Now You're Speakin' My Language (or Dialect)

[Eva]

In Germany, "toast" refers to this kind of fluffy, crust-free, factory-produced wheat "bread" that needs to be toasted, and the word bread only refers to the regular kind of bread with a crust, solid, rather heavy, not fluffy, that doesn't need to be toasted.
Here, bread=

Toast=

[Anna]

Jemppu (tai kuka vaan) can swoop in to clarify, but in short (on phone) in Finnish:

Paahtoleipä - the soft fluffy bread for toasting, lots of different flavors (paahto is roast, leipä is bread)

Toast (yes the English word) - a grilled cheese sandwich 😄

edit: Oh, grilled cheese sandwich literally translated would probably, for most Finns, mean a slice of toast topped with something and a slice of cheese, then baked in the oven.

[Anna]

We also call cupcakes muffins, or more accurately muffinses. Recently people have started using a new word for cupcakes, a literal translation, but I still see muffinses a lot.

[Jemppu]

"Muffinssit"

:D Nicely spotted. Hadn't realized before, that it is indeed a double/bilingual plural, as it were. Though, I do recall some using 'muffinit' - I think my granny did.

[Anna]

Yeah, some people do use 'muffinit' but 'muffinssit' is more common :) Also 'nachokset' :S (nachoses)

[DivaDiane]

Sounds like something Gollum would say, “muffinses, I want my muffinses! I need my muffinses!”

[Anna]

I know! 😄 That’s what I always think 😊

edit: I guess it’s possible that Tolkien wasn’t only inspired by the formal Finnish language, but also our way of mangling loan words 😄

[Raucous]

Eva wrote: "In Germany, "toast" refers to this kind of fluffy, crust-free, factory-produced wheat "bread" that needs to be toasted, and the word bread only refers to the regular kind of bread with a crust ..."

I appreciate seeing a distinction there between "bread" and the factory stuff that doesn't seem anything like bread to me - despite my growing up in the US. It really does need another word.

Then there's sliced bread. When I was growing up a common phrase to describe innovation was "The best thing since sliced bread." Arrgghh!!! As I tell the local bakery if they try to slice my bread "When you slice it all the flavor leaks out." I was so annoyed when they got a bread slicing machine and started supplying bread to local stores pre-sliced.

Thanks for listening.

[CBRetriever]

Those bread slicing machines are usually just one size and don't work for ciabatta, baguettes and other breads that should be thickly sliced.

France has "American" bread too: Harry's American Bread in a square shape. No french bread is naturally square that I ever saw.

Oh, another difference between countries: toast in American is always served hot in restaurants, but when I was in the UK, all the toast was hard and dry and cold. Yuck.

[Mel]

Speaking of square bread, Japanese "shokupan" is sold as this abnormally perfect cube. The bread is super-soft, and super-white. Japanese like sweet breads, so most bakeries don't sell German-style hearty bread. :/



And speaking of "toast," there is a bizarre dessert called "Honey Toast" where a full loaf is topped with honey and a scoop of ice cream. I've seen fancy versions with fruit as well. But otherwise... it's just a raw loaf of bread.

[Eva]

That looks kind of awesome and unhealthy but cute. I guess it's similar to pancakes?

[CBRetriever]

it's more like they're treating it like shortcake (as in strawberry shortcake)

[Leonie]

DivaDiane wrote: "Sounds like something Gollum would say, “muffinses, I want my muffinses! I need my muffinses!”"

That's exactly what I was thinking! Bagginses...muffinses

[Leonie]

Bread slicers in Australia seem to be able to cope with all kinds of bread. Maybe ours are tougher... You can pop into Baker's Delight or similar, and they'll slice your bread while you wait - if you want it sliced, that is.

I think different places like different types of bread. I know that when we travelled in the US, we struggled with how sweet American bread was.

We haven't (yet - one day when the pandemic allows!) travelled to Europe. but I look forward to trying all kinds of local breads.

We make our own sourdough at home, something I learned last year during lockdown. We've also previously made ciabatta, focaccia, and our own hot cross buns.

Mind you, there's nothing quite like a fresh sausage from Bunnings slapped onto sliced white bread, with onions and tomato sauce. (This, apparently, is a very Australian thing. See also 'democracy sausage' https://democracysausage.org/about)

[Michelle]

DivaDiane wrote: "Sounds like something Gollum would say, “muffinses, I want my muffinses! I need my muffinses!”"

It does!!

[CBRetriever]

Leonie wrote: "Bread slicers in Australia seem to be able to cope with all kinds of bread. Maybe ours are tougher... You can pop into Baker's Delight or similar, and they'll slice your bread while you wait - if y..."

they do that in the US, but there's only one setting for how thick the slices can be and it's way too thin for some types of bread - it's the same size as American white bread is and that's way too thin for garlic bread, Texas toast , etc

In the US, to get good bread you need to go to either stores with a bakery in them (Whole Foods is a good one) or to an actual bakery. The "french bread" in Houston was terrible (soft, not croustillante or crunchy on the outside), but there's a lot of good french bread in Portland.

Now if I could just find a real French eclair.... The ones in France do not have a vanilla custard filling, they have what's almost a chocolate mouse and are delicious.

[Leonie]

Ooh, chocolate eclairs! Mmmmmm. The old time ones here usually have whipped cream - which isn't sweet - on the inside and chocolate/chocolate icing on the outside. (That's from a basic bakery.)

However, if you go to a specialist bakery, there are all kinds of eclairs. Some with chocolate mousse on the inside, or a coffee mousse. Others have creme patissiere, which is probably the vanilla custard filling you're referencing, CBR. Many have a variety of different kinds of chocolate on the outside.

