| 1 | %% Image reformatted per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1584585200006689900 |
| 2 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/{{Housepets}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2010_03_08_foreignese_8.png]]]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:350:"Can we continue [[InnocentlyInsensitive or are there any more people you'd like to offend]]?"]] |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | ->''"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse."'' |
| 8 | -->-- '''Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor''' (King Carlos I of Spain) |
| 9 | %%One quote is enough. Other quotes can go on the quotes tab. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Truth #1: [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench Foreign languages sound more exotic]]. Buying some body lotion is not the same as buying ''La Creme Luxueuse'', and driving a car is not the same as driving a ''Motorwagen''. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Truth #2: Unfortunately, some people aren't even that good with foreign languages they have been taught, and now people can use an online translator to translate things into languages they do not even know in the slightest. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The result: random dialog, often awkward or incorrect,[[note]]Considering the large number of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph homographs]] in English and its increasingly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_language analytic]] nature, automatic translation can even result in complete gibberish if you translate from English into a far more [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_language synthetic]] language[[/note]] thrown around to make a dialogue seem more exotic. It will often be heavily biased toward extremely basic words that are the most likely to be understood by monolingual readers and authors: "yes," "no," "hello," "please," "good", "sir," "ma'am," etc. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | In Japan, the most common languages are English and German. In America, Spanish and French are more likely to be used. Rarely will this result in a full BilingualDialogue. In poems and songs, it can be used for a BilingualRhyme. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Using this in a work is sometimes [[TranslationCorrection corrected]] in translations of that work. Compare BlackSpeech (authors feel like adding an evil language to better [[DesignatedVillain designate an enemy]]) and DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch (authors throw in gratuitous swearwords in a foreign language or a different dialect of English, and get their actual levels of functional vulgarity completely wrong). See also ForeignLanguageTitle. Contrast SugarWiki/SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage. AsLongAsItSoundsForeign is for when this is attempted with made up words, or random words that don't make sense in context (or possibly at all) if you know what they mean. |
| 20 | ---- |
| 21 | !!Sub-tropes: |
| 22 | [[index]] |
| 23 | * GratuitousEnglish |
| 24 | * GratuitousFrench |
| 25 | * GratuitousGerman |
| 26 | * GratuitousGreek |
| 27 | ** GreekLetterRanks |
| 28 | * GratuitousItalian |
| 29 | * GratuitousJapanese |
| 30 | * GratuitousLatin |
| 31 | ** CanisLatinicus ([[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign not quite Latin]]) |
| 32 | *** BinomiumRidiculus |
| 33 | ** FromTheLatinIntroDucere |
| 34 | ** OminousLatinChanting |
| 35 | ** PretentiousLatinMotto |
| 36 | ** SmartPeopleKnowLatin |
| 37 | * GratuitousRussian |
| 38 | * GratuitousSpanish |
| 39 | * PoirotSpeak (the gratuitous words are always the language's "simple" and [[SmallReferencePools recognisable]] ones) |
| 40 | * YiddishAsASecondLanguage |
| 41 | [[/index]] |
| 42 | ---- |
| 43 | !!Examples: |
| 44 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 45 | |
| 46 | !!!'''汉语 / 漢語 (Chinese)''' |
| 47 | |
| 48 | [[folder:动漫和漫画 / 動漫和漫畫 (Anime & Manga)]] |
| 49 | * Very common in ''Manga/SazanEyes'': most demons have MeaningfulName in Chinese (for example Zhou Gui meaning "Sorcerous Demon" or Hua She being "Snake Monster"), and nearly all the Juuma battle larvae have chinese names (Tu Zhao "Earthen Claws" or Guang Ya "Light Fang"). The BigBad's title is even "Gui Yan Wang" (mistranslated as Kaiyanwang), meaning the "King of the Demon Eye". |
| 50 | * In ''Anime/DigimonTamers'', Terriermon's catchphrase is "''mou man tai''", Cantonese for "no problem". |
| 51 | * In ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'', Ranka Lee sings "''ni hao nyan''" during one of her concerts. The writers were ''probably'' aiming for "''ni hao''" meaning "hello" in Mandarin, and "''nyan'''" being the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat meowing (used like a VerbalTic). The problem is that placing an adjective after "''ni hao''" in Mandarin also means "you're very [adjective]" -- and "nyan" sounds like Chinese for "sissy" or "gay". |
| 52 | [[/folder]] |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[folder:亚洲动画 / 亞洲動畫 (Asian Animation)]] |
| 55 | * ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'': To keep with the episode's "martial art film" aesthetic, one of Fat Doc's lines of gibberish in "Martial Art" is accompanied by Chinese subtitles. |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:同人小说 / 同人小說 (Fan Works)]] |
| 59 | * Enlai from ''Fanfic/OnePieceParallelWorks'' has used Chinese a few times throughout the fic. |
| 60 | * In ''Fanfic/ShardsOfAMemory'', Master Shard would sometimes say "Ai yah" ("I don't believe it") in exasperation. |
| 61 | --> '''Shard''': And exactly how long did you have the cat before you mutated her?\ |
| 62 | '''Michelangelo''': Uhh... About thirty seconds?\ |
| 63 | '''Shard''': ''Ai yah.'' |
| 64 | [[/folder]] |
| 65 | |
| 66 | [[folder:真人电影 / 真人電影 (Films -- Live-Action)]] |
| 67 | * In TheRemake of ''Film/{{The Day the Earth Stood Still|2008}}'', Klaatu meets with another of his species who had been living on Earth for a long time in the guise of a Chinese man, and two proceed to converse in Mandarin. While Creator/KeanuReeves tries pretty hard, he doesn't get it quite right. |
| 68 | * In ''Film/{{Lucy}}'', the Chinese writing on the wall of a room Lucy is locked up in [[http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/07/lucy-chinese-writing-nonsense is the words "keep hygienic" and some random names of food.]] |
| 69 | [[/folder]] |
| 70 | |
| 71 | [[folder:真人秀电视 / 真人秀電視 (Live-Action TV)]] |
| 72 | * In ''Series/{{Awkward}}'', the AlphaBitch leader of the so-called "Asian Mafia", Becca, often taunts Ming in Chinese. |
| 73 | * ''Series/{{Bones}}'': |
| 74 | ** One episode revolves around a Chinese family's burial ritual. In contrast to Hugh Laurie, Creator/EmilyDeschanel's Chinese is at least understandable. |
| 75 | ** A season 4 episode had some rich kids trying to sass Booth in (horrible) Chinese. Booth wasn't amused. |
| 76 | %%* There is a ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode that has a one-sided conversation in Mandarin (on the phone) and a plot point in Chinese characters. |
| 77 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E2TheMindOfEvil The Mind of Evil]]", The Doctor speaks fluent-ish Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) during a peace conference attended by the People's Republic of China. Hokkien was chosen as that was the native tongue of Pik-Sen Lim, who played a major Chinese character in the episode, and it was the one that she was most comfortable teaching Creator/JonPertwee for the episode. |
| 78 | * In the futuristic society of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', the melding of societies has caused languages to become intermingled. Most prominent besides English is a "Mandarin" dialect consisting mostly of {{foreign curse word}}s. The first episode shows signs that the writers truly intended for the characters to have a basic command of Mandarin, with one or two attempts at BilingualDialogue, but the actors were apparently so terrible at it that Chinese-speaking viewers had to be told what language they were supposed to be hearing. The rest of the show just uses Chinese for cussing. |
| 79 | * One episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' features a Chinese girl and her mom, who can speak English almost as well as Creator/HughLaurie can speak Chinese. |
| 80 | * Po from ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}'' is Chinese and peppers her speech with Cantonese such as "fa-ti" and "mun". |
| 81 | * A ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel'' two-part episode focused on the persecution of Chinese Christians, but since most of the actors -- despite being Chinese -- were born or raised in the U.S., their accents were atrocious. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:音乐 / 音樂 (Music)]] |
| 85 | * The song "Chong Ki Fu" from the Mexican composer of songs for children, Cri Cri, contains a few Cantonese phrases in its lyrics. |
| 86 | * Music/{{Gorillaz}} released a version of "Dirty Harry" in Chinese. |
| 87 | * Music/YellowMagicOrchestra's "Tong Poo"("eastern wind"). |
| 88 | [[/folder]] |
| 89 | |
| 90 | [[folder:剧院 / 劇院 (Theatre)]] |
| 91 | * The ScreenToStageAdaptation of ''Film/ThoroughlyModernMillie'' has a version of "Mammy" sung in Mandarin Chinese. Oddly enough, the spoken language of the {{Chinese Launderer}}s is Cantonese. Or at least, it's supposed to be, but more often than not the actors mangle the words and pronunciation beyond recognition. |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:视频游戏 / 視頻遊戲 (Video Games)]] |
| 95 | * In ''VideoGame/AnarchyReigns'', Feirin and Airin pepper their dialogue with Chinese words with fairly accurate pronunciation. Their sister Rinrin, however, doesn't do this. |
| 96 | * Claptrap in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' is fond of saying "Let's go!" in different languages, such as "Andiamo!" (Italian), "Allons-y!" (French) or "¡Vámonos!" (Spanish). |
| 97 | * The opening stage of ''VideoGame/ColdWinter'' is set in a Chinese prison, and the soldiers speaks an odd mixture of Mandarin and Cantonese. Special mention to the enemy torturer who shouts, "''Qing ni bu zhun xian hai wo!''" [[note]]Please do not attempt to injure me![[/note]] |
| 98 | * ''VideoGame/DestinyOfAnEmperor'' has skills written in romanized Chinese. Unless you have a guide, good luck finding out what they do. |
| 99 | * In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', you can visit UsefulNotes/HongKong. Most people you meet there speak English, though there is a monk who speaks Cantonese with [[BilingualBonus no translation given]].[[note]]He's saying, "Please give way" and [[LampshadeHanging Can you speak Cantonese?"]][[/note]] There's also some Chinese text, but most of it is complete nonsense copy-and-pasted repeatedly. |
| 100 | %%* Done much better in ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution''. |
| 101 | * ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has several messages, recordings, and holograms in awful Chinese. Since Creator/{{Bethesda}} likes to use a small pool of voice actors for [[ManOfAThousandVoices large casts of NPCs]], they probably weren't willing to splurge on a guy who can actually pronounce the language. |
| 102 | * The Dragon Driftway and Palace courses in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' have Latiku's name in simplified Chinese printed in some areas. |
