Lost in translation: The many dialects of India.

Lost in translation: The many languages of India.

So while putting in a viewing of one of my alltime favorite films, Short Circuit 2:

( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096101/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ) (and if you don't like the film you can suck it )

...which features one of my favorite performances of a foreigner character (Fisher Stevens as Dr. Benjamin Jahrvi), I ran into a snag.

You see, Benjamin drops into his native dialect a few times during the film without translation, and my only clue is that he references his native home of India.

So being the semi-resourceful individual that I am, I tried to translate it via the Internet.

Problem is, I don't know what dialect it is (Punjab, Hindi, etc.) so it's tough for me to figure which one. On top of that, I think the subtitles to the film are phonetic.

So my question is: Can anyone help me figure out what he is saying (if anything) and what dialect he is speaking? I know Lit has a ton of readers and writers that could help me out. I did manage to figure out what he meant when he involked "Lord Rama.." (asin: Rama & Sita, which is a great) just before trying to pick up a woman, but the phrases have me stumped.

Here are the phrases he speaks (in order and from the film subtitles):

1. "Gaya yaar, sub kharaab, hogaya." He says this one shortly after botching trying to get a date from the female lead (Cynthia Gibb).

2. "Saala gandu! Lundia!" He says this one shortly before trying to beat Fred/Derf (Played by Michael McKean) with a spool of wire because he lost Johnny 5.

3. "Mane ghabarat thaychhe..." This one is dropped while waiting for Johnny 5 to incidentally stop a bus so he can 'bump into' the female lead for an impromptu date.

4. "Maaf karna." Benjamin says this one in between "Wait, wait. Maaf kharna, please wait." while trying to drop his pretenses and explain the situtation where he was accidentally scaring off the female lead who thinks he is on drugs, as he is taking dating advice from a robot.

Thank you, ahead of time, for any help.

So #4 : "Maaf karna." means "I'm sorry."

Alright, I won't give the exact literal translation because it won't make any sense. I'll try and give the closest possible translation in American English. For the record, I'm not a language pundit, just learned that when I was in a boarding school.

1. "Gaya yaar, sub kharaab, hogaya." He says this one shortly after botching trying to get a date from the female lead (Cynthia Gibb).

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Hindi.

Roughly translates to "Shit, man! That went awful".

2. "Saala gandu! Lundia!" He says this one shortly before trying to beat Fred/Derf (Played by Michael McKean) with a spool of wire because he lost Johnny 5.

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Again Hindi.

"Saala Gandu" roughly translates to "Fucking Asshole!"

I seriously don't know what "Lundia" means, must be something else entirely because of the spelling. The closest slang that I've heard of are "Laundia" or "Lund" which translates to "Woman" (not respectful) and "Penis" respectively.

3. "Mane ghabarat thaychhe..." This one is dropped while waiting for Johnny 5 to incidentally stop a bus so he can 'bump into' the female lead for an impromptu date.

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Punjabi, most probably. Don't have the faintest idea, as none of my friends spoke that language.

4. "Maaf karna." Benjamin says this one in between "Wait, wait. Maaf kharna, please wait." while trying to drop his pretenses and explain the situtation where he was accidentally scaring off the female lead who thinks he is on drugs, as he is taking dating advice from a robot.

Thank you, ahead of time, for any help.

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Hindi. Translates to "Please forgive me."


Hope that helped.

Awesome man, thank you. You have enhanced my future viewings of Short Circuit 2

So the only one I don't know yet:


3. "Mane ghabarat thaychhe..." This one is dropped while waiting for Johnny 5 to incidentally stop a bus so he can 'bump into' the female lead for an impromptu date.

Any help would be great. Thanks to Bard, I think it's Punjabi.

Punjabi is *somewhat* similar to Hindi. If you ever speak to a Punjabi, you may understand most of his speech and get a general idea of what he's talking about.


As for the last translation, I can break it to something like this:

"Mane ghabarat thaychhe..."

"Mane" may mean "I'm feeling" or "Mine". That's the closest I can get.

"Ghabarat" def means "Nervous/Anxiety"

"thaychhe"...hmmm..that sounds like a pure Punjabi dialect. Most probably "Feeling/having"

The closest translation I can think is: "I'm feeling a bit nervous"/"I'm having an anxiety" or something.

TheSoulfulBard said:

Punjabi is *somewhat* similar to Hindi. If you ever speak to a Punjabi, you may understand most of his speech and get a general idea of what he's talking about.


As for the last translation, I can break it to something like this:

"Mane ghabarat thaychhe..."

"Mane" may mean "I'm feeling" or "Mine". That's the closest I can get.

"Ghabarat" def means "Nervous/Anxiety"

"thaychhe"...hmmm..that sounds like a pure Punjabi dialect. Most probably "Feeling/having"

The closest translation I can think is: "I'm feeling a bit nervous"/"I'm having an anxiety" or something.

