opposite+outside
me+pronominal-article head presently is-position."
Re-translation: "I say, 'My god' in surprise. An axe is inside my head."
Baselang does not currently have any way to express exclamations, which explains the rather tepid translation. The problem
is how do I come up with a core translation of "Oh my god!" that can then by equivalently translated in Japanese and Spanish?
(The goal of the language is to provide for automatic translation TO (not from) English, Japanese and Spanish.) Spanish is
fairly similar, but I don't know about Japanese. The phrase _wonden divin_ would be "my god", but it is a literal expression.
The word _wonden_ is treated as an article (all possessive pronouns are considered pronominal articles -- I've expanded
the article system of Baselang again, now up to 13 types of articles -- 26 in total).
New words created for this exercise: chafergarbar (chafer [< Arabic "blade"] and garbar ["long bar" > stick] are
also new) and nem [invented, a fusion of E. _now_ and Baselang _tem_, "time", because I can't find a good natlang CVC root
for "present, now" -- help!!!].
Total time spent translating: 45 minutes. Obviously, I'm a long way from fluency!
Regards,
Jeffrey [1997]
6 Nothing has kept Goio Borje from creating a separate Basque listing. Eskerrik asko, Goio:
"I
have seen your website and noticed you still do not have your sentence in Basque. Basque is a minor language spoken in the
Basque Country, an area in North of Spain and South of France." [2001 Sep 24]
7 Submitted by Zenon Ratschkewycz [2001 Feb 15]
8 A missive from Antone Minard [2001 May 04]:
Hi there! A new one for you below,
and some friendly editing on what you've got.
I should tell you that the language you have as "Celtic" is really
Irish (also known as Irish Gaelic; your Gaelic is quite properly Scottish Gaelic). It's not even very good Irish. Celtic is
like Slavic or Romance, a language family, not a language.
The Welsh should be corrected to "Dduw!..." or "A
Dduw!" "A 'Nuw" is more like "Oh God-whom-I-possess," which doesn't work as well..
So this email isn't toally
pointless, here's another Celtic language -- Breton.
Ma Doue! Ur vouc'hal a zo e va fenn! (emphasizing the axe)
Ma
Doue! E va fenn eo ur vouc'hal! (emphasizing that it's in my head)
Ma Doue! Bez' ez eus ur vouc'hal e va fenn. (No special
emphasis; both axe and head injury given equal weight.)
--Antone
Thanks, Antone. We should point
out that philologists don't group languages under a catchword, but name language families after an older parent language,
usually long dead. (Even the colloquial "Romance" means Roman, i.e. Latin.) And here at yamara.com, dead doesn't matter. The ancient Celts must have spoken this important phrase all the time, and we need to know how.
We
aren't surprised that the "Celtic" listed here resembles the Irish, and may not reflect the inflections or phonemes used at
the time, since this listing was picked up from another site (see note 12). Any professional light on this matter is of the
utmost necessity.
9 Brought to our attention by Terry Rossiter [2001 Mar 05]
10 Courtesy the staff of cathayonline.com
11 From one "Carlin Miracle" [2001 Feb 15]: That is the translation in Catalan (or Catalonian
if you prefer) Can you help me? How to get translations in "strange" languages? The regular dictionaries don't help much.
Any ideas? Thanks, Carli
Also submitted by Trobairitz [2001 Mar 05] who says fun :)
This
isn't just a game, Trobairitz! But thank you for contributing.
12 As originally posted at geocities.com/SiliconValley/7069/. We should warn that the regional slights, and especially the "Ebonics translation" are spurious.; Aetherco welcomes anyone
who wishes to submit proper translations in accredited dialects of Black Speech. [2000 May 10]
Phil Lawrence
adds: "The Estonian translation [orig Oh issand, mul on kirves peas] is OK at the rear end but the first part,
"Oh issand," translates as "Oh Lord." A better interpretation for "Oh my God," would be, "Oh mu Jumal", or even "Oh minu Jumal,"
although the second version is rather formal.
Good luck [2001 Nov 08]
13 James Martin [2001 Jul 18] explains his addition to the canon:
Aah n'kiseemantoom,
Ciikahikan asteew nistikwaanihk.