| 103 | * In ''VideoGame/Persona2'', Lisa Silverman is a white girl who only knows Japanese, except for a few random Chinese phrases which she loves to use. |
| 104 | * The ''VideoGame/ProjectIGI'' sequel, ''Covert Strike'', sees you taking on a corrupt Chinese general and his soldiers. His mooks' dialogue consist of stock Mandarin with suspiciously westernized accents, and some of them doesn't even make sense. Like asking "''Tā qù nǎ'er?'' [[note]]Where is he going[[/note]]?"... even ''before'' they spotted you. |
| 105 | * ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs2012'' has a bunch of "peppering Cantonese cuss words into English" and background [=NPCs=] who speak accurate but unsubtitled Cantonese, though Mrs. Chu is the only named plot-relevant character to ''only'' speak Cantonese. |
| 106 | * ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' has an InUniverse example. The plot takes you to a hostess club where the girls are all allegedly Chinese, but don't know much Chinese beyond "Ni hao" (hello). They're all children or ''grandchildren'' of illegal immigrants, have lived in Japan all their lives, and most of them speak Japanese as their first language. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:西方动画 / 西方動畫 (Western Animation)]] |
| 110 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode, "The DVD", after hijinks in accidentally destroying the DVD that Gumball and Darwin had rented, and trying to find ways to pay it, Darwin suggest on getting a job. When Gumball asks the part if they could speak Chinese, Darwin says: |
| 111 | -->'''Darwin''': 我真的不知道如何说中文，因为它真的很难说，我只知道一个小的中国说话，所以我不能说。(I really don't know how to speak Chinese because Chinese is actually very hard, and I only know one Chinese-speaking person. So, no, I can't speak it.) |
| 112 | -->'''Subtitle''': [[TranslationYes No]]. |
| 113 | * ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' loves its little Chinese Easter eggs -- scrolls and signs in Chinese characters, even if only visible for [[FreezeFrameBonus a split second]], say exactly what you'd expect them to say. Most of them also get the grammar and [[ShownTheirWork even the calligraphy]] right. But there are a few mistakes, most glaringly the use of simplified characters in an era when everyone would be using traditional characters. |
| 114 | * ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs2'' has Chester V getting through to Flint with a Chinese proverb. Sam sets the record straight with another Chinese proverb.[[note]]For the record, although it is in Chinese they're ''not'' Chinese proverbs.[[/note]] |
| 115 | -->恶棍给的食物肯定有毒 (ègùn gěi de shíwù kěndìng yǒudú): "If a bully gives you food, it's surely poisoned." |
| 116 | -->恶霸变成朋友，永远是朋友 (èbà biàn chéng péngyǒu yǒngyuǎn shì péngyǒu): "A bully turned friend will be your friend forever." |
| 117 | * ''WesternAnimation/NiHaoKaiLan'' uses Chinese much in the same way ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'' uses Spanish. |
| 118 | * ''WesternAnimation/SagwaTheChineseSiameseCat'' has a little of this, usually basic words and phrases. The pre- and post-show funding thanks were ended in the Chinese for "thank you". |
| 119 | [[/folder]] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[folder:现实生活 / 現實生活 (Real Life)]] |
| 122 | * Kanji. While Korea and Vietnam have switched to its own writing system and the Latin alphabet respectively, Japan had retained its Chinese character system alongside placing it with its own kana system. And with centuries of massive influence, the Japanese have developed a sound system called ''on'yomi'' to pronounce Chinese loanwords, and have '''''three''''' types of sound-reading depending on the region and dynasty. |
| 123 | [[/folder]] |
| 124 | |
| 125 | !!!'''Čeština (Czech)''' |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[folder:Fan Fikce (Fan Works)]] |
| 128 | * Radek Zelenka from ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', who gained popularity also through his very good Czech on the show, is prone to suffering from bad automatic translations in fanfics. And thanks to his canonical propensity to swearing in Czech, fanfic writers who know no Czech [[Main/DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch can also end up having him speak in ridiculously mixed-up levels of vulgarity]], dropping a fortified equivalent to an F-bomb even David Nykl himself would probably never have used on the show, right next to something along the lines of "what a dolt". |
| 129 | [[/folder]] |
| 130 | |
| 131 | !!!'''Nederlands (Dutch)''' |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:Computerspellen (Video Games)]] |
| 134 | * Myrthe is a [[TheMissionary missionary]] from a Netherlands-equivalent in ''VideoGame/SakunaOfRiceAndRuin'' on spreading the teachings of Formos. In both English and Japanese dub, her pronounciation is a bit more slow, sentences a bit simplified, and occasionally uses Dutch words in her sentences. A case of ShownTheirWork as the Dutch were the only ones allowed to trade with Japan during the Edo period. |
| 135 | [[/folder]] |
| 136 | |
| 137 | [[folder:Fanfictie (Fan Works)]] |
| 138 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fic ''Fanfic/TheBlackSheep'' is set in the Discworld equivalent of Holland and uses not just Dutch, but also the related-but-different Afrikaans. |
| 139 | * And then, of course, there's ''Fanfic/SOSchip'', which manages to combine this trope with Surprisingly Good Dutch. When the author announced a probable Japanese dub, what then followed was a bunch of Dutch words being put into katakana and then romanji. It was hilarious. (''HETTO KOFUSKIPU! MEKKU-FURANDADU!'') [[note]] "'t kofschip- mech veranderd," which translates to "mech change", is the command that allows the ''S.S. Tex-Kofschip'' to transform into its many mech forms. [[/note]] |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Live-Actie Televisie (Live-Action TV)]] |
| 143 | * One episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' has a lot of Dutch in it, with Ross pretending he speaks it (and failing pretty badly). The pronunciation isn't very good, though, so Dutch people might not recognize it as Dutch at first. But it does lead to some early {{Bilingual Bonus}}es, like the scene where Gunther tells Ross, "Jij hebt seks met ezels" ("You have [[BestialityIsDepraved sex with donkeys]]"), and the Dutch audience gets the joke -- but the English-speaking studio audience doesn't get in on it until Ross looks it up in his dictionary. |
| 144 | [[/folder]] |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[folder:Muziek (Music)]] |
| 147 | * Music/JacquesBrel's "Marieke" has the chorus sung mostly in Flemish ("Zonder liefde, warme liefde..."), which is kind of related to (but isn't really) Dutch and is spoken in the neighboring Flanders region of Belgium. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | !!!'''Suomi (Finnish)''' |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Kirjallisuus (Literature)]] |
| 153 | * In J.R.R. Tolkien's ''Literature/TheFatherChristmasLetters'', the North Polar Bear has two mischievous nephews named Paksu and Valkotukka, which means "Fat" and "White Hair" (but, unfortunately, using a word that only applies to human hair). NPB himself is revealed to be named Karhu, which is Finnish for "bear". |
| 154 | * ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'': |
| 155 | ** In ''The Golden Compass'', there's a reference to the Nälkäinens, which means "the hungry ones". |
| 156 | ** The witch Serafina Pekkala has a distinctly Finnish last name, which is justified as she is from Lake Enara, Lyra's world's counterpart of Inarijärvi in Northern Finland. Pullman took the name from a Finnish phone directory. |
| 157 | ** Serafina names Will's daemon Kirjava, which means "multi-coloured". |
| 158 | * In ''Ninth City Burning'' by J. Patrick Black, "Fontanus Uusikuu" just has the right magic feeling. The "uu" is a dead giveaway in which language to look, the meaning being "new moon". |
| 159 | * The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has random bits of gratuitous Finnish. For example, the name of the martial art Teräs Käsi means Steel Hand (the words should be conjoined in real Finnish). [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Juhani]] is misused as a female name. And the planet [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Taivas Taivas]] is Finnish for "sky" or "heaven". |
| 160 | * House Harkonnen in ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' comes from the Finnish name "Härkönen" which Herbert chose because it sounded "harsh" and "Soviet". |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder:Lelut (Toys)]] |
| 164 | * [[Toys/{{Bionicle}} Several]] [[AnIcePerson Ko]]-[[TheStoic Matoran]] have names that are actually Finnish words [[ThemeNaming related to cold]]: Arktinen ("arctic"), Jaa (from ''jää'', "ice"), Jaatikko (from ''jäätikkö "glacier"), Lumi ("snow"), Pakastaa ("to deep-freeze"), and Talvi ("winter"). |
| 165 | [[/folder]] |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[folder:Elokuvat (Films -- Live-Action)]] |
| 168 | * At one point in ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'', the Angels [[HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier avoid eavesdropping by conversing in Finnish]]. The girls couldn't understand what they were saying, or even that it was Finnish to begin with. The translation and pronunciation were so mangled that in Finland, the conversation still had to be subtitled in Finnish (translating from the English subtitles, no less). |
| 169 | * In ''Film/StreetFighterTheLegendOfChunLi'', during the scene where M. Bison is, ahem, [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse negotiating]] with a CosmopolitanCouncil of crime bosses in Bangkok, one of the bosses (identified in the credits as "European") gets angry at his demands and declares "[[ForeignCussWord Perkele]], tämä keskustelu päättyi tähän!", which is translated as "This conversation is over." Afterwards, the whole gathering stands up and leaves, only to get murdered by Vega. |
| 170 | [[/folder]] |
| 171 | |
| 172 | [[folder:TV-sarjat (Live-Action TV)]] |
| 173 | * Norwegian sitcom ''Series/{{Borettslaget}}'' features Finnish character Piirka, whose name which is Gratuitous Finnish in itself because it can't fit into the language's grammatical structure ("Pirkka" would be better). His attempts to speak Norwegian amount to speaking Swedish with a bunch of Finnish words mixed in (much of which was [[ForeignSoundingGibberish Finnish-sounding gibberish]] -- his actor couldn't even speak Finnish). |
| 174 | [[/folder]] |
| 175 | |
| 176 | [[folder:Tosielämä (Real Life)]] |
| 177 | * The Swiss clothing brand "Napapijri" uses an incorrect spelling of the Finish word for the Arctic Circle (Napapiiri), and a Norwegian flag for their branding. |
| 178 | * An Italian shoe maker saw the Finnish word "Marskinryyppy" (a snaps named after Mannerheim) and picked it for a shoe, because he liked the amount of y's and p's in the word. |
| 179 | * There is a Japanese designer clothes chain called "Minä Perhonen" (I, Butterfly in Finnish). The desginer, Akira Minagawa does have a long personal relationship with Finland, having visited the country almost anually for over thirty years. There are also stores called "Ehkä Söpö" (maybe cute) and "Otan Tämän" (I'll take this) in Japan. |
| 180 | * There is an Italian-German outdoors gear brand called "Kaikkialla" (everywhere) which also sells various items named after different Finnish cities. |
