share some animal names that sound funny when translated from your own languagein danish a bat is called flagermustranslated that would be a flappy mouse
pic unrelated?
>>5113080there are flags and an alligator
For the umpteenth time I've mentioned this on this board, "owl" in Mandarin is maotouying: cat head eagle.Another fun one is penguin: chi e. Literally "tiptoe goose".
>>5113073in polish there are many funny scientific names for different insects and spiders. First you give them a cute-sounding first name followed by stupid epithet - like "psotnik zakamarnik" which literally means "troublemaker corner dude"
here we call tarantulas literal bird-spiders
Spider is 蜘蛛It comes from the character 蜘 meaning spider and the character 蛛 meaning spider.
>>5113099There's loads of those in Chinese. IIRC the word for "frog" translates to "water chicken". In Japanese a hornet is a "sparrow-bee", I assume they copied that from China.
zobel>>5113145polish is generally funny
In Norwegian a bat is called a 'flaggermus', translated that would- Oh.I recently learned that the Norwegian word "dyr" (animal) and the English word "deer" both come from the same etymological roots dating back to prehistory. It was one of the first sounds our ancestors made, and it means "animal". Which means that the sound Northern Europeans used when they saw an animal that was not the same kind of animal they said they'd say [d:yr]! Which is cute to imagine. But furthermore it means the word 'regnsdyr' (reindeer) is composed of the words 'horned' and 'animal'. Which is also a very old word and thus reasonably means that ancient cavepeople saw "an animal" and thought that was worth pointing out, but then also some animals with horns, and thought that was worth pointing out as well.However like much fun trivia this is probably not true, but I will still state is fact because the world needs more fun stories about animal names.
>>5113073Microscopic coal
>>5113073Tits lol
>>5113073Florida, Connecticut, Maryland, and... Minnesota? With Norway as her big sis? What is this image. what is the relevance
>>5114154>flaggermuskek
In Sweden we call this the DOOM LORD.
>>5113073the french word for bat is "bald-mouse"
>>5114837The Italian word is pipistrello, which always sounded funny to me. Doesn't have any particular meaning other than "bat", just the sound is humorous, like humuhumunukunukuapua‘a, the state fish of Hawaii (which means "fish with a pig's nose")
Slipper animal, except english doesn't have a diminuitive form for 'animal'. Slipper animal-chan would be the weeb form, I suppose.
norwegian:'mus' (mouse) is our equivalent of the english 'pussy', which adds some extra fun to 'flaggermus' et al.'piggsvin' (hedgehog) -> 'spiky/quick swine''flodsvin' (capybara) -> 'flood/river swine''marsvin' (guinea pig) -> 'ocean swine''grevling' (badger) -> 'someone who digs''svintoks' (badger) -> 'swine badger''apekatt' (monkey) -> 'ape cat''spekkhogger' (orca) -> 'blubber-hewer''vaskebjørn' (raccoon) -> 'washing-bear''øyenstikker' (dragonfly) -> 'eye stabber''kjøttmeis' (great tit) -> 'meat tit''fossekall' (white-throated dipper) -> 'waterfall-geezer''pupper' (pupae) -> 'boobs''skrukketroll' (woodlouse) -> 'wrinkle-troll' / 'perineum-troll''rumpetroll' (tadpole) -> 'ass troll'also my fucking cat>>5114154>But furthermore it means the word 'regnsdyr' (reindeer) is composed of the words 'horned' and 'animal'*reinsdyr'regnsdyr' would be 'rain-animal' - also the etymology of 'reinsdyr' is disputed, but 'horned' would make a lot of sensehere's a fun one in that similar vein though: 'kloakkdyr'
>>5114928forgot one'brilleslange' (indian cobra) -> 'eyeglasses-snake'with an added piece of fun, as 'slange' can mean not only snake, but also 'tube' or 'hose'
>>5114884you could jury-rig "animalette" or "animaling" as diminutives, they're colloquial but understood readily.
obligatory
In English we call anteaters "anteaters" which just means guy who eats ants
The word for bat in French is chauve-souris, which means bald mouse, and it pisses me off because I can't imagine seeing a flying rat for the first time and thinking its most novel feature is being kind of baldish and not the fact that it fucking flies.Also honorable mention to the french word for bird, oiseau, and while it's a perfectly fine word it's just written in a silly "cram as much silent letters in there as possible" way. It's pronounced like wazoo and you'd never guess its spelling.