Oh my God, an axe
is in my head
Cree belongs to the Algonkian Language family in Canada. There are five
dialects ,L,Th,R,Y. The above phrase is said in the 'N' dialect.
The double vowels represent long vowel sounds based on
the international phonetic alphbet. For example, aa like in bat, ee like in bet, ii as in beet and oo as in boot. These are
identified with a macron (a line) above the vowel.
Consonant are articulated as those in english. The c is like the ts
in tsetse and the w is like an oo sound if its in the final position.
Good Luck with other languages.
Thanks.
And Good Luck to you, James Martin.
14 Courtesy John Fisher [1997]
15 Hi There,
I hadn't seen this before:
k:-)
An emoticon for "oh my god,
there's an axe in my head"
FWIW,
++Mark Dalrymple [2001 Nov 19]
We had to make one small change to get
the "Oh my God!" element across, but there's no doubt that Mark's twist on Scott Fahlman's ARPANET invention is absolutely brilliant. This is one of our favorite entries, ever. Bravo.
Further research has turned up an
earlier version by Jay Bowks [1997 Mar 08] from an old Yahoo Groups posting cached by Google:
emoticon for the
idea of Oh my god I've an axe in my beany!
p:-(
16 From Lea Luecking Frost [2001 Jan 17]:
If you're still updating the Axe In My Head site,
I think I've got a passable Old English translation: "Wa min God! Se aex on min heafod is!" (The [ae] in "aex" should be the
letter ash, aka a and e smashed together, but it won't show up properly in my email.) Great site, by the way! :-)
Further
elaboration by Anna Truwe |atruwe [14 Feb 2001] Old English: Eala, min Hlaforde! An æx byð on minne heafod! That's literally "Alas, my Lord! An axe is in my
head!" "Oh my God!" in Old English is way too similar to Modern English: "O, min God!" Just in case you folks were interested
in the aesthetic decisions of translation. Wow. And my folks thought I'd never find a use for Old English. If you credit this
to me, could you link my name to http://thingsihate.org?
Thanks.
17 From worldly-wise Flóvin S. Olsen:
"In Faroese, it's
Á Gud! Eg havi eina øks í høvdinum!
(oh god, I have an axe in my head)
Á Gud! Tað er ein øks í høvdinum hjá mær! (oh god, there is an axe in my head)
And,
Faroese is the language spoken on the Faroesk, small group of islands in the north atlantic. Around 45000 inhabitants."
18 Special thanks to Meg Bateman aka Nynaeve al'Meara for pointing out we were missing a circumflex.
[2001 Jun 25]
"I've just been bragging to all my friends that you mentioned me on Axe In My Head" [2001 Jul 17]
19 Also, I noticed the german translation - [orig Oh mein Gott! Ich habe eine Axt im Kopf!]- it
works out to Oh my God! I have an axe in head!
I suggest that for consistency, it might be better like
O mein Gott! Es gibt ein axt im meine kopf!
or for urgency:
Mensch! Gibt's ein Axt im meine kopf!
Feel free to use or ignore what you want...
Regards
John
Cheseldine
Danke. When John isn't ensuring that German make sense, he's elaborating on how symbiotes might
discuss battle adversely affecting their hosts (see the note on Goa'uld below.)
20 Christian A. Klepej has but scratched the surface of the deeper complexities of Germanic translation,
and the Styrian deity is being addressed directly by his first name... and yet, we are very grateful for these entries:
1) german (styrian-dialect):
»Jessas, i hab a hockn im schaedel.«
2) german (carinthian-dialect):
»Um
Goddes wuell, do is a hackale im meim schaedahle.«
::: Christian A. Klepej
::: Graz, Humboldtstrasse 9/II
[2001 Aug 22]
21 Further details from "oliver":
"i've got another translation of that very important phrase.
its a german dialect that we are speaking here in austria (to be more precise upper austria)
a few friends and i were discussing
what translation would be the best and we came up with this one (it even rhymes)"
22 Claus Lamm, University of Vienna has another translation to jam into our skulls:
"Well,
here is how you would say it in Vorarlbergerisch, which is a dialect spoken in the westernmost part of Austria:
Hargoläss,
do ischt an agscht i minoem griand!
cheers,
claus
Claus Lamm
Brain Research Lab
Dept. of Psychology
University
of Vienna [2001 Aug 23]
Shortly before the above arrived, an enigmatic "flo" sent in a different take in Vorarlbergerisch... but it doesn't
look to us like God is being called on to help with the unfortunately-placed instrument:
"it is a little german
mixed up with swiss slang....it´s rather strange. so here´s the translation...
