Hi. I thought I'd start another thread, since on the other one I was forced to scroll horizontally to read the posts. In any case, I was most impressed with the google-proficiency of the people on this forum, so I thought I'd put in another challenge. Here is a fairly common phrase in a foreign language (but not a proverb like the last one):
quote: Duket sikur pula ka ngrėn bukėn nga dora.
I'd like to see who can first tell me: (1) What is the language. (2) What does it mean?
Whoever can do it first will have my eternal worship as google-master of the year. Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
It's a rare form of ancient Heghorian. It says, "Where can I find some butter, in this godforsaken heap of butterless land."
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
Wrong, but an excellent guess. Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
Google led me astray!
Posted by Julie (Member # 5580) on :
Are you sure this is a real language?
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
Albanian.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Something about lunch? I agree, it seems to be some form of Albanian.
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
Part 1 has been answered correctly.
dkw Kayla
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
dkw is beating the google champ... but just barely
Posted by Julie (Member # 5580) on :
wow... panic attack. I switched google to Albanian and couldn't find the button to switch it back to English. While I was looking I put it into pig latin so that I would at least be able to understand it! Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
That's hilarious. In case you get stuck in future, English in Albanian is "Anglisht". That might make it easier. Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I've been known to speak some Angli-sht on occasion.
Posted by Julie (Member # 5580) on :
Now you tell me! Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
It seems like the lunch box is sticky?
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Well, I didn't find this thread until 3:35 hatrack time, but I have so far, in word order, apparently like/if/kind of hen (that part seems screwy) has ____ ____ from sticky.
This is based on googling for albanian dictionary and using the online dictionary that came up to look up words.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Yeah, in a few minutes I was able to figure it was albanian (google tip: when a foreign sentence brings up no results on its own, break it up into one or two of the longer/non-prepositional-looking words, and search on those), and then use the one online Albanian-English dictionary (which is actually pretty good, it allows for approximates and word pattern searches!) for the following:
"Apparently if hen has eaten bread by (hand|door|hundreds|70 other non-fitting options)"
^-- That was straight word for word translation/approximation... I don't doubt I'd need to transliterate some Albanian idioms to make proper sense.
And no, I'm not going to actually find someone who knows Albanian to translate it.
-Bok
[ November 21, 2003, 05:18 PM: Message edited by: Bokonon ]
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
Okay, valiant efforts all. Here's the answer. Don't read on if you want to continue searching.
*****SPOILERS*****
In Albania, when a person looks sad, disappointed or beaten, they use a phrase which means, "you look like a chicken stole your bread", or, more directly translated, is: "It appears that a chicken has taken the bread from your hand." Such a silly phrase, it is my favourite Albanian idiom.
Albanian nouns are conjugated along with the verbs. The word "dora" is a conjugation of "dorė" which means "hand", but "dora" can also be translated as "sticky" (although it's not frequently used), hence the confusion.
I'm surprised at how close everyone came, for a strange idiom in an obscure language. Shumė mir, all.
[ November 21, 2003, 05:52 PM: Message edited by: Speed ]
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
I was wrong?
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Nouns are never conjugal, they are ALWAYS declined
Sorry, nerd humor inspired by 4 years of Latin.
Nouns use declension. Verbs use conjugation.
-Bok
EDIT: I expect you, Speed, to try out my super-duper-hard net scavenger hunt, out of fairness
[ November 21, 2003, 05:54 PM: Message edited by: Bokonon ]
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Adjectives, articles, and prepositions (in Welsh, at least) also decline. Conjugations deal with the tense, mood, number, and person of a verb. Declensions deal instead with case, gender, and number.
[ November 21, 2003, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
I knew that, JB, but since a noun was used in this case, I saw no need to mention the differences elsewhere.
By the way, yes, you do get extra nerd points for one-upping an already nerdy response!
-Bok
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Oh, I figured you already knew that. I just wanted those extra nerd points.