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Runk encourages men to go on the pull?
Swedish fashion label H&M have appointed an American size 12 model, Jenny Runk, to be the face and body of their new swimwear collection.
H&M have proudly been informing the world’s media that she has a “normal sized body”.
However, they may get some unexpected comments back home in Sweden, because in Swedish “runk” or “runka” translates as jerk-off or masturbate.
http://biggeekdad.com/2013/04/how-southern-women-talk/
Remember y’all, UPS translates from British English into American English and visa versa.
Thy mama’s so fat…
As most people know, Shakespeare was a prolific writer who invented many words and phrases which are now fixed as part of the English language.
In fact he invented well over 1,700 words or phrases, a colossal number when one thinks about it.
You may not even be aware of the words we use everyday that were coined by the great bard.
The following English words were all invented by Shakespeare, or at least his works contain the first known recorded usage of these words:
Obscene: Love’s Labours Lost, Act I, Scene i, Ferdinand to Costard.
“Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter
that obscene and preposterous event, that draweth
from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which
here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest;”
Skim Milk: Henry IV, Part I, Act II, Scene iii, Hotspur Soliloquy.
“O, I could divide myself
and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of
skim milk with so honourable an action!”
Eyeball: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii, Oberon to Puck.
“Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye;
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
To take from thence all error with his might,
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.”
Puking: As You Like It, Act II, Scene vii, Jaques to Duke Senior.
“They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.”
Hot-blooded: King Lear, Act II, Scene iv, King Lear to Regan.
“Necessity’s sharp pinch! Return with her?
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
To knee his throne, and, squire-like;”
The Game is afoot: Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene iii, Northumberland to Hotspur.
“Before the game is afoot, thou still let’st slip.”
Epileptic: King Lear, Act II, Scene ii, Kent to Cornwall.
“A plague upon your epileptic visage!
Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?
Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,
I’ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot.”
Wormhole: The Rape of Lucrece.
“To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,
To feed oblivion with decay of things,
To blot old books and alter their contents,
To pluck the quills from ancient ravens’ wings.”
Alligator: Romeo and Juliet (First Folio), Act V, Scene I, Romeo Soliloquy.
“And in his needie shop a Tortoyrs hung,
An Allegater stuft, and other skins
Of ill shap’d fishes, and about his shelues,
A beggerly account of emptie boxes.”
An aspect of Shakespeare’s genius I enjoy is his penchant for sharp insults.
The list below was not created by us and is of unknown origin – rather than the usual stayed and boring four letter words, the next time you feel the need to comment on the cut of someone’s jib, try a Shakespearian insult.
Start with a Thy or Thou and then select one word from each column:
Thou pribbling toad-spotted strumpet
An on-line Shakespearian insulter based on the insult kit above is available here: http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/
The French linguistic authority, l’académie française, is known for its staunch protection of the French language from interference from other languages- particularly when it comes to English. However, it seems that the Académie’s Canadian cousin, the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF), takes a rather more draconian approach to protecting the French spoken in Quebec. Of course, in a bilingual province, efforts must be made to ensure that one language does not become overly dominant, but it seems that these measures may have been pushed a little too far lately.
In an incident which has now been dubbed “pasta-gate” the province’s language police (yes, they really do have language police) were sent to a popular Italian restaurant and requested that the owner remove the word “pasta” from his menu as it was not French; much to his bemusement the authorities also were also unimpressed with the appearance of the word “botiglia” rather than the French “bouteille”. Since the demand was made public other restaurateurs have come forward to say that they too have been subject to unusual requests. One was asked to cover the on/off button on a microwave as it was in English, whilst another was reprimanded for having a chef’s shopping list on a kitchen chalkboard which listed “steak” (often used in France) rather than the approved Quebecois “biftek”.
Following the embarrassment caused by the “pasta-gate”, the President of OQLF, Louise Marchand was forced to leave her post. A spokesperson for the organisation released a statement saying that “The office will consider this restaurant’s particular situation while taking into account exceptions relating to foreign specialties”, and admitted that it may have been over-zealous in its attempt to promote French language in public places.
As the longest running company in the translation industry, UPS Translations is fortunate to have experience across many industries. Legal, financial and technical translations are a large part of what we do – but we also specialise in creative projects for film, TV, advertising and media.
One of the most challenging aspects of translation is creative language – wordplay just isn’t straight forward to translate and often the target language has no direct equivalent to a particular creative phrase. Even more so when it comes to made-up words which seek to impact the same emotions to an audience in another language.