Scheissdreck, I hon a Akscht i
da Bira!
Btw, I´m from the western Part of Austria, also known as Vorarlberg.
thanx´n´greetz
flo"
23 John Cheseldine ringed in this likely enough candidate:
Noticed you had a Klingon
translation on your site, so I thought you might appreciate this; It's very rough translation into the Goa'Uld language used
by the bad-guys (and slaves) in the Stargate movie and SG-1 series... This is loosely based on dialogue taken from the film,
and the concept of the language on Abydos being a corruption of ancient Egyptian...it's not 100% accurate but it's extremely
close! [2001 Oct 26]
Individual jaffa may insert their own bosses at the beginning of the statement. Apophis
and his ilk would likely use the preface, "Ah me!" and not be terribly concerned about the results.
24 Notes on Greek from Miriam Kotsonis [2001 Feb 16]:
'Since I don't want anyone to be lax,
when dealing with an axe,
here are some suggestions regarding the Greek translations.
The modern Greek you showed had
two problems:
"Greek, Modern: hristo mou! eho ena maheri sto kefali mou!" The word for God, or in this case Christ, needs
to be in the vocative case, Hriste. Also, the word for axe is "tsekouri" and not maheri, which means knife.
So the correct
version would be: Hriste mou! Eho ena tsekouri sto kefali mou!
For Ancient Greek, I don't know all of it (maybe some of
the people I've blind-copied this to will be able to help), but you definitely want Thee (pronounced Thayay) mou, not O Theos
mou.
With best wishes for your continued success in the list,
Miriam Kotsonis'
This additional note, from Paul Exarhos [6 Mar 2001]:
'Hi Guys!
I received an email with many different translations
for "Oh My God there is an exe in my head!" [sic -ed]
I am just writing to you to let you know that the Modern Greek
Translation is not correct. What you have written there translates to...." My Jesus there is a knife in my head."
It should
read, " The'Mou, eho ena tsakouri sto kefali mou"
I hope this is of some help to you!
Regards
Paul Exarhos'
25 Our thanks go out to Virginia M. Geraty, Gullah scholar and advocate, who sent this translation in. "Contrary to the belief still held by some, Gullah is
not poor, or broken English. It is not a dialect of any other language, neither is it Black English. Gullah possesses every
element necessary for it to qualify as a language in its own right. It has its own grammar, phonological systems, idiomatic
expressions, and an extensive vocabulary. Since this language was never intended to be written, there are no hard and fast
rules governing its orthography." [2001 Apr 29]
26 Our submission in Hausa is from a Wedge Martin, who insists he's double-checked it, so we'll
trust him. Any guesses what happens to you when you get something wrong on this page?:
[2001 May 11] Great
work! I love the axe-in-my-head page :)
Ok.. Here's another one.. You may need to do some research, but it's
a fairly common language. Primarily in western Africa it's used as a common language between many tribes. The BBC even airs
in Nigeria in this language. It's called 'Hausa'. I can't believe I remember this stuff. Enjoy :)
Kai! Ina da
bambaro ciken kaina!
It actually translates to 'Kai! (an expression of shock) I have an axe (something like an
axe) in my head.'
The first 'Kai' is actually an expression, the second 'kaina' is actually 'kai' (head) and the suffix
'na' is 'my'. 'ciken' is pronounced almost exactly like english 'chicken'.
