I'm guessing that 99% of anyone visiting this blog today already know what the A-Z challenge is, and the remaining 1% will be capable of clicking the icon in the sidebar to find out. Therefore, I will not go into details about why I am blogging six out of seven days a week this month, or why my titles suddenly will seem to have a peculiar relationship with the alphabet.
I'm also guessing that a great deal of the 800 other blogs participating in the A-Z challenge will also write about "April" today (funny how that seems appropriate), with the notable exception of Mary who claims we had a mind-melt over titles (only I used mine on Wednesday).
So what? April is a good topic to blog about. It's a spring month. At least if you're not living in Norway. Which I currently am. But we have great hopes of spring eventually catching up with us. Before summer...
Fine. So April isn't the most interesting of subjects. How about April Fool's Day? Anybody fool you today? I'm suspecting my dad will have a go - he usually does. As a kid he managed to trick me, often (when I was a kid, I mean. I didn't know my dad when he was a kid). When I grew older, I was prepared. But I never tricked him back. You'd think I would be able to, but I don't seem to plan well enough for this "beloved" holiday. Last year I had a go with my blog readers, though I think it probably only served to make them forever skeptical about the logic of my native language.
Perhaps I'd do better to choose a different topic than April, then. Aardvark? Algorithms?
Arthochromatic erythroblast? Nah... I think I'll just call it a post and await tomorrow. B. B for bullfinch? Bubble baths? Brittle? I may have to think this through some more...
Showing posts with label April Fools' Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label April Fools' Day. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2011
Friday, April 2, 2010
On April Fools
In case you hadn’t noticed, today is April the second. Which means that yesterday was April Fools’ Day. I’m often one to be fooled rather than one to fool (my dad is a real expert), but this year I thought I’d see if I couldn’t utilize the fact that I have a blog where the majority of readers don’t speak my native language. It is in the nature of the April Fools’ Day hoax that it should be somewhat easy to expose (thus the title – "Foolish Norwegian". Also take notice of the labels at the bottom of the post). I am aware that this was the case with my poor attempt. You wouldn’t have to challenge google very much to figure out that the Norwegian word for banana is banan, that our word for popcorn is popkorn, and that Rattus Norvegicus in Norway is known as rotte.
The word gulbøy really does mean “yellow bend”, but it isn’t an actual word. It is the result of an urban legend that travels between Sweden and Norway – the Swedes are taught that this is the Norwegian word for banana, and the Norwegians are taught that it is the Swedish word.
The word sprettmais should be the Norwegian word for popcorn, but in reality it is a word I came up with the other day when realizing that sweet corn [mais] will also bounce when fried. They didn’t pop, though.
Luremus is a (slang) word in Norwegian, but it certainly has nothing to do with rats (at least not in the sense I presented it yesterday). Rather, a luremus is a girl who pretends that she wants to have sex, but then backs out. A tease.
Finally, the octopus/squid. I have heard both translated to the Norwegian word, which indeed is blekksprut. And yes, it absolutely means “ink squirt”. Always include a bit of reality in a hoax in order to increase the credibility…
So, did I fool you?
The word gulbøy really does mean “yellow bend”, but it isn’t an actual word. It is the result of an urban legend that travels between Sweden and Norway – the Swedes are taught that this is the Norwegian word for banana, and the Norwegians are taught that it is the Swedish word.
The word sprettmais should be the Norwegian word for popcorn, but in reality it is a word I came up with the other day when realizing that sweet corn [mais] will also bounce when fried. They didn’t pop, though.
Luremus is a (slang) word in Norwegian, but it certainly has nothing to do with rats (at least not in the sense I presented it yesterday). Rather, a luremus is a girl who pretends that she wants to have sex, but then backs out. A tease.
Finally, the octopus/squid. I have heard both translated to the Norwegian word, which indeed is blekksprut. And yes, it absolutely means “ink squirt”. Always include a bit of reality in a hoax in order to increase the credibility…
So, did I fool you?
Thursday, April 1, 2010
On Foolish Norwegian (lesson # 4, I think)
WARNING! Below is an April Fools' Day post constructed entirely to check just how gullible my readers are (or how silly they think the Norwegian language is). For details on the actual meaning of the words presented here, check out my explanatory April 2nd post.
