2003-12-12 It's cold outside (utc)

Scandiwegian Toilet Fun

The BBC's Danish phrasebook's Undskyld, hvor er toilettet? ("Please excuse me, my good person, whither the public conveniences?") has provoked howls of derisive laughter from Danskophone readers.

Being common as muck the salt of the earth, our Varied Reader will surely prefer Birgitte's suggested "Hvor er der et lokum, mand, jeg skal sl� en streg" ("Where's the bog, mate, I'm bursting for a slash?") or perhaps "Hvor er der et lokum, mand, jeg skal pisse", for even more street cred, or, in Norway, Anna K's "Hvor faen er doa, jeg m� tisse!"

Swedish, of course, has the most excellent word "kissn�dig" ("bursting for a piss") in case of just such eventualities, so I'll propose "Var finns en toa, jag �r j�ttekissn�dig!" until someone more authentic says otherwise. This Cern page (complete with 1997 animated "new" icon!) has the comparitively staid "Var finns toaletten?" ("Where is the bathroom" ["toilet"]) but makes up for it by following immediately with "What kind of meat is this?" and "I'm sorry, officer."

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2003-12-12 post-samwidge (utc)

On learning German

While up in London I called in at Foyles, which stocks a range of Very Easy Indeed readers in assorted languages and bought a couple of German ones targetting a 600-word vocabulary. There's alleged to be a 400-word level, but they didn't have any: they're probably more useful if your native language is Turkish or something.

One of them is a collection of folk tales, which is my favourite way to start reading in a language (Gleep! I have a favourite to start studying a given language, who'da thunk?) and they're short and easy and the words are mostly pretty guessable, and the gist is even when they're not. So with that, and my Mad German Syntax Book (whose rules I am applying with considerable success) things are at least moving along.

Also, and more linkably, the Open University has launched a range of beginners' language courses, aiming to go from complete beginner to GCSE (the exam designed for 16-ish year olds) in one handy 12 month serving, starting slightly less handily in November. (I also looked at what my own university offers, but it doesn't.)

This doesn't mean that I'm moving away from my beloved Scandewegian andraspr�klighet, of course. In fact, my Swedish class has lately taken to including writing exercises, which is a great help (it's too easy to get away with disjointed rubbish in speech). It's just that there's an order of magnitude more stuff in German, including a great deal that I want to read.

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2003-12-12 hey! (utc)

Same procedure as every year

In the northern Swedish town of G�vle, the Twinkletree season is marked by the erection of an enormous straw goat, which is traditionally promptly burned down by vandals. (G�vle is a very long way north, and the evenings this year must be very long indeed.)

G�vles ber�mda julpynt klarade sig inte i �r heller - i natt brann den ned.
- Det tog tv� minuter. Sedan var den borta, s�ger Ulf Carnerius vid G�vlepolisen

G�vle's famous Yule-goat didn't survive this year either - it burned down in the night.
"It took two minutes. Then it was gone," said Ulf Carnerius of G�vle police.

The police are on the case, though:

- Vi har inte ett sp�r. Det finns just nu inget att g� p�.
Enligt Ulf Carnerius var det inte helt ov�ntat att bocken skulle brinna.
- Man kan s�ga s� h�r: Det �r mer sannolikt att den brinner �n att den st�r kvar, s�ger han.

"We don't have a clue. At the moment there's nothing to go on."
According to Ulf Carnerius it wasn't wholly unexpected that the goat should burn.
"One can say that it's more likely to be burned than to survive," he said.

"Not wholly unexpected"! Bless him.

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2003-12-11 hometime (utc)

"Wolf! Wolf!"

Apparently Sv. "by" means both "town/village" (which I knew) and "breeze/gust" (which I didn't), whereupon the following makes sense:

Stormbyar �r p� v�g in �ver norra Sverige.
SMHI varnar f�r trafikst�rningar och har st�rkt fj�llv�dervarningen till den starkaste graden.

Stormgusts are on the way in over northern Sweden.
SMHI [the met office] is warning of traffic disruptions and has issued the strongest grade of mountainweatherwarning.

There are 10-metre waves in Lofoten, says Norwegish VG, and a good deal of sn�fokk (I've no idea what that really means, but I'm very easily amused).

We've had warnings and intimations up what our Merkin friends call the wazoo, however, and you know as well as I, Varied Reader, that the proof of a sn�storm is in the kaosing. Will the Norwegish sn� survive the crucial and tricky �->� shift as it makes its way over the mountains? We will, as ever, let you know if and when we feel like it.

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2003-12-11 what's utc for fika?

Netherlandish naming announcement

c/o the BBC:

Dutch Crown Prince ["Kronprins"] Willem-Alexander has named his new baby daughter Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria.

