Home

So long, and thanks for all the fish

This page tells you how to say goodbye (colloquially) and thank you in many (currently 62) languages of the world. I chose this particular sentence because I read most books Douglas Adams wrote, and because it is short, contains two useful words, one word which is basic vocabulary in most languages, and because it even demonstrates a bit of Grammar.

Please send any contributions to hanspi@schmid-werren.ch. Please tell me also if `thank you' or `goodbye' is different when said to people of different sex or social rank, and if `thank you' as such is different from `thank you for ...'. If you want, I'll put your name into the list of contributors.

Please note that the word `fish' in `all the fish' is in the plural, the phrase meaning `all the individual fishes' and not `the whole lot of fish', as I and many others thought.

This is by far not the only page of its kind. For a list of pages with translations of other sentences, visit Jennifer's polyglot links.

Language classification: Anatole V. Lyovin. An Introduction to the Languages of the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997.


© 2008 Hanspeter Schmid
``Counter''
Last modified: Tue Aug 26 2008

Languages of Europe

Indo- European Celtic Brythonic . Breton Kenavo, ha mersi bras evit tout ar pesked.
:::: :::: :::: . Welsh (Cymraeg) Hwyl, a diolch am yr holl bysgod (*).
(*) derived from `pysgod'.
:::: :::: Goedelic . Irish Slán go fóill, agus míle bhuíochas duit as ucht na h-éisc go léir.
:::: :::: :::: . Scottish Gaelic Slàn leat, agus móran taing airson na h-iasgan uile.
:::: Germanic West Germanic . Dutch Tot ziens, en bedankt voor de vis.
:::: :::: :::: . English So long, and thanks for all the fish.
:::: :::: :::: . Frisian (Wester- lauwer) Farwol, en betanke foar alle fisk.
:::: :::: :::: . German Tschüss, und danke für all die Fische.
:::: :::: :::: . Yiddish Zay gezunt, un dank far di fisch.
:::: :::: North Germanic West Norse Icelandic Verid thid sael, og takk fyrir allan fiskinn.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: :::: East Norse Danish Farvel, og tak for alle fiskene.
:::: :::: :::: . Norwegian Ha det bra, og takk for all fisken.
:::: :::: :::: . Swedish Adjö, och tack för fisken.
:::: Italic Romance . Catalan Adeu, i gràcies per tot el peix.
:::: :::: :::: . French Salut, et merci pour tous les poissons.
:::: :::: :::: . Italian Addio, e grazie per tutto il pesce.
:::: :::: :::: . Jèrriais (Jersey) À bi, et mèrcie pouor touos les paîssons.
:::: :::: :::: . Latin Vale, et pro piscibus omnibus gratias ago.
:::: :::: :::: . Portuguese Tchau, e obrigado pelo peixe.
:::: :::: :::: . Romanian La revedere, si multumesc pentru toti pestii.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: :::: . Rumansch (Sursilvan) Tgau, ed engraziel per tut ils pèschs.
:::: :::: :::: . Spanish Adios, y gracias por el pescado.
:::: Greek . . Greek Antio sas, kai efcharisto gia ta psaria.
(actual spelling)
:::: Balto- Slavic Slavic western Czech Nashledanou, a díky za vsechny ryby.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: :::: :::: Polish Na razie, i dziekuje za wszystkie ryby.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: :::: southern Bulgarian Do vischdane, i blagodarja za vsitschki ribi.
:::: :::: :::: :::: Croatian Do vidjenja, i hvala na svim ribama.
:::: :::: :::: :::: Serbian Do vidjenja, i hvala na svim ribama.
:::: :::: :::: :::: Slovenian Zbogom in hvala za vse ribe.
:::: :::: :::: eastern Byelo- russian Pakul, i dziakuju sa usiu rybu.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: :::: :::: Russian Poka, i spasibo za (vsiu *) rybu.
(*) would be omitted by most speakers.
(actual spelling)
:::: Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan . Urdu / Hindi Alvida, aur matschli ke leyi shukriya.
Uralic Finno- Ugric Ugric Hungarian (Magyar) Hungarian Viszontlátásra, és köszönöm a halakat.
The Douglas Adams book title used informal (shortened) words: Viszlát, és kösz a halakat!
:::: :::: Fennic Baltic- Finnic Estonian Nägemiseni, ja aitäh kala eest.
:::: :::: :::: :::: Finnish Heippa, ja kiitos kaloista.