27 Originally posted as "Eloi! Yesh'li ca-sheel ba-rosh sheh-li!", we've had some input as
to correcting the phrase:
From Barry Barancik [2001 Feb 13]: "Hi. Although the hebrew translation is basically correct,
the common modern Hebrew word for a hand-axe is garzen, not ca-sheel. regards, Barry"
And this from OFER-ZI (òåôø æéðâøîï)
[2001 Mar 06]: 'while readind the "Oh my god! There's an axe in my head" page, I noticed a mistake in the Hebrew translation.
Being
an Isreali and as such, a native Hebrew speaker, id like to correct it to: "Allelay, yesh li garzen ba-rosh" (alternative
translation would be: "Allelay, yesh li garzen barrosh sheli", but the last word is not necessary)
"oh my god" ("allelay")
may also be writen "Oh Ellohim" ("oh god", as is often said) or "Oh Ellohim shelli" ("oh my god", a less common figure of
speach)'
28 From "Majestic" [2001 Feb 27]: "Quarval-sharess is used to refer to Lloth, the goddess of Drow.
Velve means sword. If there is a word for axe in the Ilythiiri tongue, then I have no knowledge of it. -Majestic"
The
Drow (and their culture and language) are a popular fantasy race from the RPG "Dungeons & Dragons" by Wizards of the Coast. Doubtless they have encountered axes, and any more complete translation would be appreciated. -ed.
29 Presumably the native language spoken in the Danish territory of Greenland, submitted by Jette
Petersen. [2001 Feb 22]
It's "Greenlandic" and is indeed the dialect of Inuktitut used in Greenland. Inuktitut
is the language of the Inuit. In Greenlandic, it's spelled with the same alphabet as in Denmark; in Canada, it's got its own
syllabic alphabet.
-Barry Goldstein
Pequod Software [2001 Aug 21]
30 From the email of F. W., with our most profound thanks [2001 Feb 15]:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I note that you have incorrectly translated the above into Irish (and therefore quite possibly your Celtic and Gaelic
versions need to be revised).
The correct version is in fact:
"Ó mo Dhia! Tá tua i mo cheann!"
and not "Mo Dhia!
Ta tua sa mo cheann!"
I have underlined the change from "sa" to "i". In Irish, "sa" and "i" are the two words used to
describe the English preposition "in". "i" is used, inter alia, to denote the genitive case in respect of bodily parts, such
as "in my face" (i m'aghaidh) , "in my head" (i mo cheann), etc. Hence the error in your translation.
I hope this information
is of some use to you.
Kind regards,
F. W.
Dublin
31 "The new language I have for you is Old Irish:
A mo de! Tathum tuag im chenn-sa.
Oh
my god! There-is-to-me [an] axe in-my head.
There should be accent marks (long vowels) on the e in de, the a
in tathum, and the u in tuag. The line would be pronounced roughly:
A moe they! Tothuv tuagh im xen-sa
The
x is the German ch in Bach and the gh is the voiced version of that. I included the pronunciation only because Old Irish is
often not pronounced like it is written.
I hope you can use these.
Aaron Griffith [2001 Sep 21]
Thank
you, Aaron. We now set it before the tuag-weilders upon Tara, and they shall judge its merits.
32 Courtesy Robert K [2001 Feb 17]: co dio! xe na mannera nella mia testa from an northen italian
dialect used primarily around trieste in the venezia gulia region ( co' dio) is a close equivalent of oh my god ( mannerra
= axe) which literally means blackhand.
33 A well-accredited correction to our Klingoni has come from Qor'etlh of the Klingon Language Institute [stardate 2001 Feb 13]:
An old Federation approximation was:
ghay'cha'! nachwIjDaq
betleH tu'lu'!
But careful studies, after decades of dedication, by teams of Linguistic Scientists have revealed that:
toH,
HIvqa' Qun'a'wIj! nachwIjDaq 'obmaQ tu'lu'
Is more literally: "Oh my god! There's an axe in my head!"
This is pronounced
[ TOKh, HiV-KA KROON-A-WiJ! NAch-WiJ-DAK OB-MAKR TOO-LOO]
Cultural Note: Although the gods were found to be too much trouble,
and hunted down & killed by the Klingons eons ago, a few 'personal' gods must still persist.