| 181 | [[/folder]] |
| 182 | |
| 183 | [[folder:Mainonta (Advertising)]] |
| 184 | * A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uvyoqZvoofY Korean advert for Finnish-themed bubble gum]] had [[FunnyForeigner an old man in a green suit]] (a weird combination of traditional Finnish and Sami [[CultureEqualsCostume folk costumes]]) dancing around and yelling "''Hyvä hyvä!''" which is Finnish for "Good good!" This became a meme in late-'90s Finnish internet circles. |
| 185 | [[/folder]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 188 | * The song "All Mine" by Music/{{Chamillionaire}} samples "Hetki Lyö" by Kirka, with the bridge of the song sampling a long part of the pre-chorus, but cuts off mid-sentence. |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:Pöytäpelit (Tabletop Games)]] |
| 192 | * TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} has the monsters Niljake (approximately "icky/slimy thing", but could also be a family of mushrooms) and Karmeus ("horribleness"). |
| 193 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition's includes a small Finnish pantheon of nature deity Mielikki, god of sleep Untamo, goddess of pain and torture Loviatar and demigoddess of diseas, Kiputytto (whose name lacks the correct diacritics, "kiputyttö" literally meaning "pain girl") |
| 194 | [[/folder]] |
| 195 | |
| 196 | [[folder:Sarjakuvat (Comic Books)]] |
| 197 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'', the Snow Queen is called Lumi, which is Finnish for "snow". Her siblings are called Kevat, Kesa, and Syksy, respectively "Spring", "Summer" and "Autumn" (albeit missing the umlauts). Why the Snow Queen isn't called Talvi ("winter") is anybody's guess. |
| 198 | * The ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' comic features the Cybertronian martial art Metallikato, which is Finnish for "loss of metal (via rusting and/or deficiency)" The Finnish translation of the comic spells it "Metalicato", presumably to make it look less silly. |
| 199 | %%* Every non-English name in ''ComicBook/{{Mezolith}}''. |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[folder:Videopelit (Video Games)]] |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIITheDrownedCity'' has the "Joukahainen Bow" (from ''Literature/TheKalevala'') and the "Ukonvasara" (literally "Ukko's hammer", Ukko being the god of the sky, weather, harvest, and thunder in Finnish mythology), which is an archaic term for a thunderbolt and/or the sound of thundering. |
| 204 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 205 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' has Louhi, based on the witch in ''Literature/TheKalevala''. |
| 206 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesTheCrystalBearers'' has a vocal theme song called "Kuule Tää Unelmain" (which translates to "Hear My Dream") sung by Creator/DonnaBurke, with lyrics in Finnish. |
| 207 | * The fighting game ''VideoGame/StarWarsMastersOfTerasKasi'' features [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Masters_of_Ter%C3%A4s_K%C3%A4si#Title several examples]], including Teräs Käsi, meaning "steel hand" and sounding suitably badass (but not technically correct -- it's implied to be plural, which would make it ''Teräskädet") |
| 208 | [[/folder]] |
| 209 | |
| 210 | !!!'''Ōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian)''' |
| 211 | |
| 212 | [[folder:Anime a me Manga (Anime & Manga)]] |
| 213 | * The English dub of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' has Principal Kuno peppering his speech with Hawaiian (in the original, he just used GratuitousEnglish). |
| 214 | [[/folder]] |
| 215 | |
| 216 | [[folder:Fan moʻolelo (Fan Works)]] |
| 217 | * ''Fanfic/PowerRangersOceania'' takes place in Hawaii, and many characters occasionally use Hawaiian in their daily English vocabulary. Occasionally justified by terms that do not have an English equivalent. |
| 218 | [[/folder]] |
| 219 | |
| 220 | [[folder:Kiʻiʻoniʻoni -- Animation (Films -- Animation)]] |
| 221 | * ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', set in Hawaii, has a lot of Hawaiian words and some Hawaiian Pidgin English as well (particularly Nani and David, both of whose voice actors grew up in Hawaii). In particular, the opening uses an upbeat Hawaiian chant ("He Mele No Lilo", actually melded together from two different chants and leading to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVptV_Da5qw a weird translation]]), and "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" uses Pidgin English and [[SurferDude surfer slang]]. "He Mele No Lilo" in fact can't be sung in Hawaiian without putting AccentUponTheWrongSyllable. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[folder:Pāʻani wikiō (Video Games)]] |
| 225 | * ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': One time while babysitting, Tammy says that she needs to put all the ''keiki'' (Hawaiian for "child") to bed. |
| 226 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' takes place in the "Alola" region and has several examples: |
| 227 | ** Legendary bat Pokémon Lunala is from ''luna'', Hawaiian for "leader" (and also Latin for "moon"). |
| 228 | ** One of Oricorio's forms, called hula-style in Japanese, is called Pa'u-style in English (from ''pa'u'', "skirt"). |
| 229 | ** Some human characters have Hawaiian FloralThemeNaming: Professor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleurites_moluccanus Kukui]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandanus_tectorius Hala]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_tilliaceus Hau]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopis_pallida Kiawe]] (though in Japanese his name is Kaki, the Japanese persimmon), Lana (Hawaiian for "afloat"), Mao (Hawaiian cotton, renamed "Mallow" in English), and Māmane (Hawaiian for ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophora_chrysophylla Sophora chrysophylla]]'', renamed "Sophocles" in English). |
| 230 | [[/folder]] |
| 231 | |
| 232 | !!!'''(Hebrew) עִברִית''' |
| 233 | |
| 234 | [[folder:(Anime and Manga) אנימה ומנגה]] |
| 235 | * The names of several HumongousMecha in the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' and a few of its innumerable sequels are in badly mangled Hebrew. Examples include the Acguy (from ''Haggai'', a minor prophet in the Hebrew Bible), Adzam (from ''Ashem'', "guilty"), and Elmeth (from ''El-maeth'', meaning something like "[[NamesToRunAwayFromVeryFast God of Death]]"). What's particularly odd about this is that these are all Zeon mobile suits, a faction with an infamous fondness for PuttingOnTheReich. |
| 236 | * The demon rankings in ''Manga/WelcomeToDemonSchoolIrumaKun'' are based the first 10 letters of the Hebrew alphabet: Alef (the lowest), Bet, Gimel, Dalet, He, Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet and Yod (the highest). |
| 237 | [[/folder]] |
| 238 | |
| 239 | [[folder:(Literature) סִפְרוּת]] |
| 240 | %%* What everybody is speaking in the Snake Person Kingdom in the Literature/LeftBehind book ''Kingdom Come'', though for the sake of the readers it's all translated into whatever language the book is published in. |
| 241 | * The ''Literature/ArsGoetia'' and ''The Key of Solomon'' include random Hebrew words for their pentacles. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 | |
| 244 | [[folder:(Live-Action TV) סדרות מצולמות]] |
| 245 | * ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' character Noel supposedly speaks Hebrew but doesn't always get it right. In one instance, he translates "school" as ''yeshiva'', which is specifically for ''religious'' schools where students study Jewish law full-time. (He was probably looking for ''beit-sefer''). He also pronounces it the Yiddish way, which no Hebrew language teacher would recommend. |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | |
| 248 | [[folder:(Theatre) תיאטרון]] |
| 249 | * Music/LeonardBernstein's ''Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers'' mostly mixes English with church Latin, but "Sanctus" is sung trilingually in Latin, English, and Hebrew. |
| 250 | -->''Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh Adonai ts'vaot,\ |
| 251 | M'lo chol haaretz k'vodo.\ |
| 252 | Baruch ha'ba B'shem Adonai!'' |
| 253 | [[/folder]] |
| 254 | |
| 255 | [[folder:(Video Games) משחקי וידאו]] |
| 256 | * ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': The four [[SinisterGeometry Hypostases]] have been assigned codenames after the first letters of the Hebrew alphabet: Aleph, Beth, Gimel and Daleth. |
| 257 | [[/folder]] |
| 258 | |
| 259 | !!!'''हिन्दी (Hindi)''' |
| 260 | |
| 261 | [[folder:एनीमे और मंगा (Anime & Manga)]] |
| 262 | * ''Manga/SazanEyes'' also make use of Hindi, as many pieces of the lore regarding the Sanzhiyan Humkara are tied to Hindu Mythology and folklore. Parvati's main spell to summon her magic is "Baras Vidahi" (give me power). |
| 263 | * An episode of '' Anime/BestStudentCouncil'' features a girl from India. The only word she ever says is "Namaste" ("hello"), even in inappropriate situations. |
| 264 | [[/folder]] |
| 265 | |
| 266 | [[folder:पंखा बनावटें (Fan Works)]] |
| 267 | * ''Fanfic/KuchAdhuraSaJoThaPooraHoJayega'': Several chapters start off with Hindi song lyrics. Justified, as Kamala is trying to remember good memories while she is imprisoned, and she probably associates Hindi/Urdu songs with her family. |
| 268 | [[/folder]] |
| 269 | |
| 270 | [[folder:लाइव-एक्शन टीवी (Live-Action TV)]] |
| 271 | * ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E6LikeAngelsPutInHellByGod Like Angels Put in Hell by God]]", Louis de Pointe du Lac and Dr. Fareed Bhansali's farewell to each other is in Hindi even though the rest of their dialogue is in English. |
| 272 | [[/folder]] |
| 273 | |
| 274 | [[folder:पश्चिमी एनिमेशन (Western Animation)]] |
| 275 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore" has plenty of Gratuitous Hindi. And in Bangalore specifically, the local language is not Hindi, but [[UsefulNotes/IndianLanguages Kannada]] -- but Bangalore being India's IT hub, they get enough migrants from elsewhere in India that you could probably hear Hindi too if you hung around long enough. Good thing, too, because the voice actors would probably have had an even harder time with Kannada, which sounds like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx1yRXjtO40&feature=related this]]. |
| 276 | [[/folder]] |
| 277 | |
| 278 | !!!'''Korean''' |
| 279 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 280 | * The ending theme to ''Manga/DragonHalf'' is a SurrealThemeTune with random GratuitousEnglish, some Gratuitous Mandarin (''yi er san si'', "one two three four") and some Gratuitous Korean (''kamsa hamnida'', "thank you"). |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 284 | * Having spent a considerable portion of his life in Korea, Steven in ''Fanfic/FadedBlue'' sometimes uses Korean words and honorifics. |
| 285 | [[/folder]] |
| 286 | |
| 287 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 288 | * ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': One of Mei's friends, Abby, is Korean-Canadian, and sometimes [[ForeignLanguageTirade starts shouting in Korean when agitated]]. |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
| 290 | |
| 291 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 292 | * ''VideoGame/CrossyRoad'': When one of the characters from the Korea category is selected, the game's logo is changed to Korean. |
| 293 | [[/folder]] |
| 294 | |