By which they mean that he was the one who turned up at the register office, while mother and baby got on with whatever it is mothers and babies do less than a week after birth; the Netherlands is very progressive:

The 3.3kg (7.3lb) baby is likely to become Queen Amalia because boys and girls have equal succession rights in the Netherlands.

See? Anyway, Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria strikes me as a very sensible name for a prinsess, and we hope, once again, that Norway is paying attention. Is it to soon to recycle launch the "Knut/Ragnhild" campaign?

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2003-12-11 14:59

Of Translations and Traumas

Indirectly via La Muselivre (who has the quote but not the link) comes Guardian coverage of the Harry Potter translator track at the recent Transcon:

Translating is usually an obscure and unsung activity. But when you translate the Harry Potter novels, you find yourself subjected to a great deal more attention. At a gathering in Paris of JK Rowling's translators from around the world, my colleague Barbara Casassus reported this week, the delegates discussed issues including deadlines, pay, and nomenclature.

Torstein Bugge Hoverstad of Norway, who is billed on his other titles as "translator of Harry Potter", said that he was happy with the two months he got to translate the 766-page Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; others found the pressure less congenial. "I don't enjoy it any more," complained Slovenian Jakob Enda, who had worked on the novel for 14 hours a day.

A Catalan translator said that she had lost the assignment after rejecting what she considered to be an inadequate royalty deal, but most delegates were getting more money from HP than they had ever earned before. While Warner Bros put pressure on them not to change the names of characters, several continued to try to find equivalents in their own languages for Rowling's wordplay. But they all regretted that they could not get in touch with her to check queries.

(We did the wordplay thing a while back, 'member?) Two months for the Norwegish version? That's quite extraordinary. Our many Norwegian readers are of course welcome to contribute reviews. What I didn't know is that translators (at least some at least of this) do get royalties, and for a slice of the Harry Potter royalty action in any country with a substantial population I would certainly do 14 hour days for a few months, even if it did ruin the magic. (Is anyone surprised that it was a Catalan translator that baulked at the royalty deal?)

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2003-12-11 morning all (utc)

What's a prinsess to do?

While prinsessorly fashionextravagances are occasionally grumbled at, prinsess Madeleine of Sweden's Nobelprizeceremony frockrecycling has been sniffed at also. ("- Hon kunde ha f�rgat den," s�ger designern Lars-�ke Wilhelmsson. "She could at least have dyed it," says the designer Lars-�ke Wilhelmsson.)

It being the frock she wore to the Order of the Sn�moose ball, of course. I can't help but think that there'd have been fewer complaints if she'd dug out the lastyearfrock instead (certainly you'd get none from me).

You can see the whole royal family on this one, and Aftonbladet has a bildextra that is beyond my powers to link.

[Prinsessspotting by Anna Louise, tack]

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2003-12-10 Natten g�r tunga fj�t (utc)

Leaving home, bye bye

Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door,
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen, clutching her handkerchief,
Quietly turning the back door key, stepping outside she is free

"She's leaving home," Lennon/McCartney

Is Mette-Marit planning to do a runner? Moving trucks parked outside the heavily pregnant kronprinsess's current residence prove nothing, the court insists

- Jeg kan ikke bekrefte at flyttingen er startet, sier Slottes informasjonssjef Wenche Rasch til TV 2 Nettavisen.

"I can't confirm that the move has started," says the Castle's informationchief Wenche Rasch to TV 2 Nettavisen.

Is this because (a) neither residence is in fact a castle, so he's not authorised to comment; (b) it's a secret, shh! or (c) it's a secret and he's not in on it?

[link via prinsesskorrespondent Anna Louise, whose prinsessgossiphuntingskills will be sorely missed when she returns to her upside-down and prinsessless desert homeland, sigh.]

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2003-12-10 fika (utc)

Tootin', slighly darned

Thanks, Aftonbladet:

L�gst rankade bland pristagarna �r ekonomipristagarna. De �r inga riktiga nobelpristagare eftersom priset inte �r instiftat av Alfred Nobel utan av Sveriges Riksbank.

Lowest ranked among the prizewinners are the economics prizewinners. They aren't really Nobelprizewinners, since the prize wasn't founded by Alfred Nobel but the Swedish national bank.

It's not a Nobel prize, d'you hear? Not!

Sodding gatecrashing bankers unselfishly bestowing prizes on the otherwise neglected (ho ho) titans of finance. Makes my blood boil, it does.

The correct spelling (in English) is of course "The Swedish national bank prize for economics in memory of Alfred Nobel," and "Nobel prize for economics" is not an acceptable abbreviation. Thank you in advance for your kind attention to this matter.

