How Do You Say Garden?


Here's a quick extra post for the week because I love this discovery from yesterday's Guardian.

I'm particularly delighted to see Denmark's translation of  "garden" is haven and the potential for us to drink sodas in Lithuania.

You can take the link to the original article see how the word 'cat' translates across Europe and to have a play with the map yourself. There are also some FYI links on there which my Print Screen version hasn't captured.

Comments

  1. Esther Montgomery16 January 2014 at 13:37

    Have just had a discussion over lunch about the etymology of coleslaw in relation to the word for cabbage in different countries. He's making me a cup of coffee. When he comes back I'll show him the map. Trouble is I'm having trouble working out what's where and am swinging between a map of Europe and the interactive map to work out which is Austria and where is Switzerland. A right geography lesson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 January 2014 at 15:07

      It has so much potential doesn't it Esther? I've just been thinking about the Teach First scheme which was featured on the news yesterday morning and the number of languages some teachers have to deal with in class. It would be great for the pupils to use this map to show what the words are in their country. OK it only covers Europe, but it's a start.

      Delete
  2. CJ16 January 2014 at 14:02

    Lovely, a haven indeed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 January 2014 at 15:08

      It's one of those happy outcomes when using this kind of thing, CJ :)

      Delete
  3. Anna16 January 2014 at 19:57

    Thanks - I like it . Just had fun with the word 'slug' which translates as slimák in Czech and a couple of other langauges :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP16 January 2014 at 20:49

    Fun isn't it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous16 January 2014 at 20:51

    This is great, but especially your literal meanings! Drinking soda or havens sound nice - I speculate that in New Mexico, garden (jardin) might mean horrible labor away from air conditioning or heat to some! But I try to change that...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP18 January 2014 at 15:10

      Hi David - thanks - I love your new blog, you're definitely trying to change things there :)

      Delete
  6. Helle (Helen)18 January 2014 at 13:35

    Sorry to be a killjoy, but garden in Danish is actually "have" - although "haven" is rather a good translation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP18 January 2014 at 15:12

      Hi Helle - thanks for the clarification. I'm afraid that I (and The Guardian) are at the mercy of Google Translate. However, I think 'have' still works - as in everyone should have a garden :)

      Delete
  7. Helle (Helen)18 January 2014 at 16:51

    It came to mind later that "haven" could also be ok-ish as it means "the garden" - but yes, we're all at the mercy of Google Translate, so I wonder what a lot of those translations actually mean :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cassandra Louise23 January 2014 at 01:10

    This is wonderful! It really made me smile! :-D

    ReplyDelete

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