A Wikipedia entry gives the names of Disney characters in various languages. I find it very odd that Minnie Mouse in Swedish is Mimmi Pigg, but I'm glad to know it. Will someone out there who knows the Russian versions please add them? Just click on "Edit this page" at the bottom. And please include transliterations. (Via Transblawg.)
Posted by languagehat at September 11, 2003 02:56 PMPigg means chipper, lively, alert. Mickey is called Musse Pigg, more or less "Mousey Chipper".
Posted by: opie at September 11, 2003 05:30 PMOooh, I have Latin versions from the ELI around here somewhere. I should track those down and contribute them.
Posted by: Justin at September 12, 2003 12:39 AMIn Russian versions the names are just transliterations of the original names. Mickey Mouse becomes "Mikki Maus", "Scroodge McDuck" becomes "Scrudzh Mak-Dak" and so forth. At least that's how it was when Ilast saw them (a few years ago)
The "Winnie The Poo" cartoons are somewhat exceptional in this aspect for there was an existing extremely well-known translation of the story (by Boris Zakhoder). The character names have been taken from there, so Piglet became Pyatachok, Eeyore turned into Ia-Ia and Tigger got to be called Tigra. Winnie the Pooh himself is still simply Vinni-Pukh. There's not much you can do about this character's name, can you? :)
Posted by: Oleg at September 12, 2003 04:22 PMToo bad; I was hoping for something more culturally revealing. Thanks for the info!
Posted by: language hat at September 12, 2003 04:25 PMOleg- how did they render the line about the beginning along the lines of "It's Winnie ther Pooh. Don't you know what ther means?"
Posted by: Justin at September 13, 2003 10:51 PMQ: What do Alexande the great and Winnie the Pooh have in common?
A: A middle name.
Actually, in the Swedish (nordic?) version Winnie the Pooh is rendered as "Nalle Puh", where nalle is the diminutive form for bear, commonly used for teddy bears and such.
Posted by: Tore at April 25, 2005 10:27 PM