Dunglish

Recently posted as a reply to my mule shoe posting by Scrubs over at taalpuristen.nl, this shoe website deserves a posting of its own. I had a good laugh. The shoes do enjoy a good reputation.

Some highlights:

“Part off our broader collection” and “prolonged by popular demand” got my attention. There is also “lamp” for those allergic to “lamb”. I bet it’s softer.

While bargain hunting, this bit of Dunglish was pointed out to me. Besides the obvious typo and the ad lib abbreviations, the entire shop had this mix and match thing going for it. I have been in several other shops of the same brand at Italian outlets centres and never came across this mix. It has to be a Dutch thing.

Even ‘50%’ without anything else is very clear to almost anyone shopping for bargains at an outlet centre. I really don’t understand the logic behind this bit of Dunglish. Many shops at Dutch outlet centres use tags from their British counterparts, but this one went off the beaten price. It wasn’t the cheapest shop there, either!

I’m sure this place is lots of fun, but I was shocked when I read about the “venom” part. The first thing I did was check out their website. I was relieved to find out that “Venom” is the title of some exhibition featuring poisonous fish. Copywriter, anyone?

The word “woonmall” is in direct competition with the word “woonboulevard”. A “woonboulevard” is simply “a row of furniture retailers”. In Dutch, “mal” (the closest word to “mall”) is an adjective that means “silly, foolish”. If they think they will sell more furniture using a Dunglish name, then IKEA and its unpronouncable Swedish furniture names must really be a silly and foolish international furniture retailer.

(photo: Paul)

This advert was found in a Dutch computer magazine. “Wireless” cannot really be used here as an adverb because it’s an adjective. The adverb would be “wirelessly”. Problem is – and I sympathise – adjectives are used as adverbs in Dutch. The Dutch Railways’ famous “do not speak in a loudly voice” is the reverse: an adverb was used instead of an adjective.

The rest of the site is Dunglish as well, the French is franglais, and I’ll let you enjoy all the other versions!

sitecom.com

(Photo: Gijs)

I have mentioned this first bit before, but it’s much more impressive in print. This second bit is visible from the tram stops at Amsterdam Central Station. And neon lights are much nicer at night. Lucky for the disclaimer folks, when the English or second language of a legal clause is messed up, the Dutch applies.

Nothing new under the sun. ‘Uitverkoop’ is Dutch for ’sale’ or ‘clearance sale’. But again, sale is apparently cooler. ‘Zomeropruiming’ (summer clearance) is proper Dutch, while ‘zomersale’ should be ‘zomeruitverkoop’, or so I have seen. In Belgium, French speakers read it as ’sale’, which means ‘dirty’, a good reason to use ‘uitverkoop’.

(Photo: Bram)

Karting is cool, the Bleekemolen boys are fine, but this tagline is ugly. “Bleekemolens Race Planet” is also Dunglish, as Bleekemolens with an ’s’ is Dutch for “Bleekemolen’s”.

Off the top of my head here are some suggestions:

Fast entertainement for the whole family
Fast family entertainment
The fastest entertainment there is!

And I could go on!