An alternate reading also arrived from "Danny" [2001 Feb 12] Klingon: #@!&, This is a knife located in head
that is mine. Qu'vatlh! nu'oH taj'Daq nachwIj - There you go - 5anny
34 Additions and corrections from one "Jasmine" [2001 Mar 06]:
Some more translations:
Kyrgyz
(from Kyrgyzstan near China and Uzbekistan. It comes from the same family as Turkish does)
Oh Kuday! Bashimda balta bar!
Also,
an alternate version of the Russian translation. The one you have on the web page was made by an American, I'm assuming. They
are trying to duplicate "there is" in Russian. The form "to be" is very rarely used. A more accurate "Russian" way of saying
the phrase would be: Oh God! Axe in my head! with the "to be" part being understood.
Oy Gospodi! Topor u moye golovye!
Enjoy,
Jasmine
35 The first translation was found on the (less than etymologically reliable) "Jokes on Languages
and Translations" site - www.fortunecity.com/business/moo/1132/Jokes.html [2000 Mar 20]
The second is from CHRISTOPHER at Malta.net
"In Maltese oh my god there's an axe in my
head translates literally alla tieghi hemm mannara gewwa rasi. In normal terms it would be il alla hemm mannara gewwa rasi.
I would use the first one." [2001 Oct 23]
A third was submitted by Cassar Keith at MITTS; we're not sure if "axxa"
is really Maltese... "IL ALLA HEMM AXXA F'RASI" [2001 Aug 24]
36 Tord Førland sez: "Please enjoy - spelling has been verified by a Prof. in norwegian language!"
[2001 Mar 20]
37 Corrections have poured in this winter over original submission: "Herre Gud! Jeg har en aks
i hodet!":
Jørgen Vinne Iversen [14 Feb 2001]; Jon Reino Heum [14 Feb 2001]; Espen Aase Johnsen [9 Mar 2001]; Sigve Indregard
[9 Mar 2001]; Simen Pedersen [9 Mar 2001]; Tord Førland and others have come forward to correct the misspelling of "øks"
as "aks". So many in fact, we have to wonder if they aren't incarnations of the same avid axe-head fan. In any case, we sincerely
hope help was not delayed to anyone by this unfortunate error. And thanks to everyone for the heads up!
[04 Jul 2001] Apparently we are still experiencing some argument over just how to convince your Norwegian
friends a great hatchet of war is sticking out of your cranium. This is not the language group to let down about such an issue.
Here's some of the mail we've gotten through the Spring of 2001:
The last translation posted was "Hærregud, eg he ein øks i hovudet!"
[2001 Apr 29] Hi, I am a 16 year old boy from Norway (who cares..)
Your translation of oh my god! There's an
axe in my head from english to norwegian is a little bit odd.
The way you have it is as it would have been in
earlier norwegian (nynorsk)
In earlier norwegian it should have been:
"Herregud! Eg har ein øks
i hovudet"
or
"Å Gud! Eg har ein øks i hovudet"
But most norwegians or write in a newer version of Norwegian
(bokmål) And in that case the translation would have been:
"Herregud! Jeg har en øks i hodet"
or
"Å Gud!
Jeg har en øks i hodet"
The last two ways of writing it is the most used ones, but the first two is also correct.
I suggest you change the translation you already have with one of the ones I have listed.
Greetings from
Tony
Hansse
[2001 May 16] The Norwegian version "Hærregud, eg he ein øks i hovudet!" is not really correct. If one is using
Bokmål (the majority dialect) "Herre Gud, jeg har fått en øks i hodet" would be correct. In Nynorsk (the minority dialect)
this would be "Herre Gud, eg har fått ei øks i hovudet mitt" would be the way to express it.
The viking sagas
tell a us lot about axe fighting and a line that is most suitable for your page is:
"Han treiv ei øks i hovudet
på han så skallen kløvdes heilt ned til skuldrane. Det blei hans bane!"
- From Eigil Skallagrimssons kongssagaer.
