posted
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. Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
It's a rare form of ancient Heghorian. It says, "Where can I find some butter, in this godforsaken heap of butterless land."
Posts: 290 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
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! Posts: 981 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
That's hilarious. In case you get stuck in future, English in Albanian is "Anglisht". That might make it easier. Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
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.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
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.
posted
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.
posted
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 ]
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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While I was looking I put it into pig latin so that I would at least be able to understand it! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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That's hilarious. In case you get stuck in future, English in Albanian is "Anglisht". That might make it easier. ![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
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