Weird phrases from real languages
Weird phrases from real languages
Please contribute! By "weird" I mean things which look particularly strange, silly, or peculiar.
To start off with, "she will eat" in Manx is written "eeee ee".
It's pronounced the same in Scottish Gaelic, but is written differently, so this doesn't qualify as weird enough.
To start off with, "she will eat" in Manx is written "eeee ee".
It's pronounced the same in Scottish Gaelic, but is written differently, so this doesn't qualify as weird enough.
Zompist's Markov generator wrote:it was labelled" orange marmalade," but that is unutterably hideous.
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And that language in my 1st posting would be Georgian. Oops.
Finnish has:
Kokoo kokoon koko kokko!
Koko kokkoko?
Koko kokko.
Kokko is a word for a pile of wood that is burnt during the midsummer "juhannus" celebrations. I'll use woodpile for it:
Gather together the whole woodpile!
The whole woodpile?
The whole woodpile!
Kokoo is "kokoa" in the standard language, but diphthongs and vowel clusters often simplify.
Then:
kalastajatartansahan
his/her fisherwoman (partitive case), after all (from -han suffix)
And:
Io-aie ei ui: EU ei aio, Ii Oy ei oio
The Io-plan is not swimming (not going ahead). EU is not going to [do something, Ii Oy (company called Ii) is not straightening things out.
EDIT: added some Finnish silliness
Finnish has:
Kokoo kokoon koko kokko!
Koko kokkoko?
Koko kokko.
Kokko is a word for a pile of wood that is burnt during the midsummer "juhannus" celebrations. I'll use woodpile for it:
Gather together the whole woodpile!
The whole woodpile?
The whole woodpile!
Kokoo is "kokoa" in the standard language, but diphthongs and vowel clusters often simplify.
Then:
kalastajatartansahan
his/her fisherwoman (partitive case), after all (from -han suffix)
And:
Io-aie ei ui: EU ei aio, Ii Oy ei oio
The Io-plan is not swimming (not going ahead). EU is not going to [do something, Ii Oy (company called Ii) is not straightening things out.
EDIT: added some Finnish silliness
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Oo?
Ay oo.
Aa oo?
Ay aa oo.
Aa ae oo?
Ay aa ae oo.
Ah, ay.
Wool?
Yes, wool.
All wool?
Yes, all wool.
All one wool? (All from one sheep)
Yes, all one wool.
Oh, alright then.
The "ae oo" bit can be expanded to "e ae oo" for "the one wool".
Ay oo.
Aa oo?
Ay aa oo.
Aa ae oo?
Ay aa ae oo.
Ah, ay.
Wool?
Yes, wool.
All wool?
Yes, all wool.
All one wool? (All from one sheep)
Yes, all one wool.
Oh, alright then.
The "ae oo" bit can be expanded to "e ae oo" for "the one wool".
[quote="Soviet Russia"]If you can't join them, beat them.[/quote]
In quebec sign language (LSQ), you say "peter collects rock one by one with peter" by repeating the same sign 5 times.
Golden age set the moral standard, the Silver Age revised it, the Bronze Age broke free of it and the Rust Age ran wild with it. -- A. David Lewis
We're all under strict orders not to bite the newbies. -- Amaya
We're all under strict orders not to bite the newbies. -- Amaya
Dialectal Swedish:
"I ?a ? e ? ? i ?a ? e ?" = "In the river there is an island, and on the island there is a river". Standard Swedish would insert a couple of consonants here and there. The words for island (?) and river (?) were present in Old English, and if they had survived to modern English, I think both of them would have merged as /i:/.
"I ?a ? e ? ? i ?a ? e ?" = "In the river there is an island, and on the island there is a river". Standard Swedish would insert a couple of consonants here and there. The words for island (?) and river (?) were present in Old English, and if they had survived to modern English, I think both of them would have merged as /i:/.
Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:
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Last edited by Iomanalare on Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
[url=http://www.last.fm/user/baftard/?chartstyle=shabby2][img]http://imagegen.last.fm/shabby2/artists/baftard.gif[/img][/url]
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Swedish:
ooologiskt - When something about eggs is not scientific, all the first vowels are pronounced individually.
A, de?udede?u, a = Yes, that is exactly what it is, yes.
ooologiskt - When something about eggs is not scientific, all the first vowels are pronounced individually.
Same as Swedish then, but only in writing Fully pronounced the spelling should be somewhat like: "De?dede? Or why not:"d e d d e" ("det er det det er" in bokm?l) means "that's what it is" or "it is what it is" (depending on intonation)
A, de?udede?u, a = Yes, that is exactly what it is, yes.
Last edited by Ofeig on Wed May 11, 2005 9:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
[b]"Hebrea ŝtato ne estas necesa. Hebreoj loĝas jam de dumil jaroj en multaj nehebreaj ŝtatoj, kaj ili povas fari tiel ankaŭ estonttempe."
