Everyone remembers the phone game. I whisper something into the ear of the person on my left, he passes it on the the person on his left, she passes it on to … etc. etc. etc, ad nauseam. When it reaches the final person, the message has more than likely changed dramatically. “Freddy ate a red jelly bean,” might end up being “July might be really keen.” Usually, they’re more humorous than that sorry attempt.
But I got to talking with a friend about doing a similar experiment but with language. What would happen if we took an English phrase, translated it to another language, to another, and another, etc, and eventually ended up back in English. How much would it change? So, for all of our enjoyment, I’m going to take one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes quotes and play the BabelFish phone game.
The Quote:
“Girls are like slugs - they probably serve some purpose, but it's hard to imagine what."
The Phone Game:
| English | Girls are like slugs - they probably serve some purpose, but it's hard to imagine what. |
| Dutch | De meisjes zijn als naaktslakken - zij dienen waarschijnlijk wat doel, maar it' s moeilijk om te veronderstellen wat. |
| French | Les filles sont comme limaces - ils servent probablement ce que le but, mais it' ; s afin de supposer difficilement ce que. |
| German | Die Mädchen sind als Schnecken - sie dienen wahrscheinlich, was das Ziel, aber it' ; s um es schwer anzunehmen nur. |
| English (so we can get at other languages) | The girls are as snails - they probably serve, which the goal, but it' ; s around it with difficulty to assume only. |
| Greek | Τα κορίτσια είναι ως σαλιγκάρια - εξυπηρετούν πιθανώς, τα οποία ο στόχος, αλλά it' s γύρω από τον με τη δυσκολία που υποθέτει μόνο. |
| French | Les filles sont en tant qu'escargots - servent probablement, lesquels l'objectif, mais it' ? s autour de avec difficultés que il suppose seulement. |
| Italian | Le ragazze sono tanto in qu' lumache - servono probabilmente, le quali l' obiettivo, ma it' ? s a con difficoltà che suppone soltanto. |
| English again | The girls are a lot in qu' snails - they probably serve, which l' objective, but it' s to with difficulty that it only supposes. (getting close to gibberish here) |
| Korean | 소녀는 에서 많게 이다; 달팽이 - 그들은 아마 봉사한다; 목적, 그러나 it' 단지 가정하는 어려움을 가진에 s. |
| English | From the young girl is many; The snail - they serve probably; Goal, assumes but IT Park being difficult, had. |
| Russian | От маленькой девочки много; Улитка - они служят вероятно; Цель, принимает но ОНА парк трудна, имела. |
| English | It is much from the small girl; Snail - they probably; Purpose, assumes but IT park it is difficult, it had. |
I think we’re pretty much gibberish at this point. And I was pretty sure it’d be the eastern languages that brought on the most change. Let’s do one more for the fun of it, just going from English to Traditional Chinese and back… Honestly, I expected this to be much funnier, but in for a penny in for a pound I guess :P
| English | Girls are like slugs - they probably serve some purpose, but it's hard to imagine what. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 女孩是像子彈-他們大概服務一些目的，但是it' 要想像什麼的艱苦 |
| Back to English | The girl bullet - they serves some goals probably likely, but it' Must imagine anything the difficulty |