In english this would read "An axe was thrust into his head so his skull was split in two right down to his shoulders. This
killed him". The last part of the sentnce may seem unnecessary information for us today but the vikings were a tough fighting
race and a mere head wound caused by an axe was commonplace.
Andrew Walls
Near the Arctic Circle
Norway
[2001 Jun 01] Just a little pedantic note: there are actually two Norwegian written languages. Directly translated,
one is commonly referred to as 'book tongue' and the other 'new Norwegian'. Both are taught in school. The 'book tongue' version
of Norwegian language is basically Danish with a twist, whilst 'new Norwegian' is a nationalistic attempt at combining the
various attributes of different Norwegian dialects into one whole. Being an attempt at incorporating all dialects, and seeing
as there are so many (and consequently conflicting) ones, 'new Norwegian' is quite flexible. As long as one spells words consistently,
one may somewhat adjust the spelling according to one's own dialect. Thus, 'aks' may in some instances be an alternative spelling
of 'øks', but this is probably limited to isolated backwater burghs no one has ever heard of.
Here are correct
Norwegian translations of "Oh my god! There's an axe in my head":
Norwegian 'Book tongue': "Herregud! Jeg har en øks i hodet."
'New Norwegian': "Herregud! Eg har ein øks i hovudet."
The
version on your site ("Hærregud, eg he ein øks i hovudet!"), I'm sorry to say, is completely off the mark. Firstly, 'hærregud'
is a misspelling of 'herregud' in any version of written Norwegian. (It's akin to writing 'oh my gad' instead of 'oh my god'.)
Secondly, 'he' is used in some spoken dialects, but is not an acceptable official spelling of 'har'. Although 'new Norwegian'
is flexible, there are still certain rules to abide. So, the suggested 'new Norwegian' of "Hærregud, eg he ein øks i hovudet!"
is plain wrong. This is not merely my opinion. It is so. Please do not just mention this in the footnote, but correct the
main text. .
Regards,
Christopher Slind Nicholso
[2001 Jun 26] nso@slash-ignore writes:
really cool list..
on note thou..
the norwegian translation is really
really REALLY wrong..
the norwegian translation should read; "Herregud! Jeg har en øks i hodet!"
acctually..
you might want to keep the one that's allready there.. it ain't norwegian.. it's new-norwegian.. a own written and spoken
language..
[2001 Jun 29] Good day to you.
I'm a Norwegian, and I see to my disgust that your Norwegian translation
is wrong. The one you have no your page, is 'written the way people talk', and in a dialect. It is not correct Norwegian.
The wrong sentence:
Hærregud, - Written the way people talk. There is no such word as Hærre, and the words
Herre Gud should be in two words!
eg he ein - north Norwegian dialect!
øks i - correct
hovudet! - Dialect agai
The
correct sentence (and I got the best grades at school!) is:
Herre Gud, jeg har en øks i hodet!
Sincerely
Harald
Sandbakke
Norway
[Ed.: We've now posted a couple of each from Bokmål and Nynorsk. If a fresh round of dispute arises, this can only be
solved in one way. Everyone in Norway will have to get out their axes, approach those with opposing dialects, and... you get
the idea. Ah, for the good old days.]
38 The Quest of Axe has begun in Middle-Earth... the Tolkien scholars are sharpening their baruk
in preparation to mince Peter Jackson's interpretation of Middle-Earth to a nicety. Or, if the need arises, to leave an axe
in his head.
Our thanks to scribe Aaron Griffith for his weapons-take on the subject
"The Quenya translation
could be better, I think:
A Iluvatarinya! En na pelecco carinyesse.
Literally: O Earth-father-mine. There
is [an] ax head-mine-in.
There should be accent marks (indicating long vowels) over the u in Iluvatar, the a
in na, and the a in carinyesse. Iluvatar is more commonly the name the elves use when addressing God. Also, the elves can
say 'in my head' all in one word and probably would, rather than as mi nya car, which is printed currently." [2001 Sep 21]
But
our original entry for Quenya was just as thoughtful:
"Hello. My name is Ian. I was looking for something cool to do,
when all of a sudden, I found your page. It's awesome. My new hobby is to memorize a new way of saying it every day, and say
it to someone.