| 295 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 296 | * The Sidepork Pandemonium episode of ''WebVideo/RegularOrdinarySwedishMealTime'' (which already revels in Gratuitous Swedish) show the cook karate-chopping butter in half, indicated by a Korean flag in the top right corner and subtitles in Korean. |
| 297 | [[/folder]] |
| 298 | |
| 299 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 300 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' has Lady Rainicorn, who only speaks in Korean. |
| 301 | [[/folder]] |
| 302 | |
| 303 | !!!'''Magyar (Hungarian)''' |
| 304 | [[folder:Anime és Manga (Anime & Manga)]] |
| 305 | * ''VisualNovel/ElevenEyes'' uses a lot of Hungarian, most notably in the episode subtitles and in the OpeningNarration. Most of it was probably [[BlindIdiotTranslation Google translated]], but the opening is actually narrated by a Hungarian voice actor. |
| 306 | [[/folder]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[folder:Rajongói Fikció (Fan Works)]] |
| 309 | * Hungarian shows up in the ''Fanfic/NineteenEightyThreeDoomsdayStories'' AU for ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', in stark contrast to the similarly prevalent GratuitousGerman used by Prussia and the Alpines. Especially whenever Sopron (Austria's daughter) or [[spoiler:Angelic!]]Hungary shows up. |
| 310 | [[/folder]] |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[folder:Irodalom (Literature)]] |
| 313 | * The ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' novels, written by Hungarian-American Steven Brust, have a fair bit of Hungarian sprinkled in. The "Fenarian" culture which predominates among Easterners (''i.e.'' humans) is Hungarian and uses Hungarian as its ancestral language, although written phonetically rather than in correct Hungarian spelling, which is brutal to the English-speaking eye. And sometimes it's not quite accurate, as in Vlad's one-time pseudonym "Lord Maydeer", which is supposed to approximate "Magyar" (the Hungarian word for themselves), which is more accurately pronounced "Majyar". |
| 314 | [[/folder]] |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[folder:Nyugati Animáció (Western Animation)]] |
| 317 | * In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', the Nelvaans speak Hungarian with a few Russian words thrown in. |
| 318 | [[/folder]] |
| 319 | |
| 320 | [[folder:Színház (Theatre)]] |
| 321 | * In ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'', Hunyak has a few lines in Hungarian (mostly in "Cell Block Tango"); Ekaterina Chtchelkanova generally mispronounces them in [[Film/{{Chicago}} the movie version]]. In the script of the musical, many of the vowels in those lines carry incorrect accent marks, some of which are not found in the Hungarian language. |
| 322 | * Fictional Czech playwright Creator/JaraCimrman parodied Gratuitous Hungarian in ''Vražda v salonním kupé'' ("Murder in the Salon Compartment"), with a Hungarian train steward whose dialogue features a few actual Hungarian words that make no sense in context -- they're just there to ''sound'' Hungarian to the Czech audience. But in the play's first act (styled as a mock-academic conference), it's [[LampshadeHanging "explained"]] that Cimrman knew no Hungarian and had only two materials in Hungarian at hand when writing the play: the menu of the Hotel Petőfi, and the Hungarian railway timetable. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[folder:Videójátékok (Video Games)]] |
| 326 | * In ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', the colonist farmers you encounter in some levels speak Hungarian. [[TheBigGuy Jorge]], as a Reach native, acts as translator. Most of the planet's locations and both of its moons are named in Hungarian as well. Jorge even mutters a line in Hungarian as he watches large portions of Reach being blown up from orbit: "Megszakad a szivem..." ("This breaks my heart..."). |
| 327 | * Though subtitled, ''all'' voiceovers in ''VideoGame/SineMora'' are in Hungarian. |
| 328 | [[/folder]] |
| 329 | |
| 330 | !!!'''Norsk (Norwegian)''' |
| 331 | |
| 332 | [[folder:Bordspill (Tabletop Games)]] |
| 333 | * ''TabletopGame/Twilight2000'' attempts to use Norwegian words, but pulls them from Viking sagas -- which used Old Norse, which was spoken in Norway 900 years ago and looks like [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Ye Olde Butcherede Norweegioun]]. |
| 334 | [[/folder]] |
| 335 | |
| 336 | [[folder:Filmer -- Spillefilm (Films -- Live-Action)]] |
| 337 | * In ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior'', Creator/AntonioBanderas' character Ahmad Ibn Fadlan learns Norwegian by listening to men speaking (heavily accented) Norwegian around a campfire, which gradually evolves into English as he starts to learn more words. He eventually speaks up, alerting the men that he has learned their language. While they actually speak English to one another from that point onwards, they are -- as far as the story is concerned -- still speaking Norwegian. |
| 338 | [[/folder]] |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[folder:Fjernsyn -- Spillefilm (Live-Action TV)]] |
| 341 | * The ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode "Mayhem on a Cross" features a couple of Norwegian police officers, who are thankfully played by Scandinavian actors who speak the language. Brennan, on the other hand, is not so lucky, as evidenced by the RunningGag where she tries to teach her co-workers how to pronounce the word ''skalle'' ("skull"), only to be even worse than everyone she was trying to teach. Norwegians found it hilariously absurd. |
| 342 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' at one point visits "Dårlig Ulv Stranden" in Norway, which the characters inform us that means "[[ArcWords Bad Wolf]] Bay" in Norwegian. While "Dårlig" ''can'' be literally translated as "bad", it's not used in this context (it's more used for feeling sick or being faulty or of inferior quality). "Stranden" means "the beach" rather than "bay." A direct translation of "Dårlig Ulv Stranden" would therefore be "The Poor Wolf Beach". A more accurate translation might be "Stygg Ulv Bukten"... but even this doesn't sound even remotely like a name you'd find anywhere in Norway. |
| 343 | * ''Series/ICarly'': The third season finale, "iBeat the Heat," features a "really powerful Norwegian air conditioner" marked with the words "Avkjøle luften" and "Fortreffelig avkjøle." It's ''technically'' Norwegian, in that the words are Norwegian... but it was definitely not written by anyone who was fluent in the language. Especially "fortreffelig avkjøle" just translates to "excellent cool." |
| 344 | * The pilot episode of ''Series/TwinPeaks'' contains a visiting delegation of Norwegian businessmen. Their presence and behavior in the state of Washington is apparently an attempt at a joke -- they're there to buy lumber and are very appreciative of the local nature and fresh air, none of which are in short supply in Norway. |
| 345 | * The title of ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Død Kalm" is in Gratuitous Norwegian. It supposedly means "Dead Calm", and ''død'' really is Norwegian for "dead" (and also a fun word to look at) -- but "kalm" isn't Norwegian at all, and reads like an English speaker forgot the Norwegian word and is trying desperately to make it up (and failing hilariously). The episode itself has many more examples of Gratuitous Norwegian in dialogue, particularly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDe0xQN1XSE this conversation]] between Olafsson and [[FamousNamedForeigner the ridiculously-named]] Trondheim, which has achieved a certain degree of infamy among Norwegian fans. |
| 346 | [[/folder]] |
| 347 | |
| 348 | [[folder:Vestlig Animasjon (Western Animation)]] |
| 349 | * The ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode title "Chille Tid" is Norwegian for "Chilling Time".[[note]]Ironically, "Chille" in itself is GratuitousEnglish in Norwegian, though in this case there isn't really any direct pure translation that wouldn't sound horribly awkward in Norwegian, so even the Norwegian dub uses the direct phrase "Chille tid," [[/note]] |
| 350 | [[/folder]] |
| 351 | |
| 352 | !!!'''Português (Portuguese)''' |
| 353 | |
| 354 | [[folder:Animação Ocidental (Western Animation)]] |
| 355 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' short ''Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsIce'' the people of the ice planet apparently speak European Portuguese for some reason. This is particularly odd since the original short story has a ConLang and some of its words are in fact peppered over in dialogue. |
| 356 | [[/folder]] |
| 357 | |
| 358 | [[folder:Filmes (Films -- Live-Action)]] |
| 359 | * In the [[Film/Taxi2004 2004 version]] of ''Film/{{Taxi}}'', the German thieves who were the main bad guys in the original French film have been replaced by a criminal gang of Brazilian women led by a girl named Vanessa, played by real-life Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen. Naturally, all their scenes have them speaking in Portuguese. |
| 360 | [[/folder]] |
| 361 | |
| 362 | [[folder:Jogos Eletrônicos (Video Games)]] |
| 363 | * On the ''VideoGame/{{Celeste}}: Farewell'' soundtrack, the second-to-last song is titled "Vovô e vovó", Portuguese for "Grandma and Grandpa". |
| 364 | [[/folder]] |
| 365 | |
| 366 | [[folder:Literatura (Literature)]] |
| 367 | * As Creator/OrsonScottCard tried to [[WriteWhoYouKnow incorporate his experiences on a Mormon mission trip to Brazil]] in ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', the main setting is the planet Lusitania (the Latin name for Portugal) and various terms related to that are in Portuguese, such as the local populace being the Pequeninos (''little ones''). |
| 368 | [[/folder]] |
| 369 | |
| 370 | [[folder:Música (Music)]] |
| 371 | * Music/FaithNoMore has a Bossa Nova-like song named "Caralho Voador" ("flying penis"), which even features a verse in Portuguese. Music/MikePatton loves Brazil ever since his first visit in 1991, and even tries to speak in the local language whenever he returns. |
| 372 | * From Music/{{Sabaton}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HZIKecGbPQ "Smoking Snakes"]]: "Cobras fumantes, eterna é sua vitória!" ("Smoking Snakes,[[labelnote:i.e.]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Expeditionary_Force the Brazilian Expeditionary Force]][[/labelnote]] eternal is your victory!") |
| 373 | * The music video for Music/LimpBizkit's "Boiler" has a diner named "Bolacha Mole", which is "limp biscuit" in Portuguese. |
| 374 | [[/folder]] |
| 375 | |
| 376 | [[folder:Romances Visuais (Visual Novels)]] |
| 377 | * ''VisualNovel/TheHouseInFataMorgana'' features most of its original songs in Portuguese and its lyrics even foreshadow some of the future events in the story. However, at the same time, they are sung with a heavy Japanese accent and the grammar is so mangled that, even if you are a native speaker, you may not notice it's Portuguese at first. |
| 378 | [[/folder]] |
| 379 | |
| 380 | !!!'''Kiswahili (Swahili)''' |
| 381 | |
| 382 | [[folder:Hadithi za shabiki (Fan Works)]] |
| 383 | * In ''Fanfic/FromBehindBars'', the lion's ClassicalTongue "lion-latin" is Swahili. |
| 384 | [[/folder]] |
| 385 | |
| 386 | [[folder:Fasihi (Literature)]] |
| 387 | * ''Literature/TheCalfOfTheNovemberCloud'' is set in pre-colonial Kenya, and the narration is peppered with Swahili words like ''manyatta''. |
| 388 | * The ''Literature/{{Imaro}}'' series uses numerous Swahili words as names for people and places, as it's set in an {{expy}} for ancient Africa. The word ''imaro'' itself is derived from ''imara'', the Swahili word for "power". |
