camwyn: Me in a bomber jacket and jeans standing next to a green two-man North Andover Flight Academy helicopter. (aieee)
camwyn ([personal profile] camwyn) wrote2005-03-13 12:50 pm
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Crap, it happened again.

Uh, [livejournal.com profile] kelathefinn? I need to petition for another translation. My country on the game NationStates is, er, Tuonela, 'cos I was on a major Kalevala kick at the time I created it and I felt that would sound better than naming my country Pohjola (that or there was already a Pohjola). This has led to a tiny spot of trouble... a telegram from another country that I cannot read. It runs:

Perkele ku toi tuonela oli nimenä jo viety... unohda

and that's it. Er. What does it say? (I replied with the properly spelt 'I am very sorry but I am only an American' sentence.)

Oh, and your postcard arrived. Thank you so much! I am going to have to send you some now, really...
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[identity profile] kaikias.livejournal.com 2005-03-14 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
Hm. The Finns I've known have used it more as a sort of all-purpose swear word (that is, when they weren't using "vittu" instead, as these were teenage boys).

[identity profile] sookail.livejournal.com 2005-03-14 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, Estonians use "põrgu!" and "kurat!"(devil) as all-purpose swear-words too. But "vittu" - as meaning "cunt" should be more like one of the OMGWTFYOUDON`TSAYTHAT.

[identity profile] kaikias.livejournal.com 2005-03-14 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
From what I've gathered, "vittu" is pretty damn vulgar, but it's kind of in the same position as "fuck" in English: while it used to be among the strongest swears in the language, it's now been worn down somewhat through overuse.

(Just because two languages are closely related doesn't mean you can always count on correspondences - a lesson I've learned the hard way several times while studying German and Spanish over knowledge of English and Portuguese.)

[identity profile] sookail.livejournal.com 2005-03-14 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, you`re totally right. I just got carried away thinking...

[identity profile] kaikias.livejournal.com 2005-03-14 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Double-posting completely off-topic to add: Dude. You're involved with [livejournal.com profile] deadmentalking? Several of my [livejournal.com profile] rpg_aman gamemates are in that. (One of them's playing Che Guevara and Richard Nixon, another the Duke of Wellington, another the Empress Theodora, Władysław Jagiełło, and another pup I forget the name of.)

[identity profile] sookail.livejournal.com 2005-03-14 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
No, but I`m...watching.
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