Last
modified: Tue Aug 26 2008
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 |
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Last
modified: Tue Aug 26 2008
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| 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. |
(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) |
| 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. |
| 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! |
| Oceania | English- based | pidgin | . | Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) | Lukim yu, na tenkyu tru long dispela planti fis yu bin givim mi. |
| . | . | . | . | 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).
