Tuesday 2 December 2008

BIRTHDAY BASHING

Now, what was it I was going to say to my partner, DAVID, today...?

Er... let me see...

Gelukkige verjaarsdag!
Gëzuar ditëlindjen!
Melkame yetewlede kene! Melekam ledet!
Eeid milad sa'aeed
Shenorhavor Dzenentyan Or!
¡Bon nataliegu!
Ad Gününüz mübaræk!
Zorionak!
Shuvo Zanmo din!
Sretan Rodjendan!
Deiz ha Bloaz Laouen!
Chestit Rojden Den!
Saang yat faai lok!
Feliç aniversari!
Neh dzeeneh kk-eh nehbah soo ghwah nehs-then
Pennbloedh Lowen!
Kontan ou pa-w jou nesans!
Sretan rodyendan!
S^t^astné narozeniny!
Né fo dO!góó dááré yááné !
Tillykke med fødselsdagen!
Gefeliciteerd!
Palju õnne sünnipäevaks!
Dio natana beatea!
Ta'va'lo'dat Mo'ba'rak
Hyvää syntymäpäivää!
Joyeux anniversaire!
Fan herten lokwinske mei dyn jierdei!
Feliz Aniversário!
Gilotsavt dabadebis dghes!
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!
Janmadin ni vadhaaee!
Hau`oli lá hánau!
Yom huledet same'ach!
Janmadina mubaarak ho
Sen-jít khoài-lók
Boldog születésnapot!
Til hamingju með afmælið!
Felica nasko-dio!
Selamat ulang tahun!
Felice anniversario!
Breith lá sona duit
Buon compleanno!
Tanjoubi omedetou!
Seng-il-ul Chuk-ha-ham-ni-da
Beatum Diem Natalem
Daudz laimes dzimsvanas diena!
Sveikinu gimtadienio proga!
Selamat harijadi
Sheng- rì kuài lè!
Jeramon ilo rainin am!
Mitshíngh!
Gratulerer med dagen!
Bon aniversari!
Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin!
Feliz Aniversário! Parabéns!
La mult'i ani!
S dnem rozhdeniya!
Srecyan rodyendan!
Ke ho lakaletsa letsatsi le monate la tswalo!
Shubha. Upan Dhina.yak !
Vs^etko najleps^ie (k narodeninám)!
Vse najboljsxe za rojstni dan!
Feliz cumpleaños!
Hongera!
Grattis på födelsedagen!
Maligayang kaarawan!
Sook-san-wan-kert!
Ogole!
Do-gum günün kutlu olsun!
Z dnem urodyn! z dnem narodzhenya!
Chúc mùng sinh nhâ.t!
Penblwydd Hapus i chwi!
Imini yokuzalwa emnandi!
Mazl-tov
Sikufisela inhlanhla elangeni lakho lokuzalwa

Oh, yes, I remember...

Happy Birthday!


I suppose some might think that two appearances on the Sibley blog in one week is a bit excessive, but I think that's quite a good birthday present...

Plus, as an extra gift (admittedly shared with all my other readers whether it's your birthday or not), here's a few random thoughts on birthdays...

Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.
- Jean Paul Richter

There is still no cure for the common birthday.
- John Glenn

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people
who have the most live the longest.
- Larry Lorenzoni

The best birthdays of all are those that haven't arrived yet.
- Robert Orben

And rather less philosophically...

Why is a birthday cake the only food you can blow on and spit on
and everybody rushes to get a piece?
- Bobby Kelton

In case you wondered, the greetings above (from A to Z) are in...

Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Asturian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Catalan, Chipewyan, Cornish, Creole, Croatian, Czech, Dagaare, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Eurish, Farsi, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Holooe, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Indonesian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malaysian, Mandarin, Marshallese, Mazahua, Norwegian, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sesotho, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Tswana, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yiddish and Zulu

Incidentally, in Esperanto, it's Feli^can datrevenon! Feli^can naski^gtago! No wonder it never caught on: it's longer than German and you more or less have to say it twice!

15 comments:

David Weeks said...

Well thank you, Brian!

PANYMPAY: A kind of Birthday cake (Mongolian)

Brian Sibley said...

Non-fattening then...

Anonymous said...

How long did it take you to find out all that on the net Brian?
Any way, many happy returns to David.
HANDI: (what sort of a challenge is that?) A long list of expressions that all mean the same thing - usually something very simple...

Boll Weavil said...

Happy birthday David !

INGST : A feeling of chagrin generated and retained secretly upon delivery of felicitations. Such a feeling derives from the suspicion that the recipient would probably have enjoyed the good luck,happy day or merry Christmas without your leave anyway should you not have been around to bestow it.

Phil said...

Happy Birthday, David. Your birthday is one day before my own! We JUST ABOUT share an un-birthday.

GOGRA: Giant reptile that attacks Tokyo just when you have a mouthful of hot potato.

SharonM said...

Many Happy and Healthy Returns, David!

INGSHAN - something that an inebriated driver might foolishly try to start.

Anonymous said...

Many Happy Returns, David!

INGSR: the plural of Boll's definition - experienced by those who send round robin letters at Christmas

Boll Weavil said...

Cracking comment Sheila ! Don't think Phil is taking it seriously....

Messe : An imaginary response sent to deliverers of Round Robins at Christmas as a form of revenge. Typically it would detail the stories of misfortune woe, bankruptcy, ill-health and drug addiction that have happened to ones own very average family in the past year.

David Weeks said...

Thanks to all those who have added their succinct felicitation.

inestful: A superfluity of cosy, warm, good wishes.

Rena Fan said...

Χρόνια πολλά, David. Να τον χαίρεσαι, Brian!

Anonymous said...

Brian, have you ever thought of making a compilation of all these wacky definitions?
ASHTHIN: The self-righteous feeling of self-satisfaction after having done all one's Christmas shopping on time and having every hour of the whole month planned in advance, whilst still remembering everybody's birthday who have had the brass monkeys to be born in December!

Brian Sibley said...

My thanks are added to David's for all your warm wishes.

A book, Suzanne? Well, yes, it had gone through my mind but, of course, the thing is if they were taken out of the context from the post to which they are attached, I'm not sure that the definitions would seem quit so apt or amusing...

However, if the aim was just to give the most appropriate dictionary definition of these obscure-sounding words, that might make a book (with everyone's help) but would have to be approached quite differently from the way in which Boll kicked off this particular game...

Boll Weavil said...

'The Meaning of Liff' by David Lloyd and Douglas Adams started the ball rolling with random definitions of words that otherwise would only be hanging around the country on road signs as place names. It was pretty funny...

Brypi : The rather good evening meal that two friends have gone off to eat whilst leaving the rest of us to sort of mill around on our own for a while and try to think of something to take our jealous minds off the fine time we are sure they are having.

Good Dog said...

The day's almost over, which means I'm very late on this. Still, I hope David had a smashing birthday.

Anonymous said...

Well thank you, Boll, for that last definition!
I had a lovely BRYPI last night!