Thursday, December 6, 2007

Critical Linguistics for the Habitually Misplaced

After living here for a year, my Spanish is finally to the point where I can call myself at least semi-fluent. Dr. Girlfriend still laughs whenever I say certain words, but I no longer just assume the fetal position and weep anymore when trying to order Chinese delivery. What did it for me quite honestly was a Star Wars Marathon on Cinecanal (the local 'HBO')entirely in Spanish with subtitles in English. 8 hours of Force luvin' goodness later and I had cracked the language like a code. Alot of times, just unraveling one or two sentences and analyzing the grammar can illuminate a good part of a language.

I offer this to you as a gift. I found this online a few months back, and it can help you do just that with the language of your host country.

How to say
"Oh my god! There's an axe in my head" in various languages

English: Oh my god! There's an axe in my head.
Bosnian: boje moj! sjekira mi je u glavi.
French: Mon dieu! Il y a une hache dans ma tete.
Visigothic: Meina guth, Ikgastaldan aqizi-wunds meina
haubida
Swedish: Ah, Herregud! Jag har en yxa i huvudet!
Dutch: O, mijn God! Er zit een bijl in mijn hoofd.
Latin: Deus Meus! Securis in capite meo est.
German: Oh mein Gott! Ich habe eine Axt im Kopf!
Japanese: ahh, kamisama! watashi no atama ni ono ga
arimasu.
Norwegian: Herre Gud! Jeg har en aks i hodet!
Spanish: Dios mio! Hay una hacha en mi cabeza!
Hungarian: Jaj Istenem, de fejsze van a fejemben!!
Middle Egyptian: in Amun! iw minb m tp-i!
Greek: hristo mou! eho ena maheri sto kefali mou!
Tagalog: Ay Dios ko! May palakol sa ulo ko!
Danish: Oh min gud! Der er en oekse i mit hoved.
Afrikaans: O God! Daar's 'n byl in my kop!
Polish: O Moj Boze! Mam siekiere w glowie!
Maori: Ave Te Ariki! He toki ki roto taku mahuna!
Italian: Dio mio! C'e' un' ascia nella mia testa!
Portuguese: Meu Deus! Tenho um machado na cabeca!
Klingon: ghay'cha'! nachwIjDaq betleH tu'lu'!
Bengali: Oh Allah! Amar mathar upor bash poreche.
Finnish: Voi Luoja! Paassani on kirves!
Icelandic: Gud minn godur! Thad er o:xi i ho:fdinu a mer.
Ancient Greek: O Theos mou! Echo ten labrida en te mou kephale!
Babylonian: iliya pashu ina reshiya bashu
Assyrian: iliya pashum ina reshimi bashu
Welsh: A nuw! Mae bywell yn fy mhen i!
Alsatian: Lever Gott! Es esch a Axe en miner Kopf!
Swahili: Siyo! (Huko) Shoka yangu kichwanil!
Slovenian: Moj Bog! Sekiro imam v glavi.
Irish: Mo Dhia! Ta' tua sa mo cheann.
Esperanto: Mia Dio! Hakilo estas en mia kapo!
Marathi: Aray Devaa! Majhyaa dokyaat kurhaad aahay.
Hindi: Hay Bhagwaan! Mere sar mein kulhaadi hain.
Russian: Bozhe moi! Eto topor v moyei golove!
Hebrew: Eloi! Yesh'li ca-sheel ba-rosh sheh-li!
Malayalam: Entey Deiwame, entey thalayil oru kodali undei.
Latvian: Ak Dievs! Man ir cirvis galva!

See? Even if you find yourself on Kronos, homeworld of the once mighty Klingon Empire (where you may actually need this phrase), I got your back!

2 comments:

Michael Holdcroft said...

Merlyn,

I really needed the Klingon translation. I have been trying to figure how to say that all week. :-)

Michael

http://crime-online.info/blog

Aaron M. Gipson said...

I'm pretty sure the word is interchangeable enough to mean bat'leth too. I think the most times the phrase has been uttered was probably Visogothian though. But that's just a hunch...

Drop by anytime my friend!