Over the years UPS Translations have created fictional imaginary Eastern European states for Spooks and we’ve provided James Bond with a throwaway quip in Japanese (no easy task considering they don’t tell jokes in the conventional sense in Japan), we’ve even translated Fijian rugby poetry.
We’ve even been asked to translate some rap for a global ad campaign.
So, it was with great amusement that we recently discovered Gizoogle http://www.gizoogle.net - a tool which puts the Snoop doggy Dog into translation.
The front page of our old fashioned website – which will be refreshed imminently folks – contains the following piece of copy:
As good as our words
When you need a translation you can rely on. When it has to be as faithful as possible. When your business depends on it.
That’s when you call in UPS. UPS Translations offer comprehensive, mother tongue translations of the written word, the spoken word, the digital word, the scripted word and the creative word. And because you need the work delivered on time, on brief and on budget, you can have our word on that too.
We won awards for our website copy when it was fist published, but if we were asked to provide the same text in Gangsta Slang – well, that would be a new one.
Over the years we’ve had obscure requests for all kinds of tribal dialects and even dead languages like Latin or Egyptian Hieroglyphics; we’ve even had the odd bit of Klingon.
But – if one absoshizznitlutely positively had to translate into Ganagsta – then here’s how our website would read :
As phat as our lyrics
When you need a translation you can rely on. I aint talkin’ bout chicken n’ gravy biatch. When it has ta be as faithful as possible. When yo’ bidnizz dependz on dat shit.
Thatz when you call up in UPS. UPS Translations offer comprehensive, mutha tongue translationz of tha freestyled word, tha spoken word, tha digital word, tha scripted word n’ tha creatizzle word. Y’all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! And cuz you need tha work served up on time, on brief n’ on budget, you can have our word on dat too.
See the full Gangsta UPS Translations site at http://www.gizoogle.net/xfer.php?link=http://www.upstranslations.com/&sa=U&ei=MOE9UaHZM8mV7AbvlYCICQ&ved=0CBgQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNHWy0cu95Cu-f8SX818hsg_mSCa0g
Tranzizzle in da Hood
I love you
Just in time for Hallmark Valentine’s Day and courtesy of a joint effort by our EULOGIA consortium partners: lists like this have been circulating around the internet for years and we’re attempting to use crowd-sourcing to make this the most accurate list ever.
The observant reader will notice that Elvish is included but not Klingon or Dalek – that’s because it’s extremely discourteous to say ” I love you” to a Dalek or a Klingon, and we prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to reader safety.
All EU languages have been confirmed but if you think any of these translations can be improved, do contact us.
Afrikaans – Ek het jou lief Albanian – Te dua Arabic – Ana behibak (to male)Arabic – Ana behibek (to female) Armenian – Yes kez sirumem Bambara – M’bi fe Bengali – Ami tomake bhalobashi Belarusian – Ya tabe kahayu Bisaya– Nahigugma ako kanimo Bulgarian — ?????? ?? Cambodian – Soro lahn nhee ah Catalan – T’estimo Cherokee – Tsi ge yu i Cheyenne – Ne mohotatseChichewa – Ndimakukonda Chinese Cantonese – Ngo oiy ney a Mandarin – Wo ai ni Comanche – U kamakutu nu Corsican – Ti tengu caru (to male) Cree – Kisakihitin Creole – Mi aime jou Croatian – Volim te Czech — Miluji t? Danish— Jeg elsker dig Dutch — Ik hou van jou Elvish – Amin mela lle (from The Lord of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien) English - I love you Esperanto – Mi amas vinEstonian — Ma armastan sind Ethiopian – Afgreki’ Faroese – Eg elski teg Farsi– Doset daram Filipino – Mahal kita Finnish – Mina rakastan sinua French – Je t’aime, Je t’adore Frisian – Ik hald fan dy Gaelic – Ta gra agam ort Georgian – Mikvarhar German – Ich liebe dich Greek – S’agapo Gujarati – Hoo thunay prem karoo choo Hiligaynon – Palangga ko ikaw Hawaiian – Aloha Au Ia`oeHebrew To female – “ani ohev otach” (said by male) “ohevet Otach” (said by female) To male - “ani ohev otcha” (said by male) “Ohevet ot’cha” (said by female) Hiligaynon - Guina higugma ko ikaw Hindi – Hum Tumhe Pyar Karte hae Hmong – Kuv hlub koj Hopi – Nu’ umi unangwa’ta Hungarian – SzeretlekIcelandic – Eg