"I was slightly dissapointed however, when I found a Klingon way of saying it, and not an Elvish
one. JRR Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings series, and there is a movie coming out in mid-December of one of the books.
So, I think that you should put in the Elvish language because it is well developed and spoken by many fanatics across the
country. I took the liberty of looking up how to say the phrase, in hopes that you would put it on your page. Please think
it over. Thank you.
O Erunya! En ná i pelecco mi nya cár.
Oh my God! There is an axe in my head.
"Sorry about
not making a contraction of "there is", but I could not find a way in Elf. If you need verrification that this is a legitimate
language please go to the following page. They have a word bank. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/2196/
"Thanks again. Ian Hardie" [2001 May 21]
Thanks, Ian, though Ilythiiri is arguably an elvish language we've already posted. Also, we are well aware of
Prof. Tolkien's contributions, and have been seeking translations in his languages for some time. In fact, he devised more than one elven language, and developed many variants.
Your translation appears to be in Quenya...
We invite all Ardan scholars out there to keep commenting.
39 Submitted by: S.A.\"Vinuri-Ialoveni\" [2001 Mar 23]
Also this from Wed, Eduard Tone [2001 Mar 21]
Hi
guys! I'm Eddie from Romania, and let me tell you how to say it:
"Oh, Doamne! Am un topor infipt in cap!"
OK? Nice and
practical site you have! See ya!
Eddie
40 Our original "Bozhe moi! Eto topor v moyei golove!" just isn't good enough for native Russian
speakers. So we've posted two alternatives that have arrived; one from Jasmine (see note 22) and another from Anthony
J. Vanchu [2001 Mar 09], apparently at NASA... Clearly they're prepared for the imminent impact of an ancient weapon with
the International Space Station sometime this year
Dear Site Curator:
Great site!!
One note, however: the Russian-language
version of the phrase "Oh my God, there's an axe in my head" on your website, while a workable literal translation, is not
the way a Russian would actually say this. May I suggest instead: "Bozhe moy, u meenya tapor v golove!" (The consensus of
the several native-speakers of Russian with whom I work).
Tony Vanchu
41 More axe crises above the Arctic Circle, from Geir Anders Berg [2001 Mar 13]:
I have one
for you in sámi language: "Vuoi Ipmilahcci! Mus han leat aksu oaivvis"
The Sámi are the indigenous people inhabiting Northern
Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia's Kola eninsula.
Have a nice day :)
Geir Anders Berg
davvIT as
42 Discovered at www.vt.edu. [2000 May 10]
43 Thanks to Dr. Sunil Koswatta [2001 Mar 05]; although we sincerely hope visitors to Ceylon
will never need it:
Sinhala is spoken by about 75% of the population in Sri Lanka.
M. Sunil R. Koswatta, Ph.D.
Faculty
Coordinator
Department of Instructional Technology
Harper College
Palatine, IL 60067.
44 A gender pause from Kathy0284:
I was just reading through your translations and
I came upon the Spanish translation and it says "una hacha". This is incorrect; it should be "un hacha". ALthough it looks
that it should be "una" it takes the masculine form because of hte stressed "h" sound to the word. I only know this because
we recently went over this in my Spanish class ( this is my 7th year of it) at school. Thankyou. [2001 May 13]
45 "In Surinamese, the language spoken in Suriname on the north coast of South America, a former colony
of Holland, it would be:
Tjé mi gado! Mi ab' wang aksi na ini mi édé!
In Suriname a machete would
be more realistic though,
Krook
Delft, Holland"
46 How emphatically are you injured by that Swedish axe? Do you even care? This submission from
Kari Kakkinen [2001 Mar 09] answers all your questions:
(Original submissions: "Ah, Herregud! Jag har en yxa i huvudet!")
I
don't know who gave you the swedish version but to me it's not the the rigth way of saying it, the first part that is.
When
you in swedish use the....Ah ........it can be in a situation where you are disappointed with yourself ....Ah, jag missade
( I missed)....or.....it can be in a situation when you are admireing something.....Aaaah, den är vacker (it's beautiful)
notice the longer Ah, wich in that situation means that you probably really think the "object" is really beautiful.
