Steve (as 41oo) wrote:
Now a question, are you related to Paul McCartney by any chance? No? Well why is it I hear Beatles tunes?
A "OTHER LANGUAGES"-related aside:
Quote:
"Paul got the inspiration for this song from seeing French art students at a party, dressed in their berets and sporting beards. Paul wrote the song at first while sitting with Jane Asher on her sofa. Originally, he had not come up with the girl's name, using lines like "goodnight sweetheart," and "hello my dear," which later became "Michelle ma belle." As Paul could not speak French properly, he asked Jan Vaughan, the wife of an old friend to help him out. It was she that came up with the name of Michelle, and John Lennon thought of placing the words, "I Love You," in the song."
Michelle
"Kingyo no funi" (very strong possibility that I got the romaji wrong) :: Japanase for goldfish crap.
It's an expression used to describe the "hangers on" those who follow an alpha male or female.
It's used because when evacuating the goldfish excrement trails behind the fish for some time.
Steve (as 41oo) wrote:
Now a question, are you related to Paul McCartney by any chance? No? Well why is it I hear Beatles tunes?......
I think I'll start using its sausage in future
Hi Steve, not related to Paul, or any of the other beatles for that matter! It's just a nickname... didn't know the story behind it though, so thanks Walter.
'its sausage' I think comes from 'it doesn't matter which end you cut the sausage'. Conversely, 'ist Kaese' (it's cheese), mean it DOES matter (you can't just cut at the rind of the cheese if you want to get at the best bit, you cut a slice through the middle.)
Well, the AE/BE equivalents to "jemandem etwas Wurscht sein" could be
s.o. doesn't give a damn about s.o./s.th., s.o. doesn't give a hoot about s.o./s.th., it's all the same to s.o., s.o. doesn't give a toss/a monkey's toss/a monkey's about s.o./s.th., s.o. couldn't care less about s.o./s.th. ... it's not my cup of tea :wink:
Steve, there was an hilarious Gary Larsen cartoon, in his "Far Side" collection, showing a stereotypical science geek, in white lab coat, going down the street with a 1950's era "black box" with the requisite bells and whistles, and the caption says that Dr. So-and-So realizes his dream of creating a machine which will translate what dogs are saying when they bark . . .
All of the dogs in the cartoon are saying: "Hey, Hey, Hey ! ! !"
san fairy ann, which Steve has mentioned, a joke saying in my mother's day, from the french
ca ne fait rien
six or half a dozen: meaning, they're both the same
McTag, as usual, have to defer to your superior linguistics.
Michelle (hope you don't mind the sudden familiarity), shame you are not related to Paul or Ringo. I was going to explain the exhorbitant A2K membership fees payable by anyone related to a superstar. But then as we are all superstars here, and in no need of any more money (choke) the joining fee is waived ('bye bye) in your case.
Setanta
Thats the problem. If we could talk with the animals Dr Doolittle style, I dont think the conversation would be very stimulating
me Hi cat how are you
cat get lost
me is that a flea?
cat get lost
me do you want something to eat?
cat get lost
me ok I'm going now
cat good
Well bye for now. I'm going to the vets to buy some flea spray. There's fresh water and some tuna to eat.
get lost
Hi cat I'm back. Now I have give you a little spray from this can...
you come near me with that and I'll rip up the rest of the soft furnishings
dog - duh!
wolf - I bet I can get a hunk of meat off the leg before he knows it's missing
A typical Canadianese paragraph.
"Last night, I cashed my pogey and went to buy a mickey of C.C. at the beer parlour, but my skidoo got stuck in the muskeg on my way back to the duplex. I was trying to deke out a deer, you see. Damn chinook, melted everything. And then a Mountie snuck up behind me in a ghost car and gave me an impaired I was S.O.L., sitting there dressed only in my Stanfields and a toque at the time. And the Mountie, he's all chippy and everything, calling me a **** disturber" and what not. What could I say, except, "Sorry, EH!"
The passage cited above contains no fewer than 19 different Canadianisms.
In order:
POGEY: EI (Employment insurance). Money provided by the government for not working.
MICKEY: A small bottle of booze (13 oz) (A Texas mickey, on the other hand, is a ridiculously big bottle of booze, which, despite the name, is still a Canadianism through and through.)