elska tig Ilonggo – Palangga ko ikaw Indonesian – Saya cinta padamu Inuit – Negligevapse Irish – Taim i’ ngra leat Italian – Ti amoJapanese – Aishiteru or Anata ga daisuki desu Kannada – Naanu ninna preetisuttene Kapampangan – Kaluguran daka Kiswahili - NakupendaKonkani - Tu magel moga cho Korean – Sarang Heyo or Nanun tangshinul sarang hamnida Latin – Te amo Latvian — Es m?lu tevi Lebanese – BahibakLithuanian — Aš tave myliu Luxembourgeois – Ech hun dech gaerMacedonian – Te Sakam Malay – Saya cintakan mu / Aku cinta padamuMalayalam – Njan Ninne Premikunnu Maltese – Inhobbok Marathi – Me tula prem karto Mohawk - Kanbhik Moroccan – Ana moajaba bik Nahuatl – Ni mits neki Navaho – Ayor anosh’ni Ndebele – Niyakutanda NorwegianBokmaal – Jeg elsker deg Nyonrsk – Eg elskar deg Pandacan – Syota na kita!!Pangasinan – Inaru Taka Papiamento – Mi ta stimabo Persian – Doo-set daaram Pig Latin – Iay ovlay ouyay Polish — Kocham Ci? Portuguese – Eu te amo Romanian – Te iubesc Russian — ? ???? ????? Scot Gaelic – Tha gra\dh agam ort Serbian – Volim te Setswana – Ke a go rata Sign Language – „,/ (represents position of fingers when signing ‘I Love You’) Sindhi – Maa tokhe pyar kendo ahyan Sioux – Techihhila Slovak — ?úbim ?a Slovenian — Ljubim te Spanish — Te amo Swahili – Ninapenda wewe Swedish — Jag älskar digSwiss-German – Ich lieb Di Surinam – Mi lobi joe Tagalog – Mahal kitaTaiwanese – Wa ga ei li Tahitian – Ua Here Vau Ia Oe Tamil – Nan unnai kathalikaraen Telugu – Nenu ninnu premistunnanu Thai – Phom rak khunTunisian – Ha eh bak Turkish – Seni Seviyorum Ukrainian – Ya tebe kahayuUrdu – mai aap say pyaar karta hoo Vietnamese – To female – Anh ye^u emWelsh – ‘Rwy’n dy garu di Yiddish – Ikh hob dikh Yoruba – Mo ni fe Zazi - Ezhele hezdege Zuni - Tom ho’ ichema
For many English speakers, conversing with Anglophone natives from another country can be an enlightening experience linguistically speaking. Take the difference between US English and British English for example, where confusion over the meaning of the word “fanny” could be somewhat embarassing; likewise, an Australian native saying “grab your thongs (BrE “Flipflops”) girls, we’re heading to the beach!” to a group of British English speakers could lead to a rather more risqué outing than intended.Thanks to popular culture these variations of the English language are often exchanged through music, films, books and so on. It is therefore not difficult for an Anglophone to “translate” these words, regardless of which country they come from. For example, most Brits will know that the US English “sidewalk” is the equivalent of “pavement” and the “trunk” of the car is the “boot”. It will come as no surprise then to learn that Spanish speakers encounter exactly the same problem when it comes to the difference between European Spanish and Latin American Spanish, and also the linguistic differences that exist from country to country in Latin America. The video below is the perfect (and rather humorous) illustration of the complexity of the Spanish language and the problems that can be encountered as a non-native speaker trying to learn it:
Tu or Vous?
The other night I was typing an e-mail to my cousin in France.
Although I have good French and indeed I work at a translation company (UPS Translations, established in 1947 is probably the oldest existing company in the global language services industry), I’m not a French translator and wanted to make sure my spelling was correct.
So, I did something very unusual – I went on (queue Wicked Witch of the West or Darth Vader music) Google Translate.
Now, I should make clear that automated computer aided translation or machine translation is anathema to professional translators – indeed here’s a link to a previous Upon My Word article where the case against machine translation is clearly made - technology has improved somewhat in the last 5 years, but the basics still hold true: http://uponmyword.com/the-case-against-automated-computer-translations
However, for those times where it’s not a business critical communication or you need a cheap and dirty result – Google Translate is of course, good value. Whereas we would never dream of using Google when providing professional translation services (in fact, of the many applications we receive from freelance translators, only a very small % make it onto our books), for this personal e-mail, late at night, it seemed the way to go.