So......how
is the correct way then ? Like the english way.......Oh
K Kakkinen....Oernskoeldsvik....Swede
47 Thanks to cbooth@es.com for contributing this, with the following commentary:
"Note
that the last vowels in Tanrim and saplanmis are undotted i's; they represent a high back unround vowel. It
seems to me that a site claiming to have translations in many languages should avail itself of a way to represent symbols
and diacritics that aren't part of standard written American English."
The editors wish to note that this page was posted
to meet an emergency no other page on the web provides this service with updates. All the same, we would certainly post gifs
or jpegs of these important translations in their original, non-English character sets if contributors send them i. [2000 May 10]
48 Courtesy Mohammed Farooq [2001 Mar 05]
49 Thanks to Arden Smith for supplying the Volapük translation! [2001 Mar 15]
50 Don't be misunderstood in Belgium. Thanks to Jean-Michel Reghem [2001 Mar 07]:
Here is the
version of this sentence in Wallon (Walloon: french dialect spoken by old people in french speaking part of belgium... Maybe
it is the same for some dialect in the north of France) It's in phonetic, because it is not a language than you can write.
"Nom
dé dju, y a èn hache din m' tièt" (In French: Mon dieu, Il y a une hache dans ma tête)
Jean-Michel Reghem (Mons - Belgium)
51 Translation and text jpeg supplied by the mighty Barry Goldstein, while us goyim were merely
lazing around Christmas week. [2001 Dec 27]
Another submission in Yiddish we recieved from JeffreyW5000,
but, a little unsure he was:
[2001 Jun 06] "It would be a good idea to add Yiddish as a language. I don't
know it exactly, but I think it might be like: Oy Vey, doort is an (axe)in mine kop!
"Actually, it might be:
Oy mayn got, doort is an (ax) in mayn kop!!"
52 [2001 Jul 05] Our second entry from Tolkien's Arda is the bad guy's language, submitted as "Orcish"
by someone going by the Lovecraftian moniker of LudvigPrin:
[2001 Jun 29] Afar vadokanuk, At sapat kok-ishi!
"By
all the dead, there's an axe in my head!"
>From Tolkein's Black Speech
Ed.: This is from a site featuring
"Colloquial Black Speech for Orcs, Trolls and Men", and may be more fan-derived than Tolkienian, but that remains to be seen.
According
to Tolkien canon, the Orcs had many guttural tribal languages but used a degraded form of Zau Ta-folin to communicate between
tribes. The rhyming translation seems amusing, especially since the speaker would likely be joining the ranks of said dead.
This might be a suitable translation for tribes outside the control or knowledge of Sauron (say during one of his long absences)
since their objects of veneration were likely dead and/or evil.
But orcs working for Sauron have a god.
In the opinion of Aetherco, anyone using Zau Ta-folin would not call upon God himself as an epithet, even in vain. It seems
very likely no word for Eru (God) would have been made, since Sauron and his exiled master Morgoth were the only deities worth
worshipping, in Sauron's opinion, at the time Sauron devised the language.
Also since the canon states specifically
that Sauron forbade his servants to spell or speak his name, some symbol of the Dark Lord would have to substitute. Such was
the terror Sauron kept his servants in, that even referring aloud to his Eye was avoided, and so we have chosen the ultimate
scary reference to Sauron, used by orcs Shagrat and Gorbag in The Two Towers: Lugbúrz, the Zau Ta-folin
word for Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower.
Hence, the first translation would literally read, "By the Dark Tower!
there's an axe in my head."
53 Found at damocles.com (!) and wap.org. [2000 May 10]
54 Egyptian and Russian character transcriptions by John McClusky, via the man himself, Johann Jungberger.
An early hint of Yohaun's axes on Usenet: 1994 Jul 20
An early posting of Yohaun's list on Usenet [12 entries]: 1994 Jul 24
First findable correction by a third party [Latin]: 1994 Sep 05
Originally received by Aetherco: 1997 May 12
"Did you ever have a hatchet go right through your face?" George Carlin