>>5115285Oiseau is spelled exactly as it would be if you're following French rules. As evidence, see crOIssant and the name bEAU. What're ya gonna complain about next? How grenouille shouldn't be pronounced as it is?
>>5113073In english, we call flying mice “bats” which makes no sense out of context. But in context, it’s clearly a reference to the old sport of hitting bats with clubs (that is, with a bat), a direct ancestor to cricket, itself so named because crickets were dangled from strings to lure in the batters next victim.
>>5115295>following French rules.Yeah "cram as much silent letters in there as possible"
>>5113073It's not my native lang but I think Croatian for shark is "morski pas" which means "sea dog". I noticed it when watching Jaws in Croatia, was funny as fuck.
>>5115299Not any more silent that the H in ship or the second E in tree are. Those two examples follow English "rules" (which pretty much change every other word; English has rules like a ghoti has bicycles).
>>5113145Świerszczokaraczan.Cricket, but also a cockroach.
>>5115310"Sea Dog" was the common English name for sharks prior to the 16th century.
When the Giraffe was first brought to China it was believed to be a mythical qilin, resulting in most asian languages naming Giraffes after qilins or some derivative.
I met an old man in Texas who referred to pocket gophers as "salamanders". It confused the hell out of me, and I came to learn that it's supposedly a bastardization of "sand mounder"pic unrelated.
>dog"dog"! lmaocan you im-fucking-agine?
What I can surmise from this thread is that english is the only language that actually thinks bats are novel enough to have a distinct name instead of just naming them after something else
>>5117239See >>5114844>The Italian word is pipistrello
>>5115247Porpoise is an interesting one to me. Not only do they have various pig-related names in almost all European languages from Portugese to Russian (including English, with porpoise itself being a bastardization of Latin for "pig fish") but independently also in Chinese and Chinese-influenced languages (海豚, "sea pig"). Wouldn't it be more intuitive to call them "small whales" or "round dolphins" or something?
>>5115247I have never heard or seen the word "Seeschwein". Only "Seekuh", which translates to sea cow.
>>5117239Finnish has three names for them:Lepakko (official, more common) - flutterer Nahkasiipi (unofficial, rarer) - leatherwingSiippi (old fashioned, still used in couple species names) - winged one
>
>>5117360That's not conjugation. That's declension. Linguistics and grammar have too many terms that mean almost the same thing so I get why the mistake was made.
>>5113073In ebonics we call crows little niggas
>>5114130this translate to kumo, like a cloud
My uncle once told me Polynesians say "shouting pig" for dogPuakāoa
Also in Lakota "horse" translates to "holy dog"Šuŋkawakaŋ
>>5117360"koira" is probably just a common word that forms lots of compounds, like in German
>>5117239in Japanese they're known as koomori
>>5114928Raccoons are known as washing-bears in other languages like German, Hungarian, and Japanese
>>5113073Here's some Romanian onesTurtle = Broască țestoasă = Shelled frogPorcupine = Porc-spinos = Thorny pigLadybug = Buburuză = Little bumpDragonfly = Calul dracului = The devil's horseBat = Liliac = LilacCockroach = Gândacul de bucătărie = Kitchen beetleLynx = Râs = Laugh
>>5122688In french raccoons are called "raton laveurs" which literally means washing baby rat, but raton more commonly refers to raccoons than it does to baby rats, so it's more like the french word for raccoon is just washing raccoon.
>>5123393we have Romanians posting here?
