Comments on: Omniglot's Tower of Babel Has Grown!

Omniglot's Tower of Babel Has Grown!

EmpressCallipygos — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:43:44 -0800

The site Omniglot has grown somewhat since its previous mention on the blue. Creator Simon Ager has added glossaries of useful phrases, tips on learning a foreign language, assorted "useful phrases" from other sources he's found amusing (an Esperanto book he quotes shows you how to say "there is a frog in my bidet", for instance) and even more writing systems. Plus -- a page telling you how to say "My hovercraft is full of eels" in 79 different languages.

By: jozxyqk

jozxyqk — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:48:56 -0800

The "frog in my bidet" phrase in Esperanto is a Red Dwarf quote. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually made it into an Esperanto phrasebook though.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:51:43 -0800

Here's the hovercraft/eel page. (Usually I feel sort of immature for thinking written Scots looks funny, but "Ma hoovercraft's breemin' ower wi eyls" is just about the funniest thing I've seen all week and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Hoovercraft! Hooooooovercraft!)

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:04:10 -0800

D'oh! Sorry, I thought I had the right link -- can that be fixed at all?.... Usually I feel sort of immature for thinking written Scots looks funny, but "Ma hoovercraft's breemin' ower wi eyls" is just about the funniest thing I've seen all week and I'm not ashamed to admit it. The Irish Gaelic translation is how I discovered this site first. But my love for the Irish has been replaced by the fact that he actually also has it rendered in KLINGON.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:28:43 -0800

An Esperanto book he quotes shows you how to say "there is a frog in my bidet"... How do you know that's useless? Maybe it's necessary. Have you ever been to Esperana? I didn't think so.

By: pointystick

pointystick — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:22:25 -0800

But there aren't any phrases describing how to get the eels out of the hovercraft, so not very helpful.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:31:24 -0800

also, Ethnologue.

By: rifflesby

rifflesby — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:50:46 -0800

The "frog in my bidet" phrase in Esperanto is a Red Dwarf quote. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually made it into an Esperanto phrasebook though. I wonder which came first? Was the phrasebook edited by a Red Dwarf fan? Or did Rob Grant / Doug Naylor, paging through the phrasebook while writing that episode, happen to come across that phrase?

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:16:43 -0800

But there aren't any phrases describing how to get the eels out of the hovercraft, so not very helpful. You don't need any. Just drive your hovercraft over to Tokyo and park it at the dockyards. There is a whole ISO certified process for unloading the eels and transferring them to the Tsukiji market where you can put them up for auction.

By: darkstar

darkstar — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:47:58 -0800

(BTW, a shout out to Paul Lewis, Editor of the Ethnologue, brilliant sociolinguist, good friend and colleague and all-around awesome guy.)

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:54:15 -0800

โฮเวอร์คราฟท์ของผมเต็มไปด้วยปลาไหล

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:55:22 -0800

The added bonus with the Thai phrase is that if you can't read it, you can still see the visual representation of a hovercraft full of eels.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Sun, 24 May 2009 06:17:37 -0800

I would expect to pay extra for having a frog in my bidet. Keeps the flies and mosquitoes down!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sun, 24 May 2009 07:40:49 -0800

Thanks for this post—I had no idea he'd added all this stuff to Omniglot. These phrases for "I don't understand" demonstrate beautifully the great diversity of modern spoken Arabic: (Egyptian) (ana miš fāhim) أنا مش فاهم (Modern Standard) (lā afham) لا أفهم (Moroccan) (mafhemtš) مافهمتش (Syrian) (māfhemit) مافهمت

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Sun, 24 May 2009 08:02:19 -0800

I've learned that the word "eels" looks remarkably similar in many languages. The word "hovercraft," not so much.