Karotte, oder Captain Carrot auf Englisch, ist auch mein Lieblingszwerg.

(I'm not German, bit I live very close to the border so I can, when necessary, do a bit of German as well.
Hauptmann Karotte, or Captain Carrot in English, is my favourite dwarf as well)

Bet you didn't know I would be able to do that, would you?
Here's another one for ya:

Eigelik bin ich a bitsje teleurgesteld in Ponder. Die opmerking euver oontploffende tepels woar unne rechstreekse quote oet Monty Python's klassieke "Hongaarse Tekste Book" sketch. Iech dach dat dat wel begreepe woar, en iech voond ut ouch nog un geweldige opmerking die in dees kwestie prachtig op zien ploats woar. Gewoen eve um dinger rech te zette, eure mod is neet gek gewoore!

That was Maastricht (Mestreech; the place where I was born) dialect. To the dutch it sounds like Welsh would to english speaking people, though Hauptmann Karotte might find similarities to Koelsch (Koeln dialect), the dialects are very alike.

Translation:
In fact I'm a bit disappointed in Ponder. That remark on exploding nipples was a direct quote from Monty Python's classic "Hungarian Phrase Book" sketch. I thought that was understood, and I thought it was a very funny, and very appropriate quote in this thread. Just to put things right, your mod has not gone mad!

Happy Thudding!

As a child, I lived in two countres: Wales and Greece.

Welsh
"Mae'n ddrwg gen i - rydw i ddim yn siarad Cymraeg."

You use this phrase when you walk into one of those strange welsh buildings with the funny acoustics. You know the ones: when you listen from the OUTside, you can hear loud English chatter, but once you step INside, you just hear low Welsh muttering.

The literal translation of this is a polite "I'm sorry - I don't speak Welsh".

But the actual meaning is "I've caught you at it, you stinking racist weasels, and though I may have just told you that I don't speak Welsh, you know from my pronunciation that I am most likely experienced enough to pick up the gist of whatever you say, and you might as well give up and speak the language in which you are most comfortable, rather than continuing to sully the Language of Angels with your undeserving tongues."

Handy phrase, that.

Greek
"Si<gargle>nommy, dhen milaow Ouallos!"

"Sorry, I don't speak Welsh!"

Or, less literally translated: "I'm a raving foreigner. Laugh at me as I go lobster-red on your beaches!"

"Dheo neechteridhopites, se parakalo" - "Two bat-pies please".

We would freak out the Greek shopkeepers by asking for these as kids, then be unhappy when they had none.

The Captain asked....

(Are there other German speakers here?)

Ach noi, dis glaub i nett!
(No, I don't think so! [in deep-South Bavarian there ;)])

Mein Lieblingszwerg war immer Gimli. In der Scheibenwelt ist es aber Gunilla Goodmountain in "The Truth". Ein erstklassiger Zwerg in einem otz-geiler Buch. Nein, ein superaffenoberquadspeedturbotittengeiles Buch!

(My favourite dwarf was always Gimli. In the Discworl, however, it's Gunilla Goodmountain in "The Truth". A first class dwarf in a VERY cool book [a bit of Ulmer Scwaebisch stuck in there :-D]. No, actually a very, extremely cool book!)

Govrim takodje malo Bosanski
(I also speak a bit of Bosnian}

Servus und Tschuessle!
Lee

@Hoofdman Wortel : Ich glaube dass elchem Hollaender ein bischen Deutsch redeten kann, aber schreiben ist fuer mich schweriger... It's still funny to see that German translate always everything in their own language, so that we find ourselves with the world Scheibenwelt, sounds good to me!

@Mr. Lee: Any other useful Bavarian words I should know? I'm going to Landshut/Viecht am See on saturday and I might surprise my hostess with a few nice words (any... well almost any sentence would do really, just for fun )

El idioma segundo de los estados unidos es el espanol. Casi trece porciento de la poblacion es de origen hispanico, pero la ignorancia de los habladores de ingles es enorme.

(The second language of the United States is Spanish. Almost thirteen percent of the population is of hispanic origin, but the ignorance of the English-speakers is enormous. Even though there are so many wonderful cognates!)

No hay "idioma oficial nacional," porque somos un pais de imigrantes. Sin embargo, recientemente algunos estados estan discutando leyes nombrando ingles como el idioma oficial. Tenemos que resistar este movimiento.

(There is no "official national language" because we are a nation of immigrants. Nonetheless, some states recently have been dicussing laws naming English the official language. We must resist this movement.)

Pero hay buenas noticias: el estudio de idioma extranjero en unvidersidades ha subido seteciento porciento desde 2002. Quisas hay esperanza!

(But there is good news: the study of "forn" languages in unversities has risen seventeen percent since 2002. Perhaps there is hope!)

