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September 29 Information
translation needed
I found a piece of paper in my grandmothers bible, it starts out in English then switches to something i have never seen like a short hand or different language i was wondering is there anywhere i can get it translated. Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
67.142.180.26 (
talk)
03:08, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
Did your grandmother, or anybody whom you know to have had the Bible speak a language (or languages) other than English? Falconusptc08:21, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
In the movie it's pronounced Yàn. (Also in my DVD of that movie the traditional character subtitles have it as 雁, not 燕; that's also a bird word.) rʨanaɢ (
talk)
04:14, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
It's a bit of meaningless German onomatopoeia, probably made up by puberty-stricken schoolboys to trick each other into saying "Fotze" (which is a rather rude word for female genitalia, and sure to produce giggles among ten-year-olds). If you're curious about the individual words, "Glitze", "Fatze" and "Fitze" don't mean anything in standard German (although they might be words in some dialect), "Glatze" is a bald head and "Glotze" is an old-fashioned slang word for a TV set. (you might also be interested in
Helge Schneider's song "Fitze Fitze Fatze", which works with very similar onomatopoetic lyrics) --
Ferkelparadeπ12:30, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
Good response, but while Glitze, Fitze, Fatze will appear like nonsense words to most German speakers, they are not:
Glitze is the imperative of the verb glitzen, a variant of glitzern (glistle, glitter, sparkle, twinkle).
[3]
Fitze (skein) is an old technical term related to sewing.
[4]
At the risk of being a smartass, how does not a Germany-related nonsensical and lascivious question from an 84* range ring the bell for regulars here, after all this time? Anyway, his behavior is pretty childish and not really harmful, but it's wasting everybody's time. Heck, I wasted plenty of mine already...
No such user (
talk)
07:14, 30 September 2011 (UTC)reply
Actually I learned something. Though I'm a native speaker, I had no idea that Fitze and Fatze were actual words. No time wasted in my book. As for how a 84* range doesn't ring the bell, well, not everyone pays attention, some of us don't care or have a bad number sense, which is why your efforts of warning us or removing the more blatant nonsense (preferably before anyone has answered) are all the more appreciated. ---
Sluzzelintalk07:20, 30 September 2011 (UTC)reply
There is a Polish version of this: "Ząb, zupa, zębowy. Dąb, zupa, zebowy" (Tooth, soup, dental. Oak, soup, oaken). The trick is not to say "dupa", which is a vulgar word for backside. A more elaborate version is the English "I'm not a pheasant plucker": I am not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son. I am only plucking pheasants 'till the pheasant plucker comes.
Dominus Vobisdu (
talk)
11:25, 1 October 2011 (UTC)reply
Not even etymologically. The spelling similarities are purely coincidental. It would be like asking if the words "dental" and "coincidental" have a common etymology or were related, or maybe the words "table" and "notable". In this case, the word "troika" comes from the root "three" (as in "tri-") and in politics usually refers to a
triumvirate. Perestroika means something like "reorganizing" or "restructuring" and its root is "stroika", meaning "to build", and probably has the same root as the English word "structure". See
[6]. --
Jayron3222:23, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
September 29 Information
translation needed
I found a piece of paper in my grandmothers bible, it starts out in English then switches to something i have never seen like a short hand or different language i was wondering is there anywhere i can get it translated. Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
67.142.180.26 (
talk)
03:08, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
Did your grandmother, or anybody whom you know to have had the Bible speak a language (or languages) other than English? Falconusptc08:21, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
In the movie it's pronounced Yàn. (Also in my DVD of that movie the traditional character subtitles have it as 雁, not 燕; that's also a bird word.) rʨanaɢ (
talk)
04:14, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
It's a bit of meaningless German onomatopoeia, probably made up by puberty-stricken schoolboys to trick each other into saying "Fotze" (which is a rather rude word for female genitalia, and sure to produce giggles among ten-year-olds). If you're curious about the individual words, "Glitze", "Fatze" and "Fitze" don't mean anything in standard German (although they might be words in some dialect), "Glatze" is a bald head and "Glotze" is an old-fashioned slang word for a TV set. (you might also be interested in
Helge Schneider's song "Fitze Fitze Fatze", which works with very similar onomatopoetic lyrics) --
Ferkelparadeπ12:30, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply
Good response, but while Glitze, Fitze, Fatze will appear like nonsense words to most German speakers, they are not:
Glitze is the imperative of the verb glitzen, a variant of glitzern (glistle, glitter, sparkle, twinkle).
[3]
Fitze (skein) is an old technical term related to sewing.
[4]
At the risk of being a smartass, how does not a Germany-related nonsensical and lascivious question from an 84* range ring the bell for regulars here, after all this time? Anyway, his behavior is pretty childish and not really harmful, but it's wasting everybody's time. Heck, I wasted plenty of mine already...
No such user (
talk)
07:14, 30 September 2011 (UTC)reply
Actually I learned something. Though I'm a native speaker, I had no idea that Fitze and Fatze were actual words. No time wasted in my book. As for how a 84* range doesn't ring the bell, well, not everyone pays attention, some of us don't care or have a bad number sense, which is why your efforts of warning us or removing the more blatant nonsense (preferably before anyone has answered) are all the more appreciated. ---
Sluzzelintalk07:20, 30 September 2011 (UTC)reply
There is a Polish version of this: "Ząb, zupa, zębowy. Dąb, zupa, zebowy" (Tooth, soup, dental. Oak, soup, oaken). The trick is not to say "dupa", which is a vulgar word for backside. A more elaborate version is the English "I'm not a pheasant plucker": I am not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son. I am only plucking pheasants 'till the pheasant plucker comes.
Dominus Vobisdu (
talk)
11:25, 1 October 2011 (UTC)reply
Not even etymologically. The spelling similarities are purely coincidental. It would be like asking if the words "dental" and "coincidental" have a common etymology or were related, or maybe the words "table" and "notable". In this case, the word "troika" comes from the root "three" (as in "tri-") and in politics usually refers to a
triumvirate. Perestroika means something like "reorganizing" or "restructuring" and its root is "stroika", meaning "to build", and probably has the same root as the English word "structure". See
[6]. --
Jayron3222:23, 29 September 2011 (UTC)reply