"SCREW DOWN A LITTLE BIT THE EXPECTATIONS"
Even the best of us make mistakes, and it is important to approach these moments as a time for laughing and learning. One of the mistakes we tend to make can be categorized as Danglish.
What is Danglish?
Danglish is a type of communication that combines elements of Danish and English. The term Danglish covers three linguistic phenomena
The strong influx of English vocabulary and sentence structure into Danish for instance: "Hvad er din største guilty pleasure?" or "at handle på noget" from "to act on something" instead of the typical Danish phrase "at skride til handling".
The use of Danish words in an English sentence such as "now we are going to have a lot of hygge".
The pejorative referring to the use of poor and/or clumsy English by Danes for instance when trying to express the phrase "må jeg låne toilettet?" by saying "can I borrow the toilet?" instead of "may I use the toilet?". The two sentences convey quite different meanings.
Where does Danlish come from?
Some parts of language are culture-specific which make them hard to translate since there are no equivalents in the other language. This is why it can be hard to translate words and sometimes easier to just use the original one as seen in the examples above. Because, how would you translate the words "guilty pleasure" and "hygge" and what would be lost in the translations? However, using words from another language without explaining them can make it unintelligible for the listener.
In the third category of Danglish, the mistakes often originate from direct translations (word-to-word translations), which create a change from the intended meaning to the perceived meaning of the utterance, as in the example above with the toilet.
Another common origin of Danglish is when words across languages are very similar in articulation and spelling but not necessarily in meaning. To complicate the matter even further: the meaning of words is also context-dependent. For example:
the English word "screw" and the Danish word "skrue" mean the same in some contexts but not in others as seen in the title quotation.
Danglish examples galore from Tietgeners
Two examples explained
One relatively late evening, a guy had a cup of coffee with a classmate, whom he did not know that well. After the coffee, he offered to follow her home, which surprised her quite a bit. This is a classic example of a direct translation. He wanted to say "følge" which can be "follow" but in this context, one would say ‘walk you home or let’s walk together’, whereas ‘follow home’ sounds like a creepy stalker.
"Can you be concrete, please?" is most likely an attempt to communicate ‘kan du være konkret’. However, confusion can arise since ‘concrete’ in some contexts means ‘konkret’ as in ‘concrete thinking’, whereas it is incorrect in other situations, and in some situations, it might even be mistaken for ‘beton’, in this example ‘specific’ would have been a better word choice.
False friends
appearances can be deceptive
False friends is a term for words in different languages/dialects that are spelled or pronounced similarly but have different meanings. One example of a false friend is the English word "overbearing" which means arrogant, while the Danish word "overbærende" meaning tolerant. Another example of a false friend is the word "sparringspartner". In Danish, a "sparringspartner" is someone who constructively critiques you, whereas in English a sparring partner is someone you are constantly arguing with and who annoys you, for instance, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are sparring partners. A translation for the Danish meaning of "sparringspartner" could be "sounding board". Additionally, a sparring partner can be a person who helps a boxer with their training for a fight in both Danish and English.
When mistakes are correct
why ‘skyscraper’ and ‘shout out' are mistranslations!
A false friend we all know is the Danish word "sky" which is "cloud’ in English, whereas the English word ‘sky’ is "himmel" in Danish. The English word "skyscraper" should, therefore, be translated to "himmelskraber" and not "skyskraber".
"Shout outs" are especially common in hip-hop, where a rapper mentions or credits someone. "Shout out" literally means ‘råb ud (til)’ but for some reason, ‘shout’ (råb) and ‘shoot’ (skud) have been mixed up. This has led to ‘shout out’ turning into "skud ud" in Danish. However, a "shoot-out" (literally "skud ud’") in English is a duel involving guns. Both are examples of mistranslations that have manifested as the correct translations.
True friends
sometimes "rocket science" is just "raketvidenskab"
True friends is a term for words in different languages/dialects that are spelt or pronounced similarly and have similar meanings. For instance "ikke kunne se skoven for bare træer" is "not see the wood for the trees/ be unable to see the wood for the trees" or "springboard" is "springbræt".
Danglish as entertainment
Danglish has countless times been used for comedic effect. One of the most famous examples is The Julekalender (1991), which was a ‘julekalender’ (a form of advent calendar consisting of 24 (TV) episodes) in which certain characters speak entirely in Danglish and with a heavy Danish accent. The mix of Danish and English vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure create amusing constructions such as: “Think you da lige a little about”, “He who first gets to the mill is he who first gets painted” and the most famous song from the series: “It is hard to be a nissemand”. Another example of Danglish being used for a commercial purpose can be seen on this poster with absurd translations of all the names of the train stations on the S-train lines. It can actually be bought here.
Shoot outs
Thank you for all of your Danglish contributions and especially to Katrine Westh for the two befitting illustrations.
Want to know more?
I will recommend these two books: Top 35 Mistakes Danes Make in English: A fun guide to small but significant errors by Kay X. Mellish and Ti faldgruber by Kirsten M. Øveraas.
PS: The citation in the title is from this quote “I'll repeat it once again to everyone: Screw down a little bit the expectations. Then you will not be disappointed” said by the former national football coach Richard Møller Nielsen before the European Championship in 1996.
Written by Andreas
Opmerkingen