@Peanut: in the fine and hilarious tradition of my esteemed colleague, Dewi, a useful phrase is:
"I labber kein Bayerisch" (pronounced "Ee lahber koah Boarisch") meaning "I don't speak Bavarian" in the deepest and darkest Oberpfaelzer dialect*.

Another is: "Das ist ein/kein Schmarnn" pronounced "Dass iss uh/koah Schmarnn" meaning "That is/isn't bollox (bullshit, nonsense, [insert marginally in-offensive synonym])." When saying something amazing with an overly sincere face, add "ohne Schmarrn!" on the end and the resulting laughter should ensure you shouldn't have to buy a drink the rest of the night!

Good luck and have fun!

@Magrat: Yeah you're right. When I lived in Germany I was a bit shocked at the chauvinistic nature of the ex-pat community so I made it my "Botschaft**" to prove to my friends that Americans can indeed learn other languages and blend into other cultures***.

Naja**** (as the Germans say... )

Lee

*Bavarians say "I" (pronounced as an English "E" rather than "ich".
**Ambassadorship
***So if you find yourself in London, you'll know everything you need to about British English once you realise that if you nick something you'll be nicked and taken down the nick!
****Ah well...

to be honest most of that went in through one ear and out the other :D:D but im pleasantly suprised at how many languages peoples know. i only know enlgish (well roughly), a little spanish and a tad french - but not enough to spring sentances together.

ADIOS!*

----
*see! i told you!!!

@Lee: somehow Bavarian sounds like Irish, but that just my ears I suppose. I'll give that a sentence a try, for sure

The Dutch say "Naja" as well by the way, and of course "Ach ja" , which is closer to English.

Ik spreek geen Nederlands - I don't speak Dutch*

*pronunciation guide:
i like in "kin"
ee like "ay" in say
first e, see ee
second e, like "e" in errrr
a like "a" in wand

Good luck

@Ponder: houdoe! (like bu-bye in English, pronounced like "how do" as in "how do you do", but as one word with the stress on the "do")

Vardammt, ich dachte, ich so kulg sei, weil ich auf Deutsch schreiben kann. Eigentlich sind die Leute hier kulger als die Leute, die ich in der normale Welt kenne. In der Deutschklasse meiner Schule gibt es nur zwei Studente, und in der Franzorsischklasse gibt es nur mich. Vielleicht ist diese Problem nur in England.

(Damn i thought i was so clever to be able to write auf Deutsch, turns out that the people here are cleverer than the people I know in the real world. In the german class at my college there's only two students, and in french there's just me. Maybe the problem is just in England.)

now you see - thats useful! but what do you mean when you say first e and second e?

spooken like a true yorkshire man! ow do!

He meant first and second E in "Nederlands".

ah! magicalness!

I am unable to change the norwegian letters to the html-codes, but hopefully you'll see them correctly (an a with a ring above it, an o with a slash through it, and an a and an e put together (ae)).

Norwegian:
Tenk deg lyden av en illsint orangutang med blått pannebånd som har tapt penger i poker, og tar hevn ved å slå naglene på lærjakken til pønkeren han spilte mot inn i skroget på en gammel seilskute som er i ferd med å legge fra kai, mens pønkeren spreller for å komme seg løs.

English:
Imagine the sound of a very angry orangutan with a blue head band who has lost money in poker, and is taking revenge by hitting the nails on the leather jacket belonging to the punk he played against into the hull of an old sailing ship which is leaving the dock, while the punk is struggling to get loose.

OK. It's not a very usefull sentence, but maybe you can use it if you are on a vacation with the librarian, and since you had to little money for the ticket back home, the librarian decided to play poker to get som more money, and you are writing a letter to explain why you are not back at your office at the university when the new term start. But then again, the librarian would probably play cripple mr. onion or thud instead of poker, and you probably wouldn't write that letter in Norwegian anyway, so I guess the sentence is totally utterly useless...

no, justo lo que siempre he deseado

No, just what I always wanted

no hablo español; estudio el en mi colegio y leé Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal

I don't speak spanish; i study it at school and read harry potter and the philosofer's stone [edit](in spanish i mean. well, obviously)

Yes, i really am a failed true boff <hangs head in shame> [edit] or geeknerd reading dearmer's poll

Read something interesting the other day. I can't quote exactly, but it was by way of an opinion that the human mind can only master five or six different languages, and that even the Dutch max out at five! (I'm quoting, not trying to slur against nationalities! ) It was meant slightly tongue-in-cheek, but it got me thinking. You don't hear of too many people speaking more than four or five languages, do you?
And another interesting thought: How fluent would one have to be in programming languages before *they* start to crowd into your five-language quota and start pushing out the English you used to know?

wot about that UN guy president wossname that can speak around 2.3 million languages?

