Re: CHAT: False friends - echos from the mother tounge
From: | Markus Miekk-oja <fam.miekk-oja@...> |
Date: | Wednesday, July 9, 2003, 16:33 |
>Of course, there are sometimes unexpected ramifications. Chevrolet's
>puzzlement of why their "Nova" didn't sell well in Latin countries. "Nova"
>-> "no va" -> "(it) doesn't go".
Iirc, Honda had a car model named "fitta" recently. In Swedish that's a(n
offensive) word for the female genitalia.
Also, a Swedish carbonated spring water, "Loka" was sold in Finland as
"Lokavettä". That's more or less the finnish catch-all word for any dirty
water...
I bet there's hundreds and hundreds of these.
Reply