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2003-12-10 samwidge (UTC)

Now with authentic "burning hair" fragrance!

What does the Nobelprizeoutsharing mean to you, Varied Reader? No, apart from Madde's lastyearfrock. Exactly, Lucy the Twinkletree tree elf ("Sankta Lucia"):

Natten g�r tunga fj�t
rund g�rd och stuva;
kring jord, som sol f�rl�t,
skuggorna ruva.
D� i v�rt m�rka hus,
stiger med t�nda ljus,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia

Night with its sullen tread
Trudges earth's starkness
Woods whence the sun has fled
Brood in the darkness
Then to our gloomy hall,
Comes, shining light on all
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia

That was hard. Can I have my many nubile blonde wimmins now, please?

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2003-12-10 mornin' (utc)

Poll me senseless

�1

Oh dear :

Support for membership of the EU has dropped below 50% for the first time ever, according to polling evidence published on the eve of this weekend's summit in Brussels, where the new EU constitution is supposed to be agreed.

Findings by Eurobarometer show that just 48% think EU membership is "a good thing", a six-point decline since the last poll in the spring. Britain managed 28%.

[...]

Commission officials were quick to point out that the respondents who claimed membership was a "bad thing" numbered only 15% on average - though it was a record 29% in Britain.

In this "Britain" (any relation to the UK, one wonders?) I am now officially in a minority. I would remind my Varied Reader that the dismembering of the stability and growth pact, which has undoubtedly done wonders for the disesteem in which the EU is held, was perpetrated by nationally-appointed finance ministers and opposed by the Yoorpean commission, the Yoorpean parliament and the Yoorpean central bank. You will retort, of course, that if the combined weight of disapproval had essentially no effect, then the EU richly deserves its citizens' unendorsement. Thanks, France; thanks, Germany.

�2

That's more like it:

Norges kongefamilie er sv�rt popul�r i Tyskland, men m� se seg grundig sl�tt av svenskene. Ogs� de spanske og nederlandske kongelige kommer h�yere p� listen enn de norske, viser en meningsm�ling.

The Norwegish royal family is very popular in Germany, but they lose heavily to the Swedes in the popularity stakes. And the Spanish and the Netherlandish come higher up the list that the Norwegish, a poll shows.

Being a Norwegish paper, they remark that the Queen Sylvia of Sweden is half-German and this would account for the family's popularity, but I am not so convinced. Only Kronprinsfleep ("Felipe") of Spain of the assorted kungebarn next generation gets an explicit shout out, but my informal survey of the Tyska trashbladets suggests that both Vickan and Madde of Sweden feature prominently, whereas Norway is represented largely by the lovely Mette-Marit.

(You might wonder if my sampling is skewed, but that's rather too personal a question to answer on the InterWebNet, I'm afraid.)

[One of these links via Citoyenne K of the North Pole]

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2003-12-09 dark (utc)

Yoorp, minor

Minority languages of Yoorp.
[Making Light]

Also, Follow the baldy, a blog with entries variously in Netherlandish, Catalan and English, so that the comparatively philological can attempt to surf through on pure Germanic and/or Romance.
[Transblawg]

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2003-12-09 samwidge time (utc)

[BR] Le Fran�ais dans tous les sens Henriette Walter

We note first that this is priced at 6.10 EUR for the French poche edition. The Engleesh translation is priced at 21.99 GBP, which presumably reflects the lesser appeal of the subject over here, the costs of buying the rights and the translation, the expense of producing a book in an inconveniently large format, and the gouging instincts of publishers, not necessarily in that order.

Moreoverwise, while the book should appeal to most of those who know enough French to read it in the original, it is unlikely to excite many of those who cannot, given that it is largely about French. In ze Engleesh-speaking world, popular accounts of the Our Language are perpetrated by comedians (Bill Bryson) and other randoms (Melvyn Bragg). By happy contrast, Ms Walter is a Real Linguist (trained in the militantly unspectacular Martinet school of functional linguistics) who nonetheless has a light enough touch to engage the general reader without annoying the linguistically savvy.

There's a sweep of history (from non-ancestral Celtic via vulgar Latin to today); a swoosh of geography (Breton, Alsatien, Occitan and others are all given their due); a dash of dialectology (Belgium and Canadian included); a round-up of the Global Status of the language, in which Walter fails to provoke the slightest mirth from the most easily amused non-Francophone sceptic, h�las; a soup�on of phonology and some especially interesting stuff about the second-worst orthography in Yoorp. There are getting on for 300 endnotes to sources, also, to gladden the heart of dessicated pedant and mildly curious alike.

To leave too fine a point un-put on it, this engaging and readable book fully deserves the status it seems to have acquired as the standard introduction to its subject, including on university syllabuses in France and elsewhere.