For those of you who don’t have any French language knowledge, I should explain briefly that French has two forms of the word “you” – the ‘vous’ form is more formal and polite when referring to the singular, and is also used for the plural (referring to a group or showing politeness when addressing a stranger) - conversely the “tu” form is an informal term, or used when addressing say a child.
Amongst very close family members it would be somewhat strange these days to use the “vous” form in French.
Now, the thing is – try as I might, I couldn’t get Google Translate to use the “tu” form – which meant my language sounded far too formal and strangely clunky – especially for addressing someone close.
Modern English does not have a separate polite and non-polite form, but old English does; we used to use the word “thou” as a more intimate way of addressing someone. Nowadays the word “thou” is confined to “‘ye olde English”, Shakespeare and the like.
Google translate is based on statistical inference (not structural parsing / substitution), so the vous/tu usage tends to be highly inconsistent. To illustrate this, here are two very similar sentences in English – where Google Translate has taken different routes – whether this is down to algorithms or an assumption that “pretty” is more intimate than “nice” is unclear.
you are very pretty -> tu es très jolie
you are very nice -> vous êtes très belle
The same issues were true in German where “du” and “Sie” are the intimate and more formal terms, respectively.
You can test this very easily – type “where do you want to go today?” into Google Translate and it returns the French translation: “où voulez-vous aller aujourd’hui?” (note the “vous” form); whereas in German it gives the less formal “du” form “wo willst du heute gehen?”; contrastingly if I try the English phrase “are you well?” Google offers the rather formal German “sind Sie gut?”.
So, in order to arrive at French that sounded contemporary and normal, I found myself typing Shakespearian English into Google Translate. My simple message of “hi Serge, how are you doing …”, became “hi Serge, how art thou…”.
Now I’m all for technology making life easier – but there’s a delicious irony to finding that the only way Google Translate will provide correct informal conversational French or German, is to type the source text in ye olde English!
What thinkest thou?
According to researcher Lars Hinrichs, a linguistics professor at the University of Texas, Austin, mass media and pop culture are to blame for the decline of the Texan drawl. “Everybody that grows up in America nowadays has a TV, and so they learn how to sound generally American,”
Traditionally, Texans speak ‘Ainglish’ with either too many vowels or removing them entirely, which is the key to the famous Texan accent.
So, a typical question in a local shop might be “can I do in’thang for you?”.
The American accent has many regional variants, but a good starting point is to slightly protrude the jaw and flatten the tongue.
At UPS Translations we’re specialists in coaching actors in accents and foreign dialogue. We’re often called upon to attend shoots and even casting sessions, in addition to working with talent ahead of the shoot.When it comes to American accents, we understand how to meet the brief – whether a ‘standardised’ mid-Atlantic, West Coast or New York accent is required. We even teach models and actors how to get the correct mouth shapes for different dialects, so when they’re later dubbed in post production we can achieve perfect lip-synch.
Dropped Gs are a common feature in the Lone Star state’s accent – so stop all that procrastinatin’, because there’s plenty a huntin’ and fishin’ awaitin’.
Of course, if you simply copy the stock phases you’ll be branded a City Slicker in no time and will clearly show yourself to be “all hat and no horse”.
So, the advice is to invent your own Texan phrases, as The Times recently reported: “Wing it, if you dare,” says Peter Lopez from Sweetwater, Texas. “Let the metaphors fly. Texan is nuttin’ if not colourful, so go to town, make stuff up, invent words if you must. Alliterate, elaborate, and incorporate.”
Here’s one, complete with made-up swear words: ”dog-gun it and dag nog it – he was scared as a sinner in a cyclone.”
Because the Texas accent is often associated with cowboy chivalry and toughness, it’s ironic that English speaking men tend to use this to their advantage by putting on the Texan drawl when they want to appear especially romantic (“yes ma’am”) or tough, by lowering the register and adding the twang.
A few choice Texan phrases and their translations:
Texan All hat and no horse Translation All bark and no bite
Texan Now that’s a toad choker Translation It’s raining cats and dogs!
Texan He’s walkin’ in tall cotton Translation He’s rich
Texan He’s ridin’ a gravy train with biscuit wheels Translation He’s very lucky
Texan I’m all swole up Translation I’m feeling rather annoyed
Texan I’m fixin’ to go to the store Translation I’m thinking about going shopping
Texan Yeehaa! Translation Hurrah!
Texan Boy, you gonna take a piss or get off the pot! Translation Do hurry up.
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