From time to time, the more challenged members of the HB make a limply humorous remark that such-and-so (often another user's HB moniker) means such-and-such in Swahili or some other language (for example "Ooh-na B'bá means 'floating log' in Tamil").

Sadly, these equivalences are usually fictitious. How much better if they were real.

I propose, therefore, a phonetic equivalence search engine, akin to Google translate. One could enter a phrase in god's own English, and the site would return one or more phonetically equivalent phrases in foreign tongues, along with their translations.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 20 2012

Sometimes, it just means dickhead http://www.bloomber...for-arab-press.html
[theircompetitor, May 20 2012]

Just as an example, in Upper Mongolia the word 'olterugga' means 'annoying fly that won't leave and refuses to be caught'.
-- Alterother, May 20 2012


Ace, a multi-lingual pun-generator! (Which, strangely enough if pronounced with a scottish accent sounds almost exactly the same as a Venezuelan saying in Chinese "Crikey What a Corker!" whilst sucking a gob-stopper)
-- zen_tom, May 22 2012


Purely idle curiosity, but how does Maxwell Buchanan come out?
-- not_morrison_rm, May 22 2012


Not easy - Google Translate translates the Norwegian phrase "maks will ba ca nar" as "maximum goodwill when asked about".
-- hippo, May 22 2012


//Purely idle curiosity, but how does Maxwell Buchanan come out?//

We won't know until this is baked. The closest I have so far using Google Loosely-Translate is "The brand name of a beautiful sky" (Marque ciel beau qu'as nomme) or "Makes too much book mimic" (Macht zu viel buch ahmen).

I think I prefer the Norwegian version.

Dutch should also work well for English names, since Dutch basically sounds like English spoken by an aphasic.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 22 2012



random, halfbakery