Linguistics

[Fimbulvarg]

Then there's a whole bunch of strange ones like:
Smile = Niko Niko
Irritated = Ira Ira
To shine/sparkle = Pika Pika

This reminds me of the Norwegian translation of One Piece where they struggled with an onomatopoeia meants to signal "a heavy/aggressive mood". There's no such effect in Norwegian so they just replaced it with "grrrrrrrrrrr".

[Nimphy]

Since Swedish already seems to be covered I thought I might share some Japanese onomatopoeia!

Neko (cats) = Nyan Nyan/ Nya Nya
Inu (dogs) = Wan Wan
Tori (birds) = Pichu Pichu
Karasu (crows) = Kaa Kaa
Gyuu (cow) = Moo Moo
Hitsuji (sheep) = Mee Mee
Buta (pig) = Buu Buu
Kaeru (frog) = Gero Gero / Kero Kero

Ouch= Ita!
Pouring Rain = Zaa Zaa
Yawn = Fuwaa

Then there's a whole bunch of strange ones like:
Smile = Niko Niko
Irritated = Ira Ira
To shine/sparkle = Pika Pika

Aaah, Japanese onomatopeias!  *has flashbacks of her Memrise onomatopeias. Bad flashbacks.*

[AquaAurion]

Important vocabulary if someone wants to translate SSSS to Japanese...

I included it for Emil's sake

This reminds me of the Norwegian translation of One Piece where they struggled with an onomatopoeia meants to signal "a heavy/aggressive mood". There's no such effect in Norwegian so they just replaced it with "grrrrrrrrrrr".

Hahaha XD If I remember correctly the manga I have in Swedish just ignored all sound effects. I thought they looked cool in katakana and didn't really mind.

Aaah, Japanese onomatopeias!  *has flashbacks of her Memrise onomatopeias. Bad flashbacks.*

I fortunately haven't had to go through that ^^ There's so many for describing things that doesn't really exist in Swedish or English. Apparently I missed a class where our teacher tried to explain "fuwa fuwa" which means that something is soft and fluffy and she just kept on using other onomatopoeia for soft/fluffy things to describe it and no one understood anything xD

[Nimphy]

I fortunately haven't had to go through that ^^ There's so many for describing things that doesn't really exist in Swedish or English. Apparently I missed a class where our teacher tried to explain "fuwa fuwa" which means that something is soft and fluffy and she just kept on using other onomatopoeia for soft/fluffy things to describe it and no one understood anything xD

Well, I found an awesome mem depicting a SOFT, FLUFFY cat saying "HU WAnts a hug?". That saved me there.

[AquaAurion]

Well, I found an awesome mem depicting a SOFT, FLUFFY cat saying "HU WAnts a hug?". That saved me there.

Proof that cute cat pictures can help with anything! ^w^

[Synthpopalooza]

One of the basic umlaut confusions that beginners of Swedish come across is this one:

Swedish: man (English: man)  vs. män (English: men)

With the umlaut, the world becomes a plural.  While this might be confusing to some, there is a correlation in English:  Man, singular, vs men, plural.  The pronounciations, also, are almost similar to Swedish.  But that one threw me for a loop first time I saw it!

[Solovei]

One of the basic umlaut confusions that beginners of Swedish come across is this one:

Swedish: man (English: man)  vs. män (English: men)

With the umlaut, the world becomes a plural.  While this might be confusing to some, there is a correlation in English:  Man, singular, vs men, plural.  The pronounciations, also, are almost similar to Swedish.  But that one threw me for a loop first time I saw it!

The one that I find myself tripping over a lot is
månen (the moon) vs mannen (the man)

[Armchair Survivalist]

The one that I find myself tripping over a lot is
månen (the moon) vs mannen (the man)

Just remember that "å" is pronounced like "au" in "pause" and "Audrey". Also, the "å" in "månen" is a long vowel (due to the following single "n"), while the "a" in "mannen" is a short vowel due to the double "n". With short and long vowels, Swedish has in effect more vowel sounds than the basic a, e, i, o, u, y, å, ä, ö.

[Superdark33]

Hebrew, with 8 being the letter sound you cant make.

Cat/8atool does Meow
Dog/Kelev does hav/hao
Crow/Orev does Krah
A8/ow/ahia/aii/arabic for certein anatomy pieces in a mother when you hit a table with the little toe
Sneezing is Apchee

And memory fails me 

[Laufey]

The accent marks in Icelandic are also pretty important because the vowel underneath gets an entirely different pronunciation. Granted, some make a pronunciation difference that's almost nonexistent to a language learner, such as between i - í. The latter one's sharper, the first one without the accent is pronounced a bit more... round I guess? It'll matter a great deal because if you say the wrong one you may end up using a wrong word altogether, such as:

"Ég ætla að kaupa lím" vs. "Ég ætla að kaupa lim".

First one translates loosely as "I'd like to buy some glue". The second one is "I'd like to buy some penis". Be certain that Icelanders can both pronounce and hear the difference, so they'll know right away which one you just said. Good luck!

[Armchair Survivalist]

"Ég ætla að kaupa lím" vs. "Ég ætla að kaupa lim".

First one translates loosely as "I'd like to buy some glue". The second one is "I'd like to buy some penis". Be certain that Icelanders can both pronounce and hear the difference, so they'll know right away which one you just said. Good luck!

Otherwise, I guess the Icelanders will tell you where to stick it.

[jp otter]

In high school I learned (whether correctly or not, I can't say) that in French, both fish and turkeys say "glu glu". I always found it hilarious that they speak the same language.

[FrogEater]

Fish, even the French ones, don't speak !
But "glou glou" is indeed the sound of
- turkeys
- anything flowing : water down the river, whisky down the bottle, etc.
(a fish swimming in whisky remains to be studied)

[Sunflower]

Fish, even the French ones, don't speak !
But "glou glou" is indeed the sound of
- turkeys
- anything flowing : water down the river, whisky down the bottle, etc.
(a fish swimming in whisky remains to be studied)

I'm sure the Danes have come up with some sort of fish-and-akvavit combination, like the worm in some bottles of Mexican mezcal.  Down the hatch, little herring!  <glug glug>

[Nuti]

Not so sure how much this relates to this thread, but I have sometimes a habit to use a Swedish "å" to replace a Finnish "o" when joking about our dear rivals Swedes in written Finnish. And I kinda have a feeling that I'm not the only Finn who does that (I once saw a Finnish-translated Astérix picture in which a viking's lines were written that way). "å" is actually called "the Swedish o" in Finnish alphabet due to its pronunciation.

Example:

English: "Good day, I'd like to buy apples."
Real Finnish: "Päivää, haluaisin ostaa omenoita."
Joking Swedish-Finnish: "Päivää, haluaisin åstaa åmenåita."

Some time ago I also tried to mix that into English, but I don't do it nowadays since this joke works in Finnish which is more like "pronounced like written", but not in English which is more like "writing and pronunciation barely correlate".