He must be some sort of android...

I think the UN employs special language gremlins who translate what people say into languages the other UN people can understand via earpieces. Translating what someone is saying as they're saying it must be ridiculously hard

Dutch: De knuppel in het hoenderhok gooien.
Literal translation: Throw a club in the hen's house.

It's a dutch saying, and it's about what I did this evening in the CLANS thread: to say something unexpected, but very likely to bring about a lot of cackle

Similar to our "set a cat among the pigeons." Though some UK regions also say "put a fox in the henhouse", but that has other connotations about security breaches too, so doesn't really work as well.

I can give u some russian:
izvenitzye, gdye ankh-morpork? - Excuse me, where is ankh-morpork?
ya dumaio chto biil mnogo cobakuy zdyes.... - I think that there were many dogs here....
You know, if u've got it, flaunt it!

DUTCH (antwerp dialect): Ne vent in zenne pure is en bleft nen bloete vent, mor een vraa in euren bloete is begot een monument.

Which means as much as: A naked man is just a naked man, but a naked woman is like a monument...

here here!

Ta gaelige agam, ach nílmé ábaltá usáid é mar tá gaelige teanga maraibh.
Agus tá mo grammair úafásach as Gaelige!

I speak Irish, but I can't use it because Irish is a dead tongue. And my grammar is terrible in Irish.

Caithfidh tu a gheobhaidh an moncaí jáid roimh an gealach.
(I gconaí maith a fhios!)

You must find the jade monkey before the moon.
(always good to know!)

to be perfectly honest here i didn't even know there was an irish language.

I thought it was gaelic (sp - ae? ea? - who goes? YOU decide*), or is that scotland land? i forgetorise

-----
*argh big brother has melted my mind

We went a few years ago to Dingle bay in the far reaches of Ireland, and stayed one night in a boarding house run by a family who spoke Irish around the house. Their kids weren't great at English so far as I recall: it was definitely their second language.

So, not as dead as all that.

[I have always assumed that "Gaelic" was the language from which the closely related languages "Irish Gaelic" aka "Irish", and "Scot's Gaelic" aka "Scottish" sprang from. But I may be wrong, and they may be entirely different thinguses.]

Dutch: "Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?"
German: "Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?"
and from what I understand even Scandinavian: "Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?"

Use that line in any of those countries at the appropriate moment, and locals are sure to burst out laughing and answer: "Same procedure as every year, James!"
I'm not sure about the Scandinavians, but I'm sure 50% of the Dutch, and 90% of the Germans (seriously!) will know exactly what you are referring to.
Here's what you are referring to: Dinner for One, a play that has been aired so many times it's engraved into mass conscience.
There's a Google Video link at the bottom of that Wiki page. Enjoy!

much to OBs annoyance i know - because of constant questioning i am starting to learn dutch! and all because of this thread! see - the internet is the way forward. you don't need any of this real life nonsense

WOW! A topic in I could express myself in a language I REALLY KNOW!!

First, let me borrow some words for the Italian speech...

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Tant'è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,
dirò de l'altre cose ch'i' v' ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com'i' v'intrai,
tant'era pien di sonno a quel punto
che la verace via abbandonai.
Dante degli Alighieri, Comedìa, Canto I, Cantica I

Do you know it? Let's translate it... (not mine transation, sorry)

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straight-forward pathway had been lost.

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.

So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
Dante degli Alighieri, The Comedy, Canto I, Cantica I

But there is another language (at least) in wich I'm competent... now entering: Latin

Passer, deliciae meae puellae,
quicum ludere, quem in sinu tenere,
cui primum digitum dare appetenti
et acris solet incitare morsus,
cum desiderio meo nitenti
carum nescio quid libet iocari
et solaciolum sui doloris,
credo ut tum gravis acquiescat ardor:
tecum ludere sicut ipsa possem
et tristis animi levare curas!
Catullus, Carmen II

Now I'll try to tranlate it... Maybe losing all of the hidden sexuals contents... if someone want to study Catullo or discover the jokes in this Carmen PM me, and I'll try to explain.

Sparrow, my girl’s delight,
with whom she plays,
and she holds on her lap,
to whom she is accustomed to give her finger tip
to peck and to tease to bite harder,
when my radiant hearts desire (to play at something dear)
fancies something dear and a little solace to her pain,
I believe,
so that heavy passions then rests;
I wish that I could play with you just as She does
and to lighten the gloomy cares of the mind
Catullus, Carmen II

These are the languages I love more.

wow! that...was...amazing!

blimey oh reilly

Grazie, Ponder. L'italiano, penso, è una lingua stupenda per la poesia, e Dante è forse uno dei migliori poeti mai vissuti. Il suo italiano, però, è piuttosto arcaico, forse la prossima volta usarò Petrarca o Foscolo.
Per quanto riguarda il latino: è semplicemente una lingua PERFETTA.