| 389 | [[/folder]] |
| 390 | |
| 391 | [[folder:Filamu (Films -- Live-Action)]] |
| 392 | * In the film of ''Series/TheATeam'', there is a memorable scene involving Swahili -- the joke being that B.A.'s not the one speaking it, but rather Murdock (who's played by South African actor and Swahili speaker Creator/SharltoCopley). |
| 393 | * In ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', Lyle's guides use Swahili, and Lyle tries to speak it, but ends up in a MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels situation. |
| 394 | [[/folder]] |
| 395 | |
| 396 | [[folder:Filamu ya Uhuishaji (Films -- Animation)]] |
| 397 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' used a few Swahili phrases, most notably the motto "hakuna matata" ("there are no worries") and the opening lines to "The Circle of Life" (which everyone likes to sing but [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein nobody can remember or pronounce]]). Rafiki has a line to Simba in Swahili (''Wewe nugu, mimi hapana'', "[[MindScrew you are a baboon and I am not]]"), the sequel has a song titled "Upendi" ("love"), and the Broadway musical adds the song "He Lives in You", which also has Swahili lyrics. |
| 398 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}} 2'' has a few instances of gratuitous Swahili; for example, Gloria's newly-introduced love interest is named "Moto Moto ("hot hot"). |
| 399 | [[/folder]] |
| 400 | |
| 401 | [[folder:Mfululizo wa televisheni (Live-Action TV)]] |
| 402 | * In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', Uhura's name is an anglicized version of ''uhuru'', the Swahili word for freedom. Uhura herself is fluent in Swahili (and [[{{Omniglot}} a ton of other languages]]) and occasionally speaks it on the show. |
| 403 | [[/folder]] |
| 404 | |
| 405 | [[folder:Muziki (Music)]] |
| 406 | * Music/MichaelJackson's song "Liberian Girl" opens with Swahili, as sung by a South African singer. Swahili isn't spoken in ''either'' Liberia or South Africa (or anywhere particularly close). |
| 407 | * Music/LionelRichie's song "All Night Long" features gratuitous Swahili mixed in with [[ForeignSoundingGibberish gibberish]]. |
| 408 | * German group Boney M.'s song "Jambo - Hakuna Matata", although mostly in English, featured some gratuitous Swahili as well (including the famous "hakuna matata", but predating ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}''). |
| 409 | [[/folder]] |
| 410 | |
| 411 | [[folder:Michezo ya video (Video Games)]] |
| 412 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV'''s theme song "Baba Yetu" is in Swahili. It's the text of the Lord's Prayer [-[[RecycledInSpace IN SWAHILI!]]-]. |
| 413 | * ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', taking place in {{Bulungi}}, has a lot of gratuitous Swahili. |
| 414 | [[/folder]] |
| 415 | |
| 416 | [[folder:Vitabu vya Vichekesho (Comic Books)]] |
| 417 | * In the Swedish comic book series ''ComicBook/{{Bamse}}'', the main character's daughter's first words are "hakuna matata". Only one other character understood the phrase, and it became a single motto between them. And this was before ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' was made (and popularized the phrase), so it was intended that no one would really know what it meant. |
| 418 | [[/folder]] |
| 419 | |
| 420 | [[folder:Uhuishaji wa Magharibi (Western Animation)]] |
| 421 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' continues ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}''[='s=] use of Swahili, with each member of the Lion Guard having a Swahili catchphrase. |
| 422 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' episode "African Storm", kiswahili is used by the Hungan, as well as by members of the tribe he leads. |
| 423 | [[/folder]] |
| 424 | |
| 425 | !!!'''Svenska (Swedish)''' |
| 426 | [[folder:Annons (Advertising)]] |
| 427 | * Ikea. Ah, the furniture chain Ikea. All their products are named after a specific Swedish word or a place name. Always creates unintended amusement for anyone fluent in Swedish. Who wouldn't love a sofa named ''Friheten'' [[spoiler:The Freedom]]? |
| 428 | [[/folder]] |
| 429 | |
| 430 | [[folder:Litteratur (Literature)]] |
| 431 | * Creator/GuyGavrielKay's ''Literature/TheFionavarTapestry'' has a ''very'' important Dwarvish dagger called Lökdal -- which means "onion valley" in Swedish. That's pretty hilarious, and it's unclear if it was deliberate. |
| 432 | * In the ''Literature/TrylleTrilogy'', several Trylle words are actually Swedish: changeling human children are ''mänsklig'' ("human"), the village where they live is Förening ("compound" or "association"), the village where the Vittra trolls love is Ondarike ("[[TheEmpire evil empire]]"), and the royalty titles include ''Markis'' ("Marquis") and ''Marksinna'' ("Marchioness"). |
| 433 | [[/folder]] |
| 434 | |
| 435 | [[folder:TV serie (Live-Action TV)]] |
| 436 | * In ''Series/MrRobot'', Tyrell Wellick (played by Swedish actor Martin Wallström) speaks to his wife in Swedish, who in turn responds in ''danish''. |
| 437 | ** This is actually pretty common in Scandinavia. Norwegian, Swedish and Danish speakers usually train themself to understand the other language of their spouse but don't speak it. Conversely their children are usually bi-lingual in both languages. |
| 438 | * In ''Series/TrueBlood'', Eric and Pam conversing frequently in Swedish. Thank heavens Alexander Skarsgård can actually speak Swedish. |
| 439 | ** According to Skarsgård, nobody bothered to hire an actual translator to do the dialogue and he was often asked to translate it himself and then coach the other actors ''on-set''. |
| 440 | [[/folder]] |
| 441 | |
| 442 | [[folder:Västerländska tecknade serier (Western Animation)]] |
| 443 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Frinkenstein", Lisa spouts some gratuitous Swedish, which is based on a correct sentence (''Tack för att ni förärat vår stad'', "Thank you for honoring our city") but pronounced without the umlauts (which makes it sound more like a mangled "Thank you for honoring ''every'' city"). |
| 444 | [[/folder]] |
| 445 | |
| 446 | [[folder:Videospel (Video Games)]] |
| 447 | * ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'' has unit responses in multiple languages. While the Swedish versions have okay pronunciation, it is also painfully clear that they are [[BlindIdiotTranslation direct translations of English terms.]] |
| 448 | * ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct2013'': Spinal's theme [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqct1zMqTE "Warlord"]] involves [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Swedish Chanting]]. |
| 449 | * ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana'''s main song, the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXSuAPqmSbo Song of Mana]]", is composed by Creator/YokoShimomura and sung in Swedish by Creator/AnnikaLjungberg of the Music/{{Rednex}}. Ironically, [[NoExportForYou the game never made it to Sweden]]. |
| 450 | [[/folder]] |
| 451 | |
| 452 | |
| 453 | |
| 454 | !!!'''Other''' |
| 455 | |
| 456 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 457 | * The anime of ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'' has Senbei, who shifts rapidly to Gratuitous French, Russian, Spanish, & Italian, as well as engaging in BriefAccentImitation. |
| 458 | * ''Manga/AltairARecordOfBattles'' is set in an AlternateUniverse Europe, and the denizens of different countries tend to use a lot of Turkish, Italian, Spanish, French, and German words, amongst others. |
| 459 | * ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' is based off Gratuitous Irish -- they were aiming for ''clann'', meaning "family". |
| 460 | * ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'' has Gratuitous Croatian - the base is named "Daimovic" after Daimos, and "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_name#Croatian_given_names -ovic]]" is a common Croatian-style patronym. It also doubles as a {{pun}} and MeaningfulName since it was founded by Kazuya's father. |
| 461 | * ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'' has Celty Sturluson who is a [[HeadlessHorseman Dullahan]] from Ireland and ocassionally uses Irish words such as "''cóiste bodhar''" (her horse/motorcycle). At one point, she also spoke in her native Irish. |
| 462 | * The remake of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' was given the inexplicable subtitle "Réalta Nua", Irish for "(A) New Star". |
| 463 | * ''Manga/GoldenKamuy'' is set in early 20th century Hokkaido and prominently features several Ainu characters. The author even has an Ainu linguist to help him write dialogue in Ainu so that he doesn't fall into a MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels situation. |
| 464 | * ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', whose characters are all NationsAsPeople, tries to give all the characters an opportunity to speak a bit of their native tongue. The results are all over the place, but the GratuitousEnglish is some of the least comprehensive on the show. It's probably the only anime where you'll hear a Lithuanian speak English more comprehensibly than an American (not that either is comprehensible to begin with). |
| 465 | * ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' manages to avert this (at least in the original manga) for the most part; almost all the magic spells being in Latin or Greek, and are [[ShownTheirWork accurate the vast majority of the time]]. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation [[GratuitousEnglish wasn't so lucky]] -- but it made up for it with some English. |
| 466 | * In ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}'', Yukko's catchphrase is "Selamat Pagi!", which means "good morning" in Malay and Indonesian. |
| 467 | * ''Anime/RahXephon'' features copious amounts of gratuitous [[UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage Esperanto]] and Nahuatl, the old language of the [[UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations Aztec empire]]. |
| 468 | * ''Anime/{{Stitch}}'', the anime version of ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'', changes locales from Hawaii to Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, and features the Okinawan language, or ''Uchinaaguchi''. |
| 469 | %%* Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle has one hilarious one. In the English dub when the group was separated from Mokona, [[Creator/VicMignogna Fai]] spoke [[GratuitousFrench French]], while [[Creator/ChristopherSabat Kurogane]] spoke [[GratuitousJapanese Japanese]]. |
| 470 | %%* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': In the Japanese version, Yami Marik chants what? when activating the various effects of The Winged Dragon of Ra, he chants Heiratic Phrases. |
| 471 | %%** Then, in TheMovie called ''[[Anime/YuGiOhTheMoviePyramidOfLight Pyramid of Light]]'', there is some fake Egyptian-sounding chanting by Anubis in the English version. |
| 472 | [[/folder]] |
| 473 | |
| 474 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 475 | * In ''Fanfic/BlindCourage'', the Sheikah's fictional language is Arabic. Zelda's Sheikah nursemaid Impa sometimes peppers her speech with Arabic. |
| 476 | * ''Fanfic/EyesOnMe'''s ''Thunderbird'' uses Gratuitous Cheyenne throughout the story. |
