Skip to the content
Reply

M&Ms

by MrMosier, September 11, 2015

Messages: 14

Language: English

MrMosier (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 12:45:01 AM

We had a question on our local club's FB page ("Esperanto in Iowa" in case anyone is interested) about a week and a half back: How would one translate "M&Ms"?

I just left out the "&" and went with "momoj" (mom- isn't a root according to the PIV/ReVo). Any other ideas?

M&Ms

bdlingle (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 2:23:09 AM

I would think, that you would translate it the way you did. I don't know of any other way to translate unless you include the ampersand or say kaj, other than that I don't see any other way.

richardhall (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 5:57:59 AM

As it's a brand name, I wouldn't translate it at all.

tommjames (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 8:07:15 AM

richardhall:As it's a brand name, I wouldn't translate it at all.
+1

mbalicki (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 11:12:43 AM

tommjames:
richardhall:As it's a brand name, I wouldn't translate it at all.
+1
−1

MrMosier:We had a question on our local club's FB page ("Esperanto in Iowa" in case anyone is interested) about a week and a half back: How would one translate "M&Ms"?

I just left out the "&" and went with "momoj" (mom- isn't a root according to the PIV/ReVo). Any other ideas?
The name isn't plural “M&Ms” but it's genitive “M&M's” standing for “by Forrest E. Mars sr and Bruce Murrie”.

So in my opinion that could be “MM” (pronounced as “momo”), cloud be “MkM” (pronounced as “mokomo” or “mokajmo”) or it could be “MkajM” (pronounced as “mokajmo”). You could also esperantise it phonetically as “emenemo” or “emenemso”. ridulo.gif

vikungen (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 11:22:40 AM

richardhall:As it's a brand name, I wouldn't translate it at all.
2+

Keep on translating all the brand names and nobody will understand what you're talking about.

How many languages do this? In Norwegian we never translate brand names, saying fjesboka for Facebook unless used in setting where you're trying to be fun would be cringed upon.

Saying things like "mi retumas fejsbukon per vindozo" just makes sentences incomprehensible as whoever is reading them needs to decrypt each and every brand name, it's almost as if Esperanto was a code language and everything, even brand names and the like had to be translated so that the enemy definitely wouldn't understand you.

vikungen (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 11:30:37 AM

vikungen:

Keep on translating all the brand names and nobody will understand what you're talking about.

How many languages do this?
I just checked through the Wikipedia pages of almost every single language with an article on Microsoft Windows, and no big surprises there, the only language translating the brand name "Microsoft Windows" was... Esperanto. Not even super conservative Icelandic translates brand names.

Who are the advocates pushing this forward within the Esperanto speaking community? And is there any logical reasoning behind it whatsoever?

tommjames (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 1:19:38 PM

Good points vikungen. I have always found it a bit odd that so many Esperantists feel the need to translate and transliterate every name and proper noun under the sun into Esperanto - a tendency quite at odds with the norm in most other languages, as you point out. I can only assume they think they're adding "richness" to the language or something, when all they're really doing is adding confusion most of the time - as would be the case here with something like "momoj" or what have you.

erinja (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 2:07:06 PM

I believe a momo is a Tibetan/Nepalese steamed meat dumpling. If someone used the word I would assume they meant that.

I say "mo kaj mo" for the candy. Since it is letter-ampersand-letter, that seems to be the obvious Esperanto pronunciation.

If it was something else, say, PG Tips tea, I'd call it "po go tips". i.e. pronouncing the letters as if they were Esperanto but not translating the word "tips".

MrMosier (User's profile) September 11, 2015, 2:20:20 PM

erinja:I believe a momo is a Tibetan/Nepalese steamed meat dumpling. If someone used the word I would assume they meant that.

I say "mo kaj mo" for the candy. Since it is letter-ampersand-letter, that seems to be the obvious Esperanto pronunciation.

If it was something else, say, PG Tips tea, I'd call it "po go tips". i.e. pronouncing the letters as if they were Esperanto but not translating the word "tips".
Well, I highly doubt most anyone in the US (much less here in provincial E. Iowa) is going to immediately think of a Tibetan gyoza when they hear "momo". Perils of being a county bumpkin, I suppose.

Back to the top