Traduzione. Ascolta e ripeti
Translation. Listen and repeat.

Thank you, Ponder. Italian, I think, is a marvelous language for poetry, and Dante is perhaps one of the best poets ever lived. His italian, however, is a little archaic, maybe next time I'll use Petrarca or Foscolo.
About the Latin: It's, simply put, a PERFECT language.

(just read this trying to recover some of the anonymous posts for their owners ) - Wow, the Captain is an Englishman! Big yerself up mate; your German is very good but I doff my cap to your *written* German! Something I never got to grips with

Oh, ja "Same procedure as every year, James" I already watched Dinner for One when I didn't speak a word English.
Jedenfalls, ich glaube, ich komme hier nicht wieder her. Ich dachte ich könnte hier... Oh damnit, it happened again. I thought I'd write some German, but I can't. Well, what I wanted to say is that I thought I could come here to escape my native language (German). Seems I can't, because every second person here speaks German. Except for me. Ok, let's try again: Es ist komisch, aber wenn um mich herum viel Englisch ist, dann fällt es mir schwer, Deutsch zu verstehen oder zu schreiben (It's strange, but when there's a lot of English around me I find it hard to understand or write German). I also speak French and Spanish and I'm learning Chinese, but I can't really speak a lot.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. – Mark Twain

Hi Ponder!!
you forgott to write your text about "Pondermeister"

if you were to look at all my signitures then you would ntice that they have all changed. i think i mentioned somewhere that i was changing it.

anyhoo. i could vaugely get by (as in say hello, order stuff etc but not have conversations as such) in french and spanish. im improving alot on my german now, but alas my dutch is slipping coz i haven't had time/energy to use it often enough. (Droevig(?) nederlanders )
oo and i know like 15 words of polish. and a couple of chinese words.
plus one word of bavarian.
um...a couple (literally) of words of italian.

so not much. i wish i was fluent in at least two of said languages.

oh and some would say i speak english to

Wizzard sizi selamliyorum!

(Wizzard I'm greeting you!) It was turkie
HARHARHARHARHAR

Wizzard

I will be the best of all....maybe

there was a telephone translator in Hungary who spoke 14 or so languages fluently and had to be able to translate on the fly.
I think that the maximum languages thing can't work because as I'm sure most people at the forum know, when you're multi lingual it isn't so much a sieries of diferent languages as a sieries of ways to express the same idea like the icing on the cake. I can have a clear memeory of an Australian speaking to me in hungarian and vide versa when I know thay can't because in stead of remembering the words, one remembers the IDEAS and the words per say can be discarded as mearly a necessary vector of which you know multiple.
Even a monolingual sort of speaks multiple languages since they have many words for the same thing. e.g. Rock and Stone essencially mean the same just as ko (that's o with two long strokes over the top "Ungarumlaut") means the same thing. The grammar is different but I'm sure that with an english and Latin base since most Euro languages (Not Estonian Finnish and Hungarian) are latin derivatives, one could learn Dutch, Dannish, German, (inc. Bayerisch, Oesterreich deutch, Suis Deutch [can't spell that one either]) Sweedish and Norwegen. And then still move on to other languages.

tahi,rua,toru,fa,rima,onu,fitu,waru,iwa,taco

that's 1-10 in mauri

I find that difficult to believe. Australia is the 5th biggest country in the world and the Aboriginies only had like 200 dialects. Also, The older Aztec etc. languages would have dies out leaving all of the Americas speaking Spanish Portugese, English a little French and some assorted Indina Languages probably numbering in the hndreds but not thousands. I think that therefore there aren't even 2.3 M languages also I heard of a guy who in one day learnt like somalian or something but assuming EVERY day this guy (Koffi Anann?) learns one, it would still take over 6000 yrs

unu, doi, trei, patru, cinci, şase, şapte, opt, nouă, zece

1-10 in romanian

true that!it'd take forever.

kofi annan is now out of head office at the UN,now it's some asian guy,i wonder how things'll turn out...

uno,due,tre,quattro,sincwe,seie,sete,oto,novo,dieci

1-10 in italian,quite similar in places

I like Catullus. Have you read the poem he wrote for his brother's funeral?:

multas per gentes et multa per aequatora vectus,
advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
et multam nequiquam adloquerer cinerem.
quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete adstulit ipsum,
heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.

*sob* beautiful.
never before has my sig seemed more relevant.

please,no poetry,otherwise start a new forum

honestly, there seems to be about 2/3 new forums a day! we certainly are expanding. maybe we'll find out how to count to 10 in lots or languages