Re: "CitySpeak" in _Blade Runner_ (was Conlangs in History)

zHANg wrote:
    "I remember vaguely that in Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novel _Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep?_  that the lower-class citizens of the city spoke a
pidgin-like mix of English, Japanese and German called "CitySpeak" (or
something like that).
    I am not sure if the movie even had a bit of it, but I could be
mistaken... (it has been like a decade since I have seen the Director's Cut
in a movie theatre)."

     I remember this particular conlang too.  In the film, Harrison Ford's
character "Deckard" says of it "That gibberish he talked was city-speak,
guttertalk, a mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German, what have you. I didn't
really need a translator. I knew the lingo, every good cop did. But I wasn't
going to make it easier for him."

     For some reason I remember Cantonese taking part in this linguistic
casserole.  But I guess I was wrong.

I found a bit on the Internet which goes like this:

"Policeman: Hey, idi-wa. [Cityspeak-Korean for: "Come here."]
Gaff: Monsieur, ada-na kobishin angum bi-te. [Cityspeak-German for: "Sir.
You will be required to accompany me please"]
Sushi Man: He say you under arrest, Mr. Deckard.
Deckard: Got the wrong guy, pal.
Gaff: Lo fa, ne-ko shi-ma de va-ja blade... Blade Runner.
[Cityspeak-Hungarian for: Horse Dick! So you say. You are the blade... Blade
Runner]
Sushi Master: He say you brade runna.
Deckard: Tell him I'm eating.
Gaff: Captain Bryant toka. Meni-o mae-yo. [ Cityspeak for: "Captain Bryant
ordered me to bring you in." ]
Deckard: Bryant, huh?
Sushi Master: Hai! [ Japanese for: "Yes!" ]"

      Another website glosses the second sentence (Hungarian) rather
completely:
"lo-faast" is a rude expression. Originally is written as "lofaszt" and is a
combined word. "lo" means "horse" and "fasz" means "prick", "dick".
Together, and with the suffix "-t" [which refers accusative] it's a
shortened form of "lofaszt a seggedbe" ["have a horse's dick in your ass"].
In this context it means that Gaff tolerates Deckard's answer as nuts and
refuses to be ignored.
"nehod[y] maar", originally "nehogy mar" is an informal spoken formula,
shortened from "nehogy mar ugy legyen!" meaning about "wish it wouldn't be
that way!". It's enforcing Gaff's expression about Deckard's lame
"leave-me-alone-sucker" answer.
"te vad[y]" originally "te vagy" simply means "you are".
"a" means "the"

So, a close translation is:
Gaff: Shit, man, dontcha say, you're the Blade... Blade Runner."

You can find scripts of BladeRunner just about everywhere on the Internet.
A random search on Google gives me:
http://www.stanford.edu/~aigeanta/creation/vince/script.html

    This has an explanation of the passages in City-speak.

-Chollie
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com