[Anna]

Just as a pre-emptive measure, here is the link to the cooking thread, if anyone wants to veer into talking about food in general!

What are you cooking now?

[Michelle]

Anna, you know us all too well.

[Andres]

CBRetriever wrote: "they do that in the US, but there's only one setting for how thick the slices can be and it's way too thin for some types of bread - it's the same size as American white bread is and that's way too thin for garlic bread, Texas toast , etc"

I like Texas toast but I don't have a Texas toaster.

[Jemppu]

Andres wrote: "...I like Texas toast but I don't have a Texas toaster..."

I rather thought this is why 'toaster ovens' existed. Very rare as a general household appliance around here.

[CBRetriever]

Adjustable slice toasters work well - my toaster even does bagels

[Andres]

I have to apologize. That was a joke from the great Mitch Hedberg.

He also said, "I don't eat Pepperidge Farm bread. That's fancy bread. You can tell it's fancy because it's wrapped twice. You open it and it still isn't open. That's why I don't buy it. I don't need another step between me and toast."

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I got the reference, Andres! ^^

[Lizzie]

CBRetriever wrote: "I read somewhere about how to tell if someone was a Westerner/Southerner vs an Easterner. The W/S person would open a phone call with chitchat before getting to the subject of the call whereas an E..."

I think that's accurate. Being born and raised in NJ, then moving to Texas and Arizona in my 20s, and then to the midwest in my 40s, before returning to AZ - I have experienced it.

Personally, give me the facts and get to the point, then if I have time we will chat. Texas and Arizona (those who are not later imports) chat awhile about everything and anything before getting to the point. Milwaukee, the weather was first, then sports. The most effusively polite were my firends from outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

[Lizzie]

Even in America, I have heard various names for the end pieces of the loaf of bread - the end piece, butt, and heel. We always called it the heel. Having lived in 3 distintive parts of the country, I never heard it called the crust because the crust encircles the load of bread. As someone mentioned, special occasions the crust is removed in the belief it makes it fancier.

[Anna]

Aussie friends! I'm too lazy to google, please tell me, are tights leggings or pantyhose? :D

[Janelle]

Pantyhose :))

[CBRetriever]

tights in the US are leggings with feet kinda like thick panty hose. Here's what the amazon.com.au site calls women's tights

https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=tights&...

[Anna]

I needed to know what they're in Australia! Thanks Janelle! :)

(And yeah, I normally google and find out for myself, but I was listening to a book and couldn't concentrate on pantyhose/tights/leggins/etc. :D )

[Leonie]

Yes, definitely pantyhose.

[Anna]

I've never thought about the word pantyhose before, but now it looks and sounds extremely weird to me XD

(In Finnish it's sukkahousut, literally sock pants. I'm here 24/7 for all your essential Finnish language needs.)

[Janelle]

Pantyhose is weird, I’m sure that’s why we say tights!

[Anna]

Makes sense to me! :D

[Andres]

I heard somewhere that there is 38 different words for an Irishman to describe rain.

[CBRetriever]

I've heard the number is higher for Native Alaskans and snow...

[Mel]

The snow one is famous, but is misleading, based on what you consider to be a "word." Inuit and Yupik languages are agglutinative, and add suffixes to root words which are the equivalent of compound words or whole phrases - "fluffysnow" instead of "fluffy snow."

Different but similar concept - this Rhabarberbarbara video is a fun example in German.

[Andres]

Anna wrote: "I've never thought about the word pantyhose before, but now it looks and sounds extremely weird to me XD

(In Finnish it's sukkahousut, literally sock pants. I'm here 24/7 for all your essential Fi..."

That word makes me laugh. It makes me think of Hawaiian slang. "Hey Sukka, how'sit?"

[Anna]

I love it when a thing in one language means something completely different in another!

[Jemppu]

*realization, that 'sukka' reads like 'sucka' in English*

A situation much like with the infamous 'megapussi'.

[Andres]

Casa is house in spanish but its umbrella in japanese.

[Jemppu]

Andres wrote: "Casa is house in spanish but its umbrella in japanese."

Yup. 'Kasa' also means 'a pile' in Finnish :) "My pile is your pile".

[Anna]

re: megapussi

This reminds me of how I was told that the Finnish word 'pika', which mostly means express, as in pikatoimitus = express delivery, sounds like something very different in Icelandic. Icelanders must be very confused when they visit Finland, with all the 'pika' on offer!

I wonder how popular Pikachu is in Iceland?

[Jemppu]

Anna wrote: "...Icelanders must be very confused when they visit Finland, with all the 'pika' on offer!

I wonder how popular Pikachu is in Iceland?"

*ha*

[Mel]

Oh, did not not know that about Icelandic. Pikapika means sparkling or shiny in Japanese. Between Pikachu and Laputa, anime sure has had some rough luck localizing names abroad.

[Anna]

Haha XD Oh no, yeah, well, this is language, and it's why we love them :)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

i just assume everything I'm saying might come back to mine or someone's vagina and stride forth boldly. confused? ask, and I might clarify, or might disintegrate into shameful dust motes. either is due to be memorable for all of us

[DivaDiane]

Thanks for that, everyone. I needed a good laugh.

[Andres]

I try to yell PIKA! before I sneeze.

So then, would a pika chuu be a quick (express) sneeze?

[CBRetriever]

To Jacqueline and the other Australians here, I've been stumped by one word in a mystery book set in Australia - perhaps you could help?

the main character is getting a wound inspected/cleaned by someone and he says: When she started in with the sandpaper he jerked involuntarily.

is he using hyperbole or is there something that's referred to as sandpaper (other than the usual paper with sand on it used for woodworking/crafts) in Australia?