| 477 | * Like the source material, expect at least some ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fanfic to make use of this, regardless of language. ''Fanfic/MiTruLov'', though, is exceptional amongst ''Hetalia'' fanfics in that the gratuitous word appears only in the first-person narration and is ''"swésor"'', the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary Proto-Indo-European]] word for "sister". |
| 478 | * Octarian in the ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' fic ''Fanfic/IveGotYourBack'' is predominantly Yoruba (a West African language). Marina's native language is Octarian and her friend Pearl quickly learns a few words from listening to her. |
| 479 | * ''Fanfic/LathboraViran'', like most ''Franchise/DragonAge'' works, peppers the writing with Elvish words. The author chooses to use English for most of the internal narration, despite the viewpoint character having Elvhen as their first language. |
| 480 | * ''Fanfic/LegacyOfChRihan'': |
| 481 | ** The main fic liberally peppers the dialogue with words and phrases in Rihan, and doesn't even use the word "Romulan", preferring "Literature/{{Rihannsu}}". |
| 482 | ** The side story "Fanfic/AenrhienVailiuri" adds a few pieces of Farsi from Jaleh Khoroushi. |
| 483 | ** ''Fanfic/PeaceForgedInFire'' has so much untranslated Rihan that one of the authors provided a [[http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=20423171&postcount=20 glossary]] when people complained. It's not quite as bad as ''Fanfic/LegacyOfChRihan'', though; most of the list consists of ranks, and you won't see whole untranslated sentences. |
| 484 | * ''Fanfic/RedFireRedPlanet'', being a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fic, uses a lot of alien words (particularly the Klingon tongue of ''thlIngan Hol''), not all of which is translated. |
| 485 | * ''Fanfic/TheSonOfTheEmperor'' uses both German and French mixed in with English to show that the characters are speaking a foreign language. |
| 486 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'' fanfiction also likes to use Gratuitous Welsh, as the Volians' language (from the Series 5 episode "2001") is related to Welsh, and the Ori arc was introduced with the legend of Excalibur and a very badly mangled pronunciation of "Myrddin". |
| 487 | * Gratuitous Welsh can be found in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' fanfiction (you know, because there are so many AliensInCardiff), despite creators and actors stating the characters probably don't know any Welsh, at least beyond simple phrases like "Croeso i Gymru". |
| 488 | [[/folder]] |
| 489 | |
| 490 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 491 | * One of the ComicBook/{{Asterix}} animated films, ''WesternAnimation/AsterixConquersAmerica'', portrays Native American language as made up [[RuleOfFunny entirely of American geographical names]] (which is [[FridgeBrilliance less stupid than it sounds]], when you realize that many of these names are Native words). That said, "Minnesota Manitoba. MIAMI!" means, when translated from three unrelated Native American languages (None of which are from tribes that lived anywhere near where the Gauls landed), "Clear blue water, lake of the prairie. SWEET WATER!", which makes precisely zero sense, even (or perhaps especially) in the context of a medicine man threatening his Gaulish prisoners. |
| 492 | [[/folder]] |
| 493 | |
| 494 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 495 | * In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', a conversation takes place in what the characters ''say'' is "Icelandic", but is really [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign German]]. |
| 496 | * While the film itself is a complete and utter aversion, the script of ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' plays the trope straight. Most of the dialogue is written in English (with instructions regarding the actual language to be used during filming, and whether the exchange is subtitled or not) but some gratuitous phrases are left in. Example (French dialogue, subtitled): |
| 497 | -->'''Col Landa:''' Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Lapadite, but no wine. This being a dairy farm one would be safe in assuming you have milk?\ |
| 498 | '''Charlotte:''' Oui.\ |
| 499 | '''Col. Landa:''' Then milk is what I prefer. |
| 500 | * ''Film/QueenOfOuterSpace'' has AliensSpeakingEnglish, but they also throw in some made-up 'Venusian' words when the [[LadyLand gorgeous space babes]] are ordering our heroes about at raygun point. Which means that they're speaking to MissionControl in English, yet giving orders to their prisoners in Venusian which they wouldn't understand. |
| 501 | [[/folder]] |
| 502 | |
| 503 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 504 | * In James Clavell's ''Literature/AsianSaga'''s ''Tai-Pan'', Sir Henry Longstaff, the first British governor of its Hong Kong colony, wondered why the Chinese natives got even more inscrutable in his presence and why he could hear the odd hastily suppressed chuckle as he passed. Rather like [[Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian Biggus Dickus, a man who wanks higher than any in Wome]], a clumsy attempt had been made to translate the name "Longstaff" into Chinese -- the characters chosen to sign proclamations in Chinese by the British rulers meant "Huge Erect Penis". |
| 505 | * Vlad Tepes in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'' uses Turkish for all military terms. This makes sense since he spent much of his youth as a "guest" (''i.e.'' hostage) at the Ottoman court and was trained in warfare there. |
| 506 | * [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker German philosopher]] Oswald Spengler's non-fiction book ''Literature/TheDeclineOfTheWest'' has Gratuitous Hebrew, Gratuitous Arab, Gratuitous Russian, Gratuitous Hindi (or maybe Sanskrit), Gratuitous Chinese, GratuitousLatin, and Gratuitous Old Greek (often even with Greek letters). It's mostly used for concepts which are specific to one culture and would be misunderstood if a common but incorrect translation was used. |
| 507 | * The web-novel ''Literature/{{Domina}}'' loves this trope. It starts with [[GratuitousLatin lots of Latin]], including the title of the book itself and every chapter. Later, one of the fey slips into bad Irish when she's angry, then Lizzy speaks [[GratuitousJapanese Japanese]] to Akane. A few chapters after that, Lizzy and a giant have a conversation in untranslated Icelandic, and it's mentioned (and shown) that vampires tend to swear in Romanian. Considering that the city is supposed to be where [[WretchedHive the world dumps its criminals]], it makes some sense. |
| 508 | * The ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' universe is positively riddled with words seemingly inspired by or derived from Arabic and Farsi (which [[JustifiedTrope makes sense]], as most of the future religions have some Islam in them). Even Hebrew shows up once or twice, in particular the title ''Kwisatz Haderach'' (probably from the Hebrew ''qfisatz ha-derekh'', a magical teleportation ability ascribed to some real-world Chassidic holy men). |
| 509 | * The Literature/{{Emberverse}}'s writer Creator/SMStirling sure loves doing his research, as is proven by the incredibly gratuitous Finnish, Irish, Icelandic, and [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Elvish]]. It includes debate on whether to use the Sindarin or Quenya dialects, or the "Common Tongue" (plain old English). Astrid has a RunningGag where she deliberately speaks Elvish around non-speakers just to piss them off. Some names are even taken directly from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', like Dúnedain. |
| 510 | * The ''Literature/EndersGame'' sequels have plenty of Portuguese-derived terms, as Creator/OrsonScottCard tried to parallel Ender's journey with his own stint as a missionary in Brazil. A few of the conversations are rather stilted and bizarre, but the oddities are small enough that they can mostly be excused as a different dialect (or just being several centuries in the future). |
| 511 | * ''Literature/HollowKingdom2019'': |
| 512 | ** The chapter narrated by a camel in Dubai has various Arabic exclamations in what is otherwise an English monologue. |
| 513 | ** One chapter is from the perspective of a Bangkok elephant herd. The novel's ArcWords are the only part of the chapter written in Thai: "The One Who Hollows as well must return". |
| 514 | * In Ghana, where ''Literature/HisOnlyWife'' takes place, English is the official language, but there are many other "government-sponsored" languages in use. It's not unusual for characters switch from English to Ewe and back, or to greet others with a ''Mia woezor'' (you are welcome). |
| 515 | * In Creator/MarkTwain's travel stories, his buddy starts to insert lots of GratuitousForeignLanguage (Fijian, various Indian languages and others) into his story, for no particular reason except that "every travel writer does it like that". Twain chastises him for doing this. |
| 516 | * ''Literature/LettersToHisSon'' by British statesman Lord Chesterfield had GratuitousLatin, GratuitousFrench, GratuitousItalian, GratuitousGerman, and GratuitousSpanish. And yes, he expected his son to learn all these languages. |
| 517 | * In ''Literature/ALongPetalOfTheSea'' it's all about the Gratuitous Catalan. Some of the Spanish Civil War refugees on board the ''Winnipeg'' sing poet Jacint Verdaguer's "L'Emigrant" as the ship departs. The chorus is quoted without translating: |
| 518 | -->«Dolça Catalunya,\ |
| 519 | pàtria del meu cor,\ |
| 520 | quan de tu s'allunya\ |
| 521 | d'enyorança es mor».[[labelnote:translation]]"Sweet Catalonia,/homeland of my heart,/to be far from you/ is to die of longing"[[/labelnote]] |
| 522 | * Aragorn invokes this at the end of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' when he wants to include his old Breeland nickname of "Strider" in his titles somehow. He settles on making it the name of his house, figuring that it'll sound fine if he uses the archaic elvish language Quenya to translate it as ''Telcontar.'' |
| 523 | * Set in Lagos, Nigeria, ''Literature/MySisterTheSerialKiller'' has the characters speaking in English (Nigeria's official language) to each other. Protagonist Korede's mother often drops expressions in Yoruba, such as ''Jésù ṣàánú fún wa'' (literally: Jesus has Mercy on us) and others. |
| 524 | * ''Literature/NoryRyansSong'', being set in Ireland, has Irish words occasionally sprinkled throughout the narrative. Some important ones are ''fuafar'' (used by Nory to refer to anything she finds disgusting), ''sidhe'' (referring to The Fair Folk), ''madra'' (the Irish word for "dog", referring to Nory's dog Maeve), and ''Dia duit'' (Irish greeting for "God be with you"). |
| 525 | * In ''Literature/OnesAspectToTheSun'' by Sherry D. Ramsey, characters frequently break into Gratuitous Esperanto, German and Spanish, often in the same sentence (or possibly future Esperanto has grown closer to German and Spanish). For example, "Thank God!" becomes "Danke Dios!" (Esperanto would be "Dankas Dion!", German "Gott sie Danke!", and Spanish "Gracias a Dios!") |
| 526 | * The main character of ''Literature/{{Phantalleum}} - Dual Crossage'' is called "Bodoh Sombong", which means "foolishly arrogant" in Malay. |
| 527 | * ''Literature/RoseOfTheProphet'': The Tara-kan language obviously is a take-off of Arabic. The word "jihad" is thrown around and stated to mean "holy war". Jihad actually translates as "struggle", and has a fairly in-depth amount of context, though it can be used to mean holy war in very specific circumstances. However, that is simply one of ''many'' Arabic words used, along with "effendi", "imam", "sheik" etc. |
