Sunday, January 31, 2016

Someone Somewhere Sometime

Names for placeholders around the world: Joe Average, Nowheresville, Middle of Nowhere, When Pigs Fly, Till the Cows Come Home

44 comments:

  1. In Polish "nowheresville" is "where the devil says goodnight" :D

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  2. hm... I would translate the Normalverbraucher more as StandardConsumer or AverageConsumer since the meaning is that someone without special knowledge or the statistic person. Or my understanding of regular is just slightly off ;) Anyway its nuances here, but very intersting.

    In Germany we also have "at the arse of the world". Thats where the sun doesn't shine, I guess.

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  3. German Nowheresville is similar to Bulgarian - "Am Arsch der Welt" (at the arse of the world), though other options are "Hintertupfingen" (dotted place further up the valley?) or "Kleinkleckersdorf" (little spill-food village?).

    "When pigs fly" is "am Sankt Nimmerleinstag" (on the feast day of Saint Neverling).

    The related "very rarely" is "einmal alle Jubeljahre" (sounds like "once every rejoicing year" to most modern Germans, but is probably related to the "jubilee" years of the Bible, which occurred every 49 [or 50?] years, i.e. not that often).

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  4. In Spanish there are a number of other objects that Christ may have lost (eg. "la chancla", ie. a flip-flop). And we also got "en el culo del mundo" (at world's ass). But all them mean "a place far, far away", along with "en el quinto pino" and others. Not sure if we have something matching "Nowheresville"

    About "when pigs fly", we have the exact same phrase, but I prefer "cuando las ranas crรญen pelo" (when frogs grow hair)

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  5. I would have chosen the expression “Quand les poules auront des dents” (when hens will have teeth) for French’s translation of “When pigs fly”, it is more common in my region :-)

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    1. Yeah same, I was just about to comment that X)

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  6. This one is hilaripus! Joe Average sounds funny. I've always heard Joe Schmoe or Average Joe. But either way, great job Malachi!

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  7. There's an Arabic phrase that would work well in the third column: "ุนู†ุฏู…ุง ุงู„ุซูˆุฑ ูŠูุนู„ ุงู„ุญุงุฌ ุนู„ู‰ ู‚ุฑูˆู†ู‡", which means "when the bull walks to Mecca on its horns." I'm non-native, so I might not have gotten the wording quite right.

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  8. *ร‡ฤฐZMELฤฐ for the Turkish example. Turkish distinguishes dotted and dotless i ([i] and [ษฏ] phonologically.

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    1. Thanks for the correction! So I should add dots above the i's?

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    2. Only above the ฤฐ's in ร‡ฤฐZMELฤฐ, not above the one in SARI (which would be "sarฤฑ" in lowercase, also without a dot).

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    3. Okay changed and updated! Thanks for the input.

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  9. Since everyone is sharing their equal sayings:

    In Russian there are several inpolite places for "Nowheresville": "Zadrishensk", "Muhosransk", "Zazhopinsk" -- mostly they're about being behind an ass, but "Muhosransk" is kinda kurious, it is "behind-fly's-shit-ville" :-) Due to huge territory a more polite answer would be an existing city: e.g. "in Karaganda" (it just rhymes with the question "where" -- "gde? - v Karagande"). Karaganda is a real town in today's Kazakhstan.

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  10. In Hungarian, Nowheresville is "behind God's back", and "when pigs fly" is "when red snow falls".

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  11. In British English, Nowheresville is "the arse end of nowhere". Funny how so many of these are to do with arses!

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    1. We say "ass end of nowhere" sometimes in the States, but more often I hear that such-and-such town is the "armpit" of that state, etc.

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  12. The Russian variation of "when pigs fly" is "ะบะพะณะดะฐ ั€ะฐะบ ะฝะฐ ะณะพั€ะต ัะฒะธัั‚ะฝะตั‚" ("when a cancer whistles on a mountain").

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  13. this is good share to here, Finnish expression translated to english:
    http://www.memecenter.com/fun/5736709/finnish-expressions-translated-to-english

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    1. I love this! "FORWARD! Said the grandma in the snow"

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  14. Never heard of ็Œดๅนด้ฆฌๆœˆ before, at least not in Taiwan, but we use "้™ค้ž้ตๆจน้–‹่Šฑ" ("unless the cycads blossom") or "้™ค้žๅคช้™ฝๅพž่ฅฟ้‚Šๅ‡บไพ†" ("unless the sun comes up from the west")

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  15. One of the Finnish "Nowheresville" versions is "Hevon kuusi", "the horse's spruce".

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  16. The French version of Nowheresville is "the world's asshole" ("le trou du cul du monde"; vulgar version), or Faraway-Geese ("perpรจte-les-oies; less vulgar version).

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  17. Those would be in France. In Quรฉbec, we have rather different expressions. I think the most common would be "Saint-Glinglin-des-Meumeu". It can't really be translated, as far as I know it's just a made up name that sounds like most of our tiny villages' names (Meumeu might be a reference to cows though, as our cows say "meuh").

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  18. The Russian version of Nowheresville is "ะ’ ะšะฐั€ะฐะณะฐะฝะดะต" In Karaganda (it's a name of a sity)
    And The Russian version of When pigs fly is "ะšะพะณะดะฐ ั€ะฐะบ ะฝะฐ ะณะพั€ะต ัะฒะธัั‚ะฝะตั‚" that means: When will crayfish whistle

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    1. Ihadn't noticed some of previous messages, sorry

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    2. So what do people from Karaganda say for Nowhereseville? That's the real question here. I guess we'll find out when crayfish whistle.

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    3. Actually, "ะฒ ะšะฐั€ะฐะณะฐะฝะดะต" is the common answer from "ั‚ั‹ ะณะดะต?" ("where you are?") beacuse of rhyming.
      In everyday speach, it is either impolite "ะœัƒั…ะพัั€ะฐะฝัะบ" ("Muhosransk", "the town where flies shit", based on rhyming with actual town "ะœัƒัะพั…ั€ะฐะฝัะบ"), or more polite ones, like "ะขัŒะผัƒั‚ะฐั€ะฐะบะฐะฝัŒ" ("Tmutarakan", real ancient town placed in south Russia, which name funny means "the darkness of cockroaches") and "ะบัƒะดะฐ ะœะฐะบะฐั€ ั‚ะตะปัั‚ ะฝะต ะณะพะฝัะป" ("the place where Makar did not grazed his calfs").
      Yes, in Russia we have A LOT of Nowheresevilles ;-)

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  19. Interesting.
    Russian's for 'Joe Average' is "ะ’ะฐัั ะŸัƒะฟะบะธะฝ" ("Vasya Pupkin", "Vasily Bellybutton") =-)

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  20. VERY hard in Spanish, there are so many dialects...

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  21. In Germany "nowheresville" is called Buxtehude, which is funny considering that Buxtehude is an actual town in Germany.

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  22. In the Netherlands, we have the expression 'Als Pasen en Pinksteren op รฉรฉn dag vallen', meaning 'when Easter and Pentecost are on the same day'. A nonsensical time indication, since Pentecost is always 50 days after Easter. Not as funny as the ones on here, but I just thought I'd mention it.

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  23. Ive heard 'donde el diablo perdio el poncho' or 'where satan lost his hood'

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  24. Nowheresville in Australia is out woop woop, and never never (which is even more remote than woop woop)

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  25. The Japanese transliteration of their version of the phrase "A wolf in sheep's clothing" is "to wear a cat on your head" or something like that...

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  26. In spanish this can also be "Donde el diablo perdiรณ el poncho" (Where the devil lost his poncho)

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