A varied selection of ways to say "Man, it's hot" in all sorts of languages. Some are pedestrian: Ham meod! (Hebrew) It is very hot! Shaub ilyom (Arabic) Warm today isn't it. Others are more imaginative: Dukhota takaya, tolko venikov ne khvatayet! (Russian) It's so stuffy, the only thing that's missing is the birch twigs! Zew gai bae la! (Hong Kong Chinese) Chicken leg is burning! And of course the Scots are not content with anything banal: Ahm pure mankey wi' the heat oot there! (Via Taccuino di traduzione.)
Posted by languagehat at August 12, 2003 10:43 AMThe Erse translation is a hoot, one gets the idea they don't have a lot of over-100 days in fair Erin. In Albania, on the other hand, I reckon it is a common complaint as a single-word expostulation sums it all up.
Posted by: Jeremy Osner at August 12, 2003 11:24 AMFucking hot in London, innit?
Posted by: Perry at August 12, 2003 04:31 PMHeh. The Russian one, about the birch twigs... do you know what that refers to? Because it sounds like it refers to public steam baths, where as a part of... I dunno what, exfoliation? Something... they beat each other on the back with sticks. My Russian professor was telling us about it. You ask strangers to do it to you as a favor; you lie face down on a table and they thwack you until you say when. He said he asked once just to be polite in exchange for doing it to someone else, and after the first THWACK he hastily said a thwack-ending 'thank you!' :)
Posted by: vixyish at August 13, 2003 01:02 AMYes, that's exactly it; the idea is "it's so hot we may as well be in a steam bath."
Posted by: language hat at August 13, 2003 08:24 AMI've always liked mankey as a word for lots of not very pleasant conditions.
Posted by: Iain at August 14, 2003 10:37 AMFor Polish they used 'zarowa' which means 'lightbub' (for the sun) which isn't very common (kids say so, but not very often either). I'd say 'Ale upal!' LOL
Posted by: yawn at August 14, 2003 01:58 PMHow would you translate Connor into Erse?
Posted by: sara at December 4, 2005 12:13 AM