| 528 | * The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has random bits from a number of languages: |
| 529 | ** Huttese is gratuitous Quechua. |
| 530 | ** The EU is fond of Hebrew (particularly in the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Endor_system Endor system]]); at least [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mara_Jade_Skywalker one case]] was [[MeaningfulName deliberate]], however. |
| 531 | ** The lyrics to "Duel of the Fates" are a gratuitous Sanskrit translation of a Gaelic poem about [[WhenTreesAttack trees fighting each other]]. |
| 532 | [[/folder]] |
| 533 | |
| 534 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 535 | * ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': the season 1 episode "Fancy Brudgom" has some Gratuitous Danish, with Peralta correctly mentioning that ''brudgom'' means "groom" and ''forlover'' means "best man" (although his pronunciation sucks). |
| 536 | * Hiroshi Matsumoto of ''Series/GakiNoTsukaiYaArahende'' fame did a skit where he gathered people from twelve different countries, got them to talk to him in their native languages on various topics, and responded while pretending to know what they are saying. |
| 537 | * ''Series/HorribleHistories''' Owain Glyndwr song has gratuitous Welsh at the end. |
| 538 | * The title character of ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' speaks Farsi upon being released from her bottle in the series' pilot. |
| 539 | * ''Series/{{JAG}}'': Mac gets to speak Farsi on several occasions. Creator/CatherineBell speaks that language for real. |
| 540 | * ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' host Creator/AlexTrebek was multilingual,[[note]]He grew up in a bilingual English-French household in Sudbury, Ontario (his mother was Franco-Ontarienne; his father was born in Ukraine but had come to Canada as a child and grew up speaking English) and had learned other languages later on.[[/note]] and would often read clues dealing with foreign words in as close to that language's accent as possible. He also liked to throw foreign phrases at contestants who mentioned fluency in another language. |
| 541 | * In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Zelenka will often spout unsubtitled Czech, which is nearly always a BilingualBonus and often [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]] (in hilarious fashion). The team is also, by concept, international, and filming in the very multi-cultural UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} means that many of the extras are multilingual as well; you can hear snippets of French, Spanish, German, and others in the background. |
| 542 | * ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' host Pat Sajak is of Polish ancestry, and will occasionally say something in Polish if a contestant also happens to be Polish. |
| 543 | * ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'' throws in gratuitous Brazilian Portuguese for Japanese children's television. |
| 544 | [[/folder]] |
| 545 | |
| 546 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 547 | * Music/{{BT}}'s "Firewater" and "Memories in a Sea of Forgetfulness" both gratuitously feature Arabic lyrics, though the liner notes are entirely in English. |
| 548 | * The title of Music/{{Coldplay}}'s ''Mylo Xyloto'' appears to be gratuitous Greek (''mylo'' is "mill" and ''xyloto'' is "wooden" -- they ''may'' have been aiming for "sawmill"). |
| 549 | * The song "Jorobita" by the Mexican composer of songs for children, Cri Cri, has Gratuitous Arabic in its lyrics. |
| 550 | * The 12" of "Our Lips Are Sealed" by Music/TheFunBoyThree includes a version in Urdu, for no particular reason. |
| 551 | * The music video to Alison Gold's "Chinese Food" had subtitles that consisted of the song lyrics "[[BlindIdiotTranslation translated]]" into random languages like Hebrew, Swedish, Japanese, and Italian. |
| 552 | * The Irish doom metal band Music/MaelMordha use gratuitous Irish (which wouldn't be gratuitous ''per se'', except few people in Ireland can actually speak Irish). They often insert random Irish words either to create a rhyme or to evoke a folksy feel. |
| 553 | * Music/PDQBach's "Birthday Ode to 'Big Daddy' Bach" has one part mixing not only German and English but also Spanish and Japanese: |
| 554 | -->''Three times high! (High!)\ |
| 555 | Number one! (Yes!)\ |
| 556 | Three times high! (High!)\ |
| 557 | Nummer eins! (Ja!)\ |
| 558 | Three times high! (High!)\ |
| 559 | Numero uno! (Si!)\ |
| 560 | Three times high! (High!)\ |
| 561 | Ichi-ban! (Hai!)'' |
| 562 | * Music/SoundHorizon is particularly fond of using foreign languages of all sorts in their albums, particularly after Aramary left. |
| 563 | * Music/TearsForFears: ''Salam'', the Arabic salutation meaning "peace," appears in the song "Floating Down the River". |
| 564 | * The last chorus of the Music/FrankieYankovic version of the ''Too Fat Polka'' is sung partly in Slovenian: "Jer je nočem, ti jer zemi, ona debela/Ona debela/Ona debela" (pronounced: YAR yeh NEH-chem, TEE yer ZEH-mee, OH-nah deh-bel-AH), which translates as "Because I don't want her, you take her, she is fat." |
| 565 | * The italian band Music/{{Maneskin}} is named after the Danish word for "Moonshine". Many English speakers pronounce the word like "Main Skin", when it's closer to "Maw-nay Sheen" |
| 566 | [[/folder]] |
| 567 | |
| 568 | [[folder:Pinballs]] |
| 569 | * One of the tables in ''VideoGame/StarTrekPinball'' is named "Qapla'", which is [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon]] for "success". As expected, the game itself is filled with Klingon voice clips. |
| 570 | * In ''Pinball/{{Corvette}},'' the player must periodically enter auto races against various sexy models, some of whom will gratuitously issue a challenge in French, German, or Italian. |
| 571 | [[/folder]] |
| 572 | |
| 573 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 574 | * ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' is set in an alternate 1930s, where all of the major Earthling powers are spreading out across the solar system. The game designers acknowledge that their translations can be a little off and encourage Game Masters to give their players free story points for pointing out correct translations and grammar. |
| 575 | * ''TabletopGame/Twilight2000'' uses Gratuitous Polish, as its first scenarios are set in Poland. The result is [[BlindIdiotTranslation like something out of Google translate]]. They also didn't include diacritics (not that they could if they wanted, because in TheEighties no text editor could do that), but this occasionally changed the meaning of the word. Polish is also a highly inflected language, and the translators gave no thought to whether they were using the correct form of the word (''e.g.'' the ship "Wisla Krolowa", aiming for "Queen of the Vistula" but meaning "Vistula the Queen"). |
| 576 | [[/folder]] |
| 577 | |
| 578 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 579 | * ''Theatre/Frozen2018'' begins Act 2 with the song "Hygge", which roughly means "cozy" in Danish. |
| 580 | * ''Theatre/SixTheMusical'': Anne Boleyn grew up in the French court, so she gets a little bit of GratuitousFrench. Anne of Cleves was from Germany, and thus, sometimes slips into GratuitousGerman. Catherine of Aragon, from Spain, can sometimes slip into GratuitousSpanish. "Haus of Holbein" is also loaded with German. |
| 581 | [[/folder]] |
| 582 | |
| 583 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 584 | * The Viking speech files in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' are mangled Icelandic. The builder, for instance, says "Hussasmiþur" which means house-builder, instead of just ''Smiður'' or even ''Húsasmiður''. It makes playing the Vikings a hoot, since it's so horribly pronounced. |
| 585 | * All of the Arcana in ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' have attack names in many different foreign languages. For instance, Partinias, the Arcanum of Love, uses Gratuitous Greek (''roz sfaira'' = "pink ball/sphere"). |
| 586 | * Locations names in ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'' are in Sumerian, for reasons uknown. |
| 587 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'' and ''VI'', every leader speaks in their native tongue (within reason), from Alexander speaking Ancient Greek to Montezuma speaking Nahuatl. |
| 588 | * ''VideoGame/ColdWinter'' have a stage set in Egypt, where enemy mooks will randomly blurt "''Allahuakhbar!''" when killed. There's also a restaurant who have signs proudly proclaiming they serve "halal" (permissible food that doesn't contain pork, which Muslims can't eat) dishes, despite being set in a district where 90% of the population are already Muslim - the sign seems somewhat redundant. |
| 589 | * The Dalish Elves in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' pepper their speech with random Elvish. They do this deliberately, as they've lost so much of their language and culture, this is how they try to keep it alive. |
| 590 | * In ''VideoGame/Haven2020'', one of the other books in the house where Yu and Kay find the Erotica Handbook (whose cover is adorned with GratuitousJapanese script) has the GratuitousGerman title Flurm Gliffen, which means something like "hallway slipping", while said book's apparent sequel has the subtitle Ostruisï, which is Italian for "obstructed". |
| 591 | * The UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} version of ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' features boxers from all over the world, and every non-English-speaking boxer (except for King Hippo) speaks in their native language. |
| 592 | * ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': |
| 593 | ** The nonsense lyrics of the fan song "Marisa Stole The Precious Thing" include GratuitousEnglish, GratuitousGerman, Gratuitous Mandarin, and arguably GratuitousJapanese. |
| 594 | ** Nitori's spellcard "Kappa Pororoca" is half-Gratuitous Tupi (a Brazilian Native American Language), since [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pororoca pororoca]] is a Brazilian Tupi term. |
| 595 | * ''VideoGame/{{Outriders}}'' has Jakub, a Polish mechanic and former Outrider who sometimes uses Polish words in conversations. Unfortunately, the pronunciation is often mangled due to his voice actor not being a native speaker. |
| 596 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', some characters will spout phrases in their native languages, such as Russian for Zarya, Korean for D.Va, German for Mercy, and Japanese for Genji and Hanzo. This can also serve as a clue to who's using an [[LimitBreak Ultimate]]: friendly characters will shout their PreAssKickingOneLiner in English, while enemies will shout them in their native tongue. |
| 597 | * In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheCuriousVillage'', Pavel the explorer has been to all sorts of foreign lands, but the only thing he has to show for it linguistically is random gratuitous words from every country he's ever visited. Spanish, French, Japanese, and Mandarin all show up. |
| 598 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Richman}}'' series is known for this in almost all installments[[note]]The base game of Richman 6 is the only game where there are no foreign languages at all, and even characters who are known to speak other languages speak Chinese there[[/note]]. Most characters speak Chinese Mandarin, but there are also characters who speak Hokkien, English and Japanese. Some games also have voice dubs in different languages but some characters will not change their languages at all. |
