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[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 14 points 2 days ago

not to go to bat for the swedes but the fact that "your word means something funny in english" is a mainstay of even international english speaking community is just absolute american cultural victory

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Honestly I have mixed feelings about these types of jokes for basically that reason. I grew up speaking both English and Norwegian and I've made these sorts of jokes both about Norwegian words sounding funny in English, and about English words sounding funny in Norwegian, or words in neither language sounding funny in either, and I don't think these types of jokes are inherently a bad thing — provided they aren't being used to establish or reproduce a hierarchy between languages.

Laughing at "fart" being Scandinavian for "speed" is really just acknowledging that languages you already speak color your perception of languages you don't speak. I would argue that not laughing, and instead insisting on treating every single language with utmost dead seriousness 24/7, would really be worse for those actually interested in learning. The simple shock factor of seeing a serious-looking action movie poster with the word "FART" on it, or a traffic sign saying "MAX FART", is probably going to make it a bit easier for Anglophones to remember that "fart" is Scandinavian for "speed", in much the same way as I'm never going to forget that the Japanese Sign Language for "big brother", "little brother", and "brothers" looks like flipping someone off: regardless of the context of how you learned the words, if you later decide to learn these languages for-realsies, you will have a few words' head start!

So these types of jokes really just become a problem when people start saying things like "Norwegian/Swedish/Danish isn't a real language", or this ends up becoming the sort of unspoken sentiment in the air with people sharing Swedish Chef pictures and stuff. Because at that point you've gone from acknowledging your own bias, to actually judging the other language for being different. That type of line, "not a real language", implies that the language is inherently comical and unserious, that it isn't worthwhile, that it should be "put away like a child's toy" in any sort of serious context. In the case of Germanic languages being called "unserious" by Anglophones, this judgment I'd argue is actually deeply tied to the class connotations of Germanic vs Romance vocabulary in English, going all the way back to the Norman conquest.

Edit: Not that I think this is necessarily people's conscious intent, I think people are really just trying to be hyperbolic when they say it isn't a "real language" — I'm just saying that this is the sort of subconscious bias that gets manifested in threads like this one.

[-] quarrk@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

It was funny the first time I went to Stockholm and thought people were being silly with the Kermit voices. But it’s actually a regular vowel sound in that language and they allegedly struggle to hear his it’s different

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 15 points 2 days ago

Someone find that picture of the Swedish children's book of animal names and there's a page of a goat and its young and it just says "get killing"

[-] dannoffs@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago

geef me een klap papa

[-] FnordPrefect@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago

kombucha-disgust That's a very different movie when you're stuck on a bus and everyone has to keep Fart over 55...Perfect opportunity for a break out performance by Keanu Beans though beanis

[-] Speaker@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

How did you miss "Beanu"?

[-] babydriver@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 days ago

“It’s not the fart that kills, it’s the smell” - some norwegian racer guy

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

Petter Solberg, who had a lot of other quotes involving mixing up Norwegian and English words

[-] Parsani@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

Idk at least they regulate farts. Fucking tankies all about the state until that state tells them to kkkontrol their farts

[-] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

On TrueAnon they mentioned that Trump once dated a Norwegian woman named Celina Midelfart

[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago

Need for fart

[-] BigBoyKarlLiebknecht@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

If I remember correctly - speed bump = “fart hinder”

Edit: oh and I think entrance / exit in Icelandic is “infart” and “utfart”

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago

Fartsdumper is speedbumps in Norwegian

infart / utfart is Swedish not Icelandic. I will tell you that restroom in Icelandic is "snyrting" which always amused me

[-] Index@feddit.nl 3 points 2 days ago

It's not infart and utfart in Icelandic.

It's "inngangur" and "útgangur"

Source: Am Icelandic

[-] context@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago

yeah it's from the same proto-germanic root as the english word "farther"

[-] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Proto-Indo-European is believed to have *perd- for fart and *per- for forward. I wonder if there were any puns as a result

[-] SuperZutsuki@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago

Not left, not right, fartward

[-] Name@feddit.nu 4 points 2 days ago

The movie poster is in Norwegian or possibly Danish though. But yes, fart is speed, even though that speed would translate better to hastighet.

[-] sawne128@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

Hastighet = velocity (vektor)

Fart = speed (skalär)

[-] Name@feddit.nu 1 points 2 days ago

Sure but in daily talk you wouldn't translate hastighet to velocity but speed.

[-] Edie@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Gjør deg

Norwegian

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago
[-] Name@feddit.nu 1 points 2 days ago

I suppose a literal translation would be suddeness 😅

[-] bananon@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago
[-] SteamedHamberder@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

Look up what “out of stock” is

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

If you're referring to slutsåld then honestly slut just means end

[-] blandfordforever@lemm.ee 1 points 2 days ago

This man has a distaste for slut salad.

[-] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 0 points 2 days ago

They should have called it "Bussen Som Inte Kunde Sakta Ner"

[-] Ram_The_Manparts@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

:che-laugh:

this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
51 points (100.0% liked)

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