Languages of Asia

(Indo-European languages are under "Languages of Europe" above)

Turkic Southern Turkic . . Turkish (Osmanli) Alasmaladik, balik icin tesekkürler.
(actual spelling)
("thank you" as such: tesekkür ederim)
:::: Western Turkic . . Kazakh Saw bul, jäne bäri balıqtar üşin raxmet.
(actual spelling)
Korean- Japanese- Okinawan Japanese- Okinawan . . Japanese Sayounara, soshite o-sakana o doumo arigatou.
(actual spelling)
Sino- Tibetan Sinitic . . Chinese (Mandarin) Zai jian, xie xie shuo you de yu.
(actual spelling, pin yin spelling)
:::: :::: . . Taiwanese Lai ki, doe xia zuam bo e hi a.
(actual spelling)
:::: Tibeto- Burman Himalayish . Tibetan Schu a nya la tmuk jay tsche.
(actual spelling)
Tai-Kadai Tai . . Thai Laagon, lä khobkun samrhab bla tii hai maa.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: . . Laotian La korn, le khop chai sam lap pa.
(actual spelling)
Austroasiatic Mon- Khmer Eastern Mon- Khmer Khmeric Khmer Soom chumreap lear, ning oarkuun ampi trei.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: Viet- Muong (Vietic) . Vietnamese Chao va cam on cho con ca.
(actual spelling)
Dravidian Southern Dravidian (Dravida) . . Kannada Hogi baruthini, meen kotidake thumba upakara.
:::: :::: . . Malayalam Poyteverate, meen thanadinu nanni.
:::: :::: . . Tamil Poytuvarampa, mikä nandri minuku (*).
(*) derived from `min'.
(actual spelling)

Languages of Africa

Afro- Asiatic Semitic West Semitic South- Central Semitic (Arabic) Arabic Al wadaa, wa Shukran aala Kul al Samak.
(actual spelling)
::: ::: ::: ::: Maltese Sahha, grazzi al hut le tajtne.
:::: :::: :::: South- Central Semitic (Canaanite) Hebrew Lehitrahot vetoda avur kol hadagim.
(actual spelling)
:::: :::: South Semitic . Amharic Dehna yihunu, sile hulum asawoch amesegnalehu.
:::: Cushitic . . Somali Nabadgelyo, oo ku mahadsanid kalluunkaas oo dhan.
:::: Niger- Congo Family Atlantic- Congo Atlantic Wolof Ba sei caneme, ack jerijef pour gine.
:::: :::: :::: Benue- Congo Kinya- rwanda Urabeho, urakoze kubera amafi (*).
(*) derived from `ifi'.
:::: :::: :::: :::: Kiswahili Mpaka tuonane, na asante kwa samaki
wale wote.
Indo- European . . . Afrikaans Totsiens, en dankie vir al die vis.

Languages of Oceania

Austronesian Malayo- Polynesian western . Indonesian Sampai jumpa, terima kasih di ikan.
:::: :::: eastern Oceanic Maori E noho ra, kia ora mo nga ika.
(actual spelling)
Papuan Languages Trans- New Guinea Main Section central and west Bimin Kom nelo dunemselew takam alik be ne kuli kasike 'Nakunum weso!', kango! Kukalo!

Contact Languages

Oceania English- based pidgin . Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) Lukim yu, na tenkyu tru long dispela planti fis yu bin givim mi.

Artificial Languages

. . . . Esperanto Gxis la, kaj dankon pro cxiuj fisxoj.
(actual spelling)


Many thanks to the numerous anonymous contributors, and to:

Hans Aafloy (Norwegian), Taifun Akin (Turkish), John Baju (Malayalam and Kannada), Henno Brandsma (Frisian), Guy Bunclark (Romanian), Ricardo Dias Almeida (Esperanto), Lhamo Dochenchog (Tibetan), Urban Domeij (Swedish), Robele Gari (Amharic), Gao Qun (Chinese), Wladyslaw Grabinsky (Polish), Hervé Gourmelon (Breton), Gunnar Gudnason (Icelandic), Martin Hänggi and Martin Schmid (Latin), Irena Jakopanec (Slovenian), Kebba Jeng (Wolof), Dafydd Price Jones and Aled Rhys Hughes (Welsh), Geraint Jennings (Jèrriais), Te Taka Keegan (Maori), Pandit Khong (Khmer), Matthias Kohler and Ewelina Nalbantow (Bulgarian), Zsolt Kukorelly and Attila Nemeth (Hunagrian), Roger Espel Llima (Catalan, Spanish), Adam Lobatiuk (Byelorussian), Bettina Loehmann (Danish), Stefan Moser (Taiwanese), Alexis-Michel Mugabushaka (Kinyarwanda), Mìcheil Rob Mac Phàdruig (Scottish Gaelic), kathrin Phan-Beeri (Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian), Valentini Melas (Greek), Antony Sagaya (Tamil), Jossy Sayir and Amos Lapidoth (Hebrew), Lokesh Setia (Hindi/Urdu), Alexander Shahin (Arabic), Yoshiro Shibasaki (Japanese), Iyiola Solanke (Kiswaheli), Tania and Ron Sultana (Maltese), Jukka Ukkonen (Estonian, Finnish), Aleksander Vasiljevic (Serbo-Croatian), William Wallace (Spanish), Jonathan North Washington (Kazakh, Yiddish), Thomas Weber (Tok Pisin, Bimin), David Wolff (Esperanto), Alexander Zhulego (Russian).


Hanspeter Schmid