SWAHILI, ANYONE?

August 26, 2006 by languagehat Leave a Comment

I’m grateful to the volunteers who have helped me out with Finnish, Romanian, and Bulgarian; now I’m in need of someone who knows Swahili well enough to correct a mistaken phrase. As always, write to languagehat AT gmail DOT com, and you’re guaranteed the thanks of a grateful ~~nation~~ editor.
That’s a pretty mingy post, so let me fill it out with a quote from the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Pogo, specifically the strip from Aug. 27, 1949:

Albert the Alligator: What’s all the fuss?
Pogo: Ol’ Doc Seminole Sam, the carpet bag man, is got a bug name of Currier B. Ives what engraves funny stories on the point of a pin.
Porky Porcupine: Since only you can see Mr. Ives or read the jokes, pray read off a bit, Doc.
Doc Seminole: Very well. [squinting at point of pin] It say here: “The maximum inclination of the plane of a navigational planet to the plane of the e[c]liptic is three degrees.” ——Hmmmm! [consternated] Gentlemen, apparently I’ve mixed the pins. This one seems to bear the constitution of a small southern republic in a foreign tongue.
Albert [smiling happily]: Go ahead an’ finish her—she starts out funny.

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