C.C.: Canadian Club, a brand of rye. Not to be confused with "hockey stick," another kind of Canadian Club.
BEER PARLOUR: Like an ice cream parlour, but for Canadians.
SKIDOO: Self-propelled decapitation unit for teenagers.
MUSKEG: Boggy swampland.
DUPLEX: A single building divided in half with two sets of inhabitants, each trying to pretend the other doesn't exist while at the same time managing to drive each other crazy; metaphor for Canada's french and english.
DEKE: Used as a verb, it means "to fool an opponent through skillful
misdirection." As a noun, it is used most often in exclamatory constructions such as: "Whadda deke!" Meaning, "My, what an impressive display of physical dexterity employing misdirection and guile."
CHINOOK: An unseasonably warm wind that comes over the Rockies and onto the plains, melting snow banks in Calgary but just missing Edmonton, much to the pleasure of Calgarians.
MOUNTIE: Canadian icon, strong of jaw, red of coat, pure of heart. Always get their man! (See also Pepper spray, uses of.)
SNUCK: To have sneaked; to move, past tense, in a sneaky manner; non-
restrictive extended semi-gerundial form of "did sneak." (We think.)
GHOST CAR: An unmarked police car, easily identifiable by its
inconspicuousness.
IMPAIRED: A charge of drunk driving. Used both as a noun and as an adjective (the alternative adjectival from of "impaired" is being "pissed to the gills").
S.O.L.: **** outta luck; in an unfortunate predicament.
STANFEILDS: Men's underwear, especially Grandpa-style, white cotton ones with a big elastic waistband and a large superfluous flap in the front. And back!
TOQUE: Canada's official National Head Apparel, with about the same suave sex appeal as a pair of Stanfields.
CHIPPY: Behaviour that is inappropriately aggressive; constantly looking for a reason to find offense; from "chip on one's shoulder." (See Western Canada)
**** DISTURBER: (See Quebec) a troublemaker or provocateur. According to Katherine Barber, editor in Chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, "**** disturber" is a distinctly Canadian term. (Just remember that Western Canada is chippy and Quebec is a **** disturber, and you will do fine.)
Love this topic, I may come back with more.
Ceili
What your dog is saying:
Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
You got any food, hey?
Hey?
Hey!
How 'bout that food?
Hey!
Hey!
Hey, Hey!
Pet me, dammit!
Hey!
Where's the food?
Hey!
Hey?
"?A como?" is what Colombians ask instead of "?Cuanto cuesta?"
I thought a murmeltier was a ground hog?
As in "Groundhog day" (My birthday too, as it happens)
The Aussie equivalents are:
-toey, as in "He's a bit toey". Probably from the idea of going toe-to-toe
-****-stirrer is used for someone who like to stir up some trouble, particularly with toey blokes
-'stirring the possum' - not always making trouble, often just stirring things up to see how people react
-a 'ding-dong', the punch-up that occurs when a toey bloke has had a gutfull of that ****-stirring bastard!
"Me dejo plantado" she stood me up.
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but there's the Spanish idioms "dar cuenta" to realize, and "tener razon" to be right.
Rounin wrote:I thought a murmeltier was a ground hog?
As in "Groundhog day" (My birthday too, as it happens)
A 'Murmeltier' is a 'grounddog', indeed (Latin:marmota monax).
And wellcome to A2K, Rounin!
"it doesn't matter" = "sang gwan ub suh" (korean) = "there is no relation" (literal translation)
"i'm pissed" = "yul bah duh" (korean) = "i'm receiving a fever" (literal translation)
"ouch" = "aiya" (korean)
"oi veh" = "aigo" (korean)
"korea" = "hanguk" (korean) = "hangu" (chinese) = "han kingdom" (literal translation)
"china" = "joongguk" (korean) = "joong gu" (chinese) = "middle kingdom" (literal translation)
"america" = "meeguk" (korean) = "meegu" (chinese) = "beautiful kingdom" (literal translation)
"great britian" = "yung guk" (korean) = "yung gu"? (chinese)? = "great kingdom" (literal translation)
"germany" = "dok il" (korean) = ??? (literal translation)
"dok means "only" or "sole." don't know what "il" means. anybody know what it could possibly mean? it should be similar or identical in chinese and probably japanese.