| 599 | * The ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' games have Gratuitous Slavic (Russians and Czech mooks say the same phrases), Gratuitous Arabic, Gratuitous African language (mooks in Uganda and Sudan sound exactly the same), Gratuitous Spanish ("grenado" when throwing a grenade, which should be "granada"), Gratuitous Chinese, ''etc.'' Much of it is ForeignSoundingGibberish. |
| 600 | * From the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'': |
| 601 | ** Algol's move list is almost entirely in Gratuitous Arabic, with some Aramaic (''e.g.'' "[[Literature/TheFourGospels Talitha]]", which simply means "little girl") thrown in for good measure. Some of them aren't actual phrases but rather [[StellarName star names]] (most of which are really in Arabic), although they managed to sneak in obscure stars like Algieba, Rastaban, and Alphard, as opposed to the more popular Fomalhaut or Aldebaran. The usage is as an allusion to Algol's name (also taken from a star) and place of origin (the ancient Middle East). |
| 602 | ** Zasalamel's move list is in Gratuitous Akkadian. Again, most of them aren't phrases but rather [[ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming the names of Akkadian or Babylonian gods]]. Understandable, given that Zasalamel hailed from Algol's kingdom (or somewhere close to it) in roughly the same era. |
| 603 | ** Talim's move list incorporates some Cebuano phrases, as per her place of origin (the Visayas Islands of the Philippines). Which is [[ShownTheirWork kind of awesome]], given that the laity would have [[HolidayInCambodia trouble distinguishing languages from different Southeast Asian countries]], and this is a regional language. Her name is even Cebuano for "sharp." |
| 604 | * ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'': Practically everyone in the Klingon Defense Force peppers their dialog with phrases in ''[[ConLang tlhIngan Hol]]'' -- even characters for whom it makes no sense, like six of their seven playable races. |
| 605 | * ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'', whose world mingles elements of various real nations, will use foreign languages to name people, places, weapons, and other things. It esults in GratuitousEnglish, German, Russian, and any other language they thought was suitably ForeignSoundingGibberish. The most epic examples, though, are the ending songs: the first game's is supposedly Portuguese, but it's apparently written by a Japanese man before [[TranslationTrainWreck babelfish]] existed and pronounced by Japanese singers, and the second game's is supposedly German (the game itself being called ''VideoGame/SuikodenTierkreis''), but the language was unidentifiable to the point that people were debating what language or dialect it was even ''supposed'' to be. |
| 606 | * ''VideoGame/ThunderForce VI'' makes use of two Gratuitous non-Japanese, non-English languages: the Galaxy Federation's primary language is the ancient and long-obsolete [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangut_script Tangut script]], and the Orn Empire's primary language is Mongolian. |
| 607 | * ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'' brings us Gratuitous Tagalog in a Filipino massage parlor. All of it, from the title to the dialogue, is a BlindIdiotTranslation that makes no sense in Tagalog. |
| 608 | * ''VideoGame/{{Inscryption}}'': One of the logs you [[spoiler:unlock in Kaycee's Mod]] has a character with a Polish last name demanding something gets done "nah tick mass" ("natychmiast", immediately). |
| 609 | [[/folder]] |
| 610 | |
| 611 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 612 | * ''WebAnimation/FoxyGetsHooked'': Chica, who has a noticeable Welsh accent, inserts a little Welsh into her sentences. |
| 613 | -->'''Chica''': Oh, what happened there, Foxy ''bach''?[[note]]"little." She's basically calling him "Little Foxy."[[/note]]\ |
| 614 | ''(later)''\ |
| 615 | '''Chica''': Look, I have ''dim cliw''.[[note]]"no clue"[[/note]] |
| 616 | [[/folder]] |
| 617 | |
| 618 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 619 | * [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' during the attack on the Peace Moon, when the [[GameMaster GM]] tries to present the Rebels as a MultinationalTeam by having Rebel [=NPCs=] to speak various foreign languages... poorly. Among the languages featured were [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0885.html French, Spanish, Welsh, Estonian, Basque]], [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0886.html Japanese]], [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0889.html Kannada]], [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0896.html German, and Finnish]]. |
| 620 | * In ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes'', one RunningGag is the [[NonSequiturThud nonsense phrase]] "Thank you, Bishop, I would like another pint of concrete," said whenever a character gets stunned. When one guy from Thailand gets thrown through a wall, [[http://eheroes.smackjeeves.com/comics/2118134/family-takes-care-of-you/ he comes out with this phrase in Thai]] (with the help of Google Translate). |
| 621 | * ''Webcomic/FreddyFox'': In [[https://www.furaffinity.net/view/13419249/ Revitalizing]], the magic words Freddy uses to (temporarily) bring Morty the Ghost Mouse back to life are "Kyk agter jou, 'n drie-koppige aap!", which translates to "Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!" in Afrikaans. |
| 622 | * Also invoked in ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'' when Maxwell [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2010/03/08/foreignese/ uses various gibberish foreign phrases]] he likely picked up from TV during an Imaginate session. |
| 623 | -->'''Peanut:''' Can we continue [[LampshadeHanging or are there any more people you'd like to offend]]?\ |
| 624 | '''Maxwell:''' Nah, I'm good. |
| 625 | * ''Webcomic/HowToBeAWerewolf'' sees occasional use of Tagalog, as the main character and her brother are both half Filipino. |
| 626 | * ''Webcomic/LeifAndThorn'': Ivy is a FanGirl of a lot of series from Sønheim, and will throw [[http://leifandthorn.com/comic/fish-story-441/unnecessary Sønska words into her dialogue]] (represented by a font change in the strip and a color change in the transcript). |
| 627 | * Parodied in ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'', [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/tattoo "Tattoo"]], where a guy has a tattoo saying "STRENGTH" so that, when people ask why he got it, he can explain it means "strength" in English. The point is that this demonstrates that's not much of an explanation, but if it was in a foreign language, it ''would'' be considered an explanation. |
| 628 | [[/folder]] |
| 629 | |
| 630 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 631 | * Inverted in ''WebOriginal/ChaosFighters'', where the gratuitous ''local'' language (read:''Malay'') is used in an English work by [[spoiler:a Malaysian]]. ''RAKSA'' cranked this up with gratuitous Kelantan and Terengganu accented Malay as early as the first chapter. |
| 632 | * ''Literature/IlivaisX'' has Iriana make an elaborate speech while having an orgasm, which alternates between Vietnamese, Icelandic, French, Serbian, and Creole. None of which she actually knows, and all of which were churned out with Google Translate. |
| 633 | * The JustForFun/TropeEpitaph page on Website/ThisVeryWiki translates the "Here lies [X trope]" format into relevant languages when mourning tropes based on non-English concepts. Examples include "Yahaan nihit the namespace Bollywood/ ha," "Koko ni Harem Hero ga arimasu," and "Här ligger Stockholm Shnozzing." |
| 634 | [[/folder]] |
| 635 | |
| 636 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 637 | * ''WebVideo/MysteryScienceTheaterF1'''s main language is English, but Matt has spoken Portuguese (his native tongue), French, German, Japanese, Finnish, Russian, Swedish, and Dutch at some point or another, often untranslated. |
| 638 | |
| 639 | * [=Pitchingace88=] recites the opening line of some of his commentary videos using various foreign languages such as Indonesian and Tagalog. |
| 640 | [[/folder]] |
| 641 | |
| 642 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 643 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Olaf interjects random Russian words into his speech. |
| 644 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLingoShow'', being an EdutainmentShow designed to teach preschoolers as many languages as it can, features Gratuitous Spanish, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Welsh, Polish, and even Gratuitous Punjabi, Urdu, and Somali. |
| 645 | * ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': Vera is Filipino and occasionally uses Tagalog words. She calls her grandmother, Miranda, ''lola'', and Miranda calls her "apo," which means granddaughter. |
| 646 | * ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': [=JunJun=] and his family are Philippine eagles who speak Tagalog sometimes. For example, [=JunJun=] uses words such as "salamat" and calls his grandmother "lola." |
| 647 | [[/folder]] |
| 648 | |
| 649 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 650 | * The page quote is suspected not to be from Charles V at all, but rather an invention of one of his biographers. The best evidence for this is the fact that Charles was born in Ghent (now in the Flanders region of Belgium), considered himself Dutch, and grew up speaking Dutch, which the Dutch themselves have called "not a language, but a disease of the throat." On the other hand, the distinction between German and Dutch was not as clear then as it is now, and it is very possible that he was actually [[StealthInsult insulting God (or at least the Church), women, and men]]: circumstances at the time would have forced him to speak the languages he mentioned (the Spanish Church was unusually powerful, custom dictated you speak to women in the "nicest" language you knew, and French was the language of diplomacy), meaning the only one to whom he could speak his native tongue was his horse. |
| 651 | * When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed. Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: ''"I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated"''. So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket. "When they're proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh," said journalist Dylan Iorwerth. |
| 652 | * Weapons of foreign origin are often referred to by their local names ([[ShapedLikeItself even if these names simply translate into "sword" or "knife" or the like]]) to make them sound a lot more exotic and/or emphasize said foreign origin. It also applies for other terms related to martial arts as well, which is why people will insist on, say, "kata" rather than "form." |
| 653 | * The Brazilian Federal Police, in one of many cases of being overtly creative naming [[OperationBlank their operations]], had once an "Operation [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha Satiagraha]]", taking the Sanskrit term Gandhi used for pacific resistence. There are also cases with more traditional foreign languages, such as "Operação Good Vibes" (investigating ecstasy traffickers) and "Operation Démarche" ("diligence" in French). |
| 654 | [[/folder]] |
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