![\"Itchy](\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/wLd1D2J.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNot much is more fun than transliterating idioms across languages – that is, translating them literally. By their very nature idioms are culture-specific, since they rely on obscure metaphors, imagery and ideas. So although they don’t carry across to other languages very well, they are fun, and fun to learn! With this comic I received a lot of comments from people across the globe chipping in their local equivalents. Here are my favorites.<\/p>\n
“JOE AVERAGE”<\/strong> “NOWHERESEVILLE” “WHEN PIGS FLY” Obviously not everyone’s heard of all of these – some may be much more regional than others. But we’d love to hear from you! What phrases \/ idioms do you have in your local tongue, for these or other funny expressions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In American English, “Joe Average” is your regular guy, “Nowhereseville” is that far-away town, and “when pigs fly” is practically never. Who knew these idioms, or similar ones, were common across the globe? Not much is more fun than transliterating idioms across languages – that is, translating them literally. By their very nature idioms are…<\/p>\n
\nIn\u00a0Russian<\/strong>, a\u00a0placeholder for someone totally average is \u0412\u0430\u0441\u044f \u041f\u0443\u043f\u043a\u0438\u043d<\/em> (“Vasya Pupkin”), or “Vasily Bellybutton.” In\u00a0Germany and Austria<\/strong>, Max Mustermann<\/em> is like “John Doe,” more a term for someone anonymous rather than average, but in\u00a0Austria<\/strong> they’re apparently unfamiliar with Otto Normalverbraucher<\/em>. In\u00a0Dutch<\/strong> you’d talk about\u00a0Jan Modaal<\/em> (“Jan Average”), in Brazil<\/strong> there’s\u00a0Jo\u00e3o Ningu\u00e9m<\/em> (“Joe Nobody”)\u00a0and in\u00a0Portugal<\/strong> you’ll find Z\u00e9 Povinho<\/em> (“the People’s Joe”), who is not just an idiom but a very popular folk hero.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>In\u00a0German<\/strong> you’d refer to\u00a0Hintertupfingen<\/em>, a meaningless name for a town in nowhere, or\u00a0Kleinkleckersdorf<\/em> (“little food-spill village”). One of the versions in\u00a0Finnish<\/strong> you might come across is hevonkuusi<\/em>, also a\u00a0word for “hell,” while in\u00a0France<\/strong> you might talk about perp\u00e8te-les-oies<\/em> (“Faraway Geese”). In\u00a0Russia<\/strong>, as you might imagine, there are lots of places in the middle of nowhere, and there are many names to refer to them – among these\u00a0\u0422\u044c\u043c\u0443\u0442\u0430\u0440\u0430\u043a\u0430\u043d\u044c<\/em> (“Tmutarakan”), based on an actual ancient city in southern Russia whose name apparently means “the darkness of cockroaches,” and \u043a\u0443\u0434\u0430 \u041c\u0430\u043a\u0430\u0440 \u0442\u0435\u043b\u044f\u0442 \u043d\u0435 \u0433\u043e\u043d\u044f\u043b<\/em>, “the place where Markar did not graze his cows.”\u00a0Spanish<\/strong> features a number of things that Christ may have lost besides his cap – sandals, his boots, his lighter, his poncho – depending on the dialect and region, while in\u00a0Mexico\u00a0<\/strong>you might hear donde no pis\u00f3 dios<\/em>, or “where god never set foot.” In that same vein, in Croatia<\/strong> you’d say bogu iza nogu<\/em> (“behind god’s legs”).\u00a0In\u00a0Thai<\/strong> you’d speak about “the land too far away to hear a gunshot,” and in\u00a0Dutch<\/strong> that’d be\u00a0verweggiestan<\/em>, or “very-far-away-istan.”<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>For this expression meaning “probably never,” things get much more colorful across the world. In Spanish<\/strong> for instance, you might say\u00a0cuando las ranas cr\u00eden pelo<\/em>, or “when frogs grow hair<\/a>.” In\u00a0French<\/strong>, more common than “the week of four Thursdays” is to say\u00a0quand les poules auront des dents<\/em> – “when hens grow teeth.” In\u00a0Arabic<\/strong> you might hear “when the bull walks to Mecca on its horns” or “at your mother’s wedding,” apparently a very rare event. In\u00a0Russian<\/strong>,\u00a0\u043a\u043e\u0433\u0434\u0430 \u0440\u0430\u043a \u043d\u0430 \u0433\u043e\u0440\u0435 \u0441\u0432\u0438\u0441\u0442\u043d\u0435\u0442<\/em> is “when a crab whistles on a mountaintop,” and in Taiwan\u00a0\u9664\u975e\u9435\u6a39\u958b\u82b1 means “unless the cycads blossom” and\u00a0\u9664\u975e\u592a\u967d\u5f9e\u897f\u908a\u51fa\u4f86 is “unless the sun rises in the west.” In\u00a0Thai<\/strong> you have “when ducks drown” or “in the afternoon of your next life.” In\u00a0Croatian<\/strong> it’s\u00a0kad na vrbi rodi gro\u017e\u0111e<\/em>, or “when the willow tree bears grapes,” and in Malaysia<\/strong> they apparently say “when cats grow horns.”\u00a0German\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Portuguese<\/strong> share similar ones:\u00a0am Sankt Nimmerleinstag<\/em> (on St. Never’s Day”) in German and\u00a0dia de S\u00e3o Nunca \u00e0 tarde\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(“in the afternoon on St. Never’s Day”) in Portuguese.\u00a0In\u00a0Italian\u00a0<\/strong>things get more obscure, but clever:\u00a0alle calende greche<\/em> means “on the Greek calends,” a calends<\/a> being a Roman day\u00a0that was never used in Greece – hence, “never.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2017\/01\/wLd1D2J-288x350.png\")