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2003-12-09 goddag (utc)

Competition time!

Item the first

One Dutch gauntlet, slightly downthrown:

The royal birth was formally greeted with a 101-gun salute fired by mounted artillery troops.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende congratulated the family in an address broadcast live on television.

As TV shows were interrupted with the news of the birth, one studio audience sang the national anthem to celebrate.

So, "Norway," let's see you beat that when the lovely kronprinsess Mette-Marit sprogs in turn.

Item the second

BOSTON - Les habitants du nord-est des Etats-Unis ont �merg� dimanche de la premi�re grosse temp�te de l'hiver dans la r�gion, apr�s la chute de plus d'un m�tre de neige, la fermeture des a�roports et des coupures d'�lectricit� pour des milliers de foyers.

The inhabitants of the north-east of the [Free and Democratic] United States [of America] emerged from the first big winter storm in the region, after the fall of more than a metre of sn�, the closure of the airports and the loss of electricity in thousands of homes.

They have, you will observe, much sn� which has led, you will remark, to not inconsiderable kaos. The situation, it is fair to say, is one best described as sn�kaos.

Come on, Scandiwegia, pull your socks up: Your international reputation is at stake! Let's all sing a nice sn�storms�ng to help the sn� along!

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to g�
Let it sn�! Let it sn�! Let it sn�!

Let! It! Sn�! Please!

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2003-12-08 bah humbug! (utc)

Sm�rg�spost

�1

(From the NYT) "Liberate me harder!" Iraquis beg:

"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," Colonel Sassaman said.

The beatings will continue until morale improves, isn't it?

�2

"Where do prinsessor come from?" we are often asked. The answer, of course, is press releases:

Den hollandske kronprins Willem-Alexanders gemalinde, prinsesse Maxima, f�dte s�ndag en datter, oplyser det hollandske kongehus. Den ny prinsesse bliver nummer to i arvef�lgen.

Kronprinsess Maxima of the Netherlands (who is married to kronprins Willem-Alexander) gave birth to a prinsess on Sunday, the Dutch royalhouse announced. The new prinsess is second in the line of succession.

Hurrah!

�3

The Weather Project at the Tate Moderne is very wonderful indeed. You too can feel the urge to lie on your back on a concrete floor in a disused powerstation's turbine hall and bask in its radiance! (Readers with London access only.)

�4

No� Albino� is an Icelandic film. It therefore features a great deal of sn�, an Icelandic cast, Icelandic dialogue (I like the sound of Icelandic better than any language except Cantonese) and enough story that things happen one after the other. I therefore enjoyed it a great deal, but there are rumours that it is also quite good. Norska teve says:

Filmen har gjort knallsuksess og sveipet med seg priser p� flere internasjonale festivaler. M�let til K�ri har ogs� v�rt � skape et helt eget univers med No�s historie. "No� Albino�" er en vittig, litt "off the wall"-komedie der de fleste morsomhetene ligger i det som ikke sies.

The film has been a great success and has swept the prizes at several international festivals. The goal of [director Dagur] Kar� has also been to create a whole universe with No�s story. "No� Albino�" is an witty, slightly offbeat comedy where most of the enjoyment comes from what is left unsaid.

They go on to remark only slightly sniffily that sn� isn't actually all that exotic where they come from either, actually.

�5

The Trafalgar square Twinkletree looks a bit drab by daylight, upstaged as it is by the exuberance of Nelson's column and the many other neighbouring architectural glories of an empire's unabashed tumescence, but at dusk it becomes the focus of the square and the strings of plain white lightbulbs transform into a perfectly Scandewegian bedecking of stylish understatement.

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2003-12-08 14:00

Public Transport(ation)

Sigh. Yesterday afternoon at Paddington all the Bristol trains were cancelled as a result of a signal failure, and the directions were to get a Cardiff train instead.

These would have been easier to follow if there had been any trains to Cardiff, which there weren't. Eventually, the tannoy suggested to a stationful (very full) of cold, tired and unhappy persons that anyone who had somewhere else they could spend the night would probably prefer it if they did, which I did and did. They also said our tickets would be valid tomorrow, which is of course today.

Today, I got my ticket stamped as valid for going on trains before 9:30 am, which it normally wouldn't have been, and embarked on a train to Plymouth with intent to change at Reading. Whereupon, of course, there was a problem outside Reading. And then at Reading they hid the Bristol train.

I have declared that 2004 will be the International Year of Yoorp: with the assistance of the Lord Easyjet's eponymous enterprise, I shall be inspecting assorted Yoorpean metropolises and inviting those with adequate public transport(ation) to tender bids for my future whereabouts.

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