h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there. I would like to bring to you some swedish phrases, that could come in handy... I hope. If some letter look weird, that is because, in sweden we have pricks (dots) over a and o like this:

å pronounced (aouuo)

ä pronounced (eaihea)

ö pronounced (euuo)

That´s basically how it is pronounced.

Skulle du vilja bjuda mig på en öl? / Would you like to buy me a beer?

Välkommen till liftarens guide till galaxen / welcome to the hitchikers guide to the galaxy

mitt namn är Mats / My name is Mats

Det var en god öl / Thats a good beer

And now, some words who sounds really weird if translated directly to english.

Smörgåsbord (smorgasbord): Breadtable ( it actually comes from sweden)

köttbulle (keuouttbuulleaihea): Meatball (Well it does sound weird)

Grönsak (Greuounsaak): Vegetable / Greenthing

Now, I would *strongly* object to smörgås being a Swedish invention!!

As anybody well conversed in those topics will know, it's a Danish invention, and is properly knows as 'smørrebrød'.

The Danish alphabet, like the Swedish, has those 3 extra letters. FYI, they are written slightly different:

å pronounced (aouuo)
æ pronounced (eaihea)
ø pronounced (euuo)

I have liberally copied the pronounciations since I don't have any Danish-to-English phonetic writing guide available. Being in Denmark, the materials tend to be oriented the opposite way

The most important Swedish sentences from above looks as this in Danish:

Gi'r du en øl? / Would you like to buy me a beer?
Jeg hedder Mads / My name is Mads
Frikadelle / Meatball

and, of course

Velkommen til Håndbog for vakse galakseblaffere / welcome to the hitchikers guide to the galaxy (at least, from memory, that's what it's called - I only have English language versions)

oups sorry about the bröd thing

but smörgåsbord does come from sweden right?

Slight correction to the "direct" translation to köttbulle. Directly translated to English, Köttbulle would be meat-bun.
There are a couple of Swedes that has started a kind of "How the heck could they call it that"-section with Swedish words.
It's located at http://www.h2g2.com/A122194 if you're interested.
LinS

Hi, cobra.

Thanks very much for the input.

Not to press too fine a point, but initially it would be very useful if you could compile a list of phrases along the lines of the german phrases at http://www.h2g2.com/A227864

This would allow us to start working on a standard set of translations, and more will be coming this way very soon if you'd like to contribute, we will then add in the additional ones (the ones you've already posted here as the list of standard phrases grows). This will be an on-going project obviously, but the intent is to develop a resource where any english speaking person can quickly look up some handy phrases used to communicate to someone in another language, and vice versa.

Once again, thanks for your help, happy researching, have fun, have a fish

I actually think that the best place to find a pretty extensive compilation of handy phrases online already exists.
Languages like Russian, Dutch, German, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, Finnish and a whole heap of other languages are featured with handy travel phrases.
http://www.travlang.com/languages
It's been out there for ages and ages, but it's a really good site and they add new languages to their list every now and then.

LinS

I´ll try

Thanks for the link, will include it shortly.

Please see my Guide Entry 'Peculiarities of the Danish Alphabet' (submitted for approval) for a detailed explanation of the 3 extra letters used in Danish. The actual WORD 'Smörgåsbord' is unmistakeably Swedish, but we in Denmark like to believe that the CONCEPT of the 'open sandwich table' is of Danish origins. There are several traditions that must be observed if you ever get the opportunity to try such a meal for yourself. The most important is: You must ALWAYS start with the pickled herring! And this of course must be on rye (black) bread. Many people like to have a 'Snaps' (Aqua Vita, 40%) with this.

And don´t try to eat the actuall table. That is just plain stupid, and it doesn´t taste that very well either (trust me). But do try the liquor.