- Mordechai Vanunu[/b]
- Mordechai Vanunu[/b]
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Not quite. The former (OE ieγ) consitutes the first element in modern island, now pronounced /aj/. The later (OE ea) would indeed have become /ij/, so a distinction would've been maintained.Mercator wrote:The words for island (?) and river (?) were present in Old English, and if they had survived to modern English, I think both of them would have merged as /i:/.
English does also have ey in place names (e.g. Lindsey, Bardsey, etc.), but this derived from Old Norse ey rather than the Anglo-Saxon reflex.
orthographically, yes, but not phonetically. not sure how to pronounce it, though...garrett wrote:I always that that this french form of the verb "louer" was crazy: loueait.
my two cents: this sentence is from kiribati; afaik there is no diphthongisation: iai uou aia uee ao aua aia ie 'they had two flowers and four sails'.
-In French, the verbs "cr?er"(to create) and "agr?er"(to accept) has "cr??" as past participe. If you have to put it to feminine, it'll be "cr??e" and "agr??e". But in both cases, last E is not pronounced.
-In Romanian, the children is written "copiii" but you just pronounce two of the three I.
-A Czech sentence has any vowel: "Strč prst skrz krk" (Put a finger in your throat) Better we don't have to say this everyday... Another word, but this one is said at least once a week: "čtvrtek" (thursday). Inspired by this word, I've made "čtvrtk" in Tatzic (my conlang). The key is that in this case, [r] is considered as a vowel in Czech (as in Slovak, Slovene, Serbocroat and also Lithuanian and Sanskrit), and it can also be stressed. Some other languages also do it with L or nasals. the fact is that those consonants are very close to vowels (maybe a specialist of phonology could explain it better).
-Armenian: "tzutzutzek" (show me)
-Polish: this is maybe a very beautiful and soft language when you hear it, but when you see it written, it can scares!!! Look at these words: szczęście (happyness), szczotka (brush), książka (book), krzyczeć/krzyknąć (to shout), kształt (form), bezwględnie (immediatly), wszystko (everything), jabłko (apple), drzwi (door), chrzcić (to baptize), grzech (sin), grzyb (mushroom) etc. I've studied Polish three years and I was quite good but it's so hard to remember the words sometimes...
-In Romanian, the children is written "copiii" but you just pronounce two of the three I.
-A Czech sentence has any vowel: "Strč prst skrz krk" (Put a finger in your throat) Better we don't have to say this everyday... Another word, but this one is said at least once a week: "čtvrtek" (thursday). Inspired by this word, I've made "čtvrtk" in Tatzic (my conlang). The key is that in this case, [r] is considered as a vowel in Czech (as in Slovak, Slovene, Serbocroat and also Lithuanian and Sanskrit), and it can also be stressed. Some other languages also do it with L or nasals. the fact is that those consonants are very close to vowels (maybe a specialist of phonology could explain it better).
-Armenian: "tzutzutzek" (show me)
-Polish: this is maybe a very beautiful and soft language when you hear it, but when you see it written, it can scares!!! Look at these words: szczęście (happyness), szczotka (brush), książka (book), krzyczeć/krzyknąć (to shout), kształt (form), bezwględnie (immediatly), wszystko (everything), jabłko (apple), drzwi (door), chrzcić (to baptize), grzech (sin), grzyb (mushroom) etc. I've studied Polish three years and I was quite good but it's so hard to remember the words sometimes...
[b]Nek vatar s-voli nasnap migi dmuxa k ti[/b]
-> [url=http://www.conlanger.com/cbbfr/]Quand les francophones se mettent à parler de conlangues...[/url]
-> [url=http://www.conlanger.com/cbbfr/]Quand les francophones se mettent à parler de conlangues...[/url]
Just a guess, but probably something like /xKp_>X_wKtKpKKs k_wc_>/ and /c_>ktsk_wc_>/.Trebor wrote:anyone know how those would be pronounced?Matt wrote:Two tongue-twisters from Bella Coola of the Salishan Family
Kuku-kuku kaki kakak kakekku kaku kaku.
'the toenails of my grandfather's elder brother are stiff'
'the toenails of my grandfather's elder brother are stiff'
That c is an affricate, so /ts)_>/, I guess. I've seen it elsewhere with t's and s'es.Matt wrote:Just a guess, but probably something like /xKp_>X_wKtKpKKs k_wc_>/ and /c_>ktsk_wc_>/.Trebor wrote:anyone know how those would be pronounced?Matt wrote:Two tongue-twisters from Bella Coola of the Salishan Family
Or did your notation mean that already?
An impossible form: it'd had to be "louerait" (conditional) or (louait)Trebor wrote:orthographically, yes, but not phonetically. not sure how to pronounce it, though...garrett wrote:I always that that this french form of the verb "louer" was crazy: loueait.
You can have all 5 vowels with less letters: oiseau (/wazo/, bird)
Golden age set the moral standard, the Silver Age revised it, the Bronze Age broke free of it and the Rust Age ran wild with it. -- A. David Lewis
We're all under strict orders not to bite the newbies. -- Amaya
We're all under strict orders not to bite the newbies. -- Amaya