Norwegians might be silly, but considering our silly language, it would be sillier if we weren’t silly. (I just spent my entire daily quota of the word silly in one sentence!)
One of the things that make the Norwegian language so silly (this is going out of tomorrow’s allocation!) is our sometimes ridiculous translations of perfectly normal English words. (Well, they aren’t always translations. Some of them were words in Norwegian before we were sophisticated enough to know there was such a thing as an English language. But you know what I mean.) Like the Norwegian word for banana. When the fruit was imported to Norway for the first time in the late 19th century, winds of nationalism were blowing over the soon-to-be independent Norway. Thus, the fruit internationally recognized as “banana” was dubbed with a Norwegian name. Today the banana is still known in Norway as gulbøy [yellow bend].
Similarly, popcorn was first introduced to Norwegian customers in the early 1950s. Embracing the American popular culture, Norwegians were eager to try anything from "the States". Popcorn immediately became popular [pun intended], but it was under a Norwegian name it was to gain most of its followers. Sprettmais [bounce corn] originally was just a brand name, but eventually this became the common word to describe any kind of popcorn in Norway. A 2002 court order prevents any other brands to use the registered name Sprettmais, but it doesn’t prevent ordinary people from calling any kind of popcorn by this name.
You may have met the often unappreciated creature Rattus Norvegicus – the common brown rat. While its Latin name clearly is linked to Norway (Google failed to enlighten me how exactly, though), its Norwegian name does not appreciate this at all. The Norwegian name for rat is luremus, which directly translates to “trick mouse” or perhaps more accurately “fake mouse”. A rat is thus a mouse that is not a mouse.
The weirdest of all the Norwegian sillinesses, however, is to be found under water. In English there are (at least) two words for what we in Norwegian somewhat inaccurately call by only one: The English words “squid” and “octopus” both translates to the Norwegian blekksprut. Inaccurate as this might be, what is truly noticeable about the word blekksprut is its meaning. Directly translated, it means “ink squirt”. Tell me that isn’t funny!
Norwegians might be silly, but considering our silly language, it would be sillier if we weren’t silly. (I just spent my entire daily quota of the word silly in one sentence!)
One of the things that make the Norwegian language so silly (this is going out of tomorrow’s allocation!) is our sometimes ridiculous translations of perfectly normal English words. (Well, they aren’t always translations. Some of them were words in Norwegian before we were sophisticated enough to know there was such a thing as an English language. But you know what I mean.) Like the Norwegian word for banana. When the fruit was imported to Norway for the first time in the late 19th century, winds of nationalism were blowing over the soon-to-be independent Norway. Thus, the fruit internationally recognized as “banana” was dubbed with a Norwegian name. Today the banana is still known in Norway as gulbøy [yellow bend].
Similarly, popcorn was first introduced to Norwegian customers in the early 1950s. Embracing the American popular culture, Norwegians were eager to try anything from "the States". Popcorn immediately became popular [pun intended], but it was under a Norwegian name it was to gain most of its followers. Sprettmais [bounce corn] originally was just a brand name, but eventually this became the common word to describe any kind of popcorn in Norway. A 2002 court order prevents any other brands to use the registered name Sprettmais, but it doesn’t prevent ordinary people from calling any kind of popcorn by this name.
You may have met the often unappreciated creature Rattus Norvegicus – the common brown rat. While its Latin name clearly is linked to Norway (Google failed to enlighten me how exactly, though), its Norwegian name does not appreciate this at all. The Norwegian name for rat is luremus, which directly translates to “trick mouse” or perhaps more accurately “fake mouse”. A rat is thus a mouse that is not a mouse.
The weirdest of all the Norwegian sillinesses, however, is to be found under water. In English there are (at least) two words for what we in Norwegian somewhat inaccurately call by only one: The English words “squid” and “octopus” both translates to the Norwegian blekksprut. Inaccurate as this might be, what is truly noticeable about the word blekksprut is its meaning. Directly translated, it means “ink squirt”. Tell me that isn’t funny!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