>>5114844At the opposite end of the spectrum, the hawaiian word for booby (the seabird) is just “a” because that’s the noise they make.
>>5125224Very much so!https://archive.palanq.win/wsr/search/text/no%20%22in%20romania%22/order/asc/page/2/
Japanese for albatross is ahodori, or dumb bird.
>>5126024rude
>>5117468Great auks were called penguins and now that they’re extinct, we call penguins penguins because they look like great auks.
>>5115351english being shit doesn't give french a loicense to be shit as well
>>5117257To the ancient man every fat round animal is a pig
>>5113246some eat birds
>>5115247There's seehund too, sea dog = seal.I thought they were taking the piss when they told me the word nilpferd. They saw a hippo and thought "kind of like a horse (pferd), right? but just in the nile (nil)? ja nahr genug"Also, I asked them the word for centipede. they said tausendfüßler (thousand-footer). I said well what do you call millipedes? They just became confused and didn't answer.
>>5115351those are terrible examples, there are tonnes of other word have silly letters in there and you pick two that are completely straight forward basic spellings with no excess in there.
>>5115247lol
>>5115247why are guinea pigs "ocean piglets"?
>>5114928>'øyenstikker' (dragonfly) -> 'eye stabber'uh, based?
>>5130400Maybe because they were imported from overseas or because something got misconstrued?
>>5128903>completely straight forward basic spellings with no excess in there.To an English speaker. Just as oiseau and grenouille are completely straight forward basic spellings with no excess in there to a francophone.You do understand that phonetics vary language to language, don't you? You're not a monoglot, right? …right?
>>5128901Hippopotamus literally means "river horse". Am I the only multilingual person on this board or something? Bilingualism doesn't count. I have to explain phonetics to one guy then explain that nilpferd is a perfectly valid Deutschbag localisation of the original Greek name.
>>5131734Hippos don't resemble horses
>>5123393>bats compared to flowerssweet
>>5133012To you, who learned about them in colorful books in elementary school. To the explorers who discovered them, their head shapes were wide but kind of similar, their skin wasn't that dissimilar to a horse's thin fur, and they couldn't see their feet, so imagining hooves there from the only other animal anywhere near close was as good as they got.
There are some interesting ones in Hawaiian, the language is full of interesting stuff like this.bat = ʻōpeʻapeʻa = leaf that flutters cat = pōpoki peʻelua = caterpillar cat because the stripessnail = pūpū kuahiwi = land shellmonk seal = ʻīlioholoikauaua = dog that runs in rough watermanta ray = hahalua = two breaths, perhaps the two lobes were interpreted as seperate mouthsoctopus = heʻe = one who slides triggerfish = humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa = fish with a pig snout
>>5134291*tabby cat, pōpoki is a Hawaiianization of "pussy"
while I'm a native english speaker it's always funny to me how different places that speak english can be confused by local termsPolecat = skunkCatamount = mountain lionWasper = waspSnot otter = hellbenderMudpuppy = any other salamanderSkeeters = mosquitosBoomer = red squirrel (yes, really)Buzzard = vultureCooter = pond turtleLoggerhead = snapping turtleI've even heard people get confused when I say "gator" even though I figure that's a pretty common shorthand?
>>5134291Always entertaining how mullet and jacks got multiple names based on their size/ life stage because they’re important sports fish/ aquaculture species. Then, nearly every Hawaiian butterflyfish species got lumped under the name, lauwiliwili (wiliwili leaf). >These suck to eat and look like a wiliwili leaves. We’re done here.
>>5114154I think this is true about ‘dog’ as well. Loads of seemingly unrelated languages iirc have ‘ban’ to mean dog. Vietnamese, Chinese, Celtic languages, etc.
>>5115285Now do the French for ‘pet’. Go on. Show everyone how fucking camp and over the top French is even for the most basic words. Do ‘earrings’ as well just for a laugh.
>>5134330probably derived from them barking