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That---^ makes a lot of sense in context to the film.

TheSoulfulBard said:

I seriously don't know what "Lundia" means, must be something else entirely because of the spelling. The closest slang that I've heard of are "Laundia" or "Lund" which translates to "Woman" (not respectful) and "Penis" respectively.

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'bitch' or 'dick' maybe?

PayDay said:

'bitch' or 'dick' maybe?

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"Dick" would fit if it was "Lund"

"Laundia" roughly translates to "Woman" but that's rather crass.

"Launda" refers to "Men", also crass.

I wouldn't use any form of that word if I were losing a game. Most probably it was meant to refer "Lund" and hence "dick".

Subtitles may be wrong too.

Or it could be another one of those pure Punjabi Dialects, which would mean something else entirely. Then, I vote for googling that word.

TheSoulfulBard said:

Subtitles may be wrong too.

Or it could be another one of those pure Punjabi Dialects, which would mean something else entirely. Then, I vote for googling that word.

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Google translate has been little help and if I google the word I get sites in all India dialect. Hence the thread

I think the subtitles are phonetic, or he's using slang.

PayDay said:

Google translate has been little help and if I google the word I get sites in all India dialect. Hence the thread

I think the subtitles are phonetic, or he's using slang.

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Nah. Try this search:

Lundia+Hindi+Slang

OR

Lundia+Punjabi+Slang

It sort of narrows the search to the regional language. I tried this for a few French and Russian Slang.

TheSoulfulBard said:

Nah. Try this search:

Lundia+Hindi+Slang

OR

Lundia+Punjabi+Slang

It sort of narrows the search to the regional language. I tried this for a few French and Russian Slang.

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Good idea.

I did notice thaychhe gets split in two, into thay chhe, when I find it on the foreign language pages.

PayDay said:

Here are the phrases he speaks (in order and from the film subtitles):

1. "Gaya yaar, sub kharaab, hogaya." He says this one shortly after botching trying to get a date from the female lead (Cynthia Gibb).

2. "Saala gandu! Lundia!" He says this one shortly before trying to beat Fred/Derf (Played by Michael McKean) with a spool of wire because he lost Johnny 5.

3. "Mane ghabarat thaychhe..." This one is dropped while waiting for Johnny 5 to incidentally stop a bus so he can 'bump into' the female lead for an impromptu date.

4. "Maaf karna." Benjamin says this one in between "Wait, wait. Maaf kharna, please wait." while trying to drop his pretenses and explain the situtation where he was accidentally scaring off the female lead who thinks he is on drugs, as he is taking dating advice from a robot.

Thank you, ahead of time, for any help.

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So LC namedropped a native speakers name (thanks dude) and that native speaker gave me this (thanks you), it's from a PM so don't knock the typos, jerks:
(Turns out Bard and I made a few errors, which is fine, and they are languages, NOT dialects, mybad)

1.**He says this one shortly after botching trying to get a date from the female lead (Cynthia Gibb).

I'm a goner. It's all ruined now.

2.**He says this one shortly before trying to beat Fred/Derf (Played by Michael McKean) with a spool of wire because he lost Johnny 5.

The character is swearing. Saala means brother-in-law but it is commonly used as a swear word.*

Gandu means asshole.

Lundia means dickhead, I assume because lund means penis and lundia is a derivative (can't say for sure because a lot of these swear words are used by really crass folks and they don't really have a particular meaning).

Lundia is not to be confused with laundia (like the Bard did on the thread). Laundia means girl in bhojpuri, a dialect of Hindi which is as different as cockney is to american english. Punjabi, Hindi are all languages not dialects (they even have their own separate scripts).

3.**This one is dropped while waiting for Johnny 5 to incidentally stop a bus so he can 'bump into' the female lead for an impromptu date.

I'm scared or anxious. Gujarati, another language (and again a whole different script).

4.**Benjamin says this one in between "Wait, wait. Maaf kharna, please wait." while trying to drop his pretenses and explain the situtation where he was accidentally scaring off the female lead who thinks he is on drugs, as he is taking dating advice from a robot.

Forgive/Excuse me.


So, long story short, anyone could use these phrases to better their viewing of Short Circuit 2, or for snippits in a story they are writing.

If anyone disagrees with these translation, I'd like to hear it.

The answer was given in a PM because the question was asked in a PM. If I knew you were gonna copy paste the entire thing I'd have reserved some of my commentary.

And it's okay, knock the typos- I can handle it.

subdued_passion said:

The answer was given in a PM because the question was asked in a PM. If I knew you were gonna copy paste the entire thing I'd have reserved some of my commentary.

And it's okay, knock the typos- I can handle it.

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I took out some of the commentary

methinks my typos get worse