This is a bad translation because the English word “to come” has a double meaning (it also means ejaculation or having an orgasm), while in Latin it doesn’t. There’s a big risk of a misunderstanding, so “I arrived” is a much better translation IMO.
“I came” has a double meaning in english but “Veni” can only mean “I came” (as in I came to this area) in latin. “venire” means “to come” it’s then conjugated into the first person singular perfect indicative.
The double meaning is the entire point of the shitpost?
And ‘I came’ tends to be the commonly used translation because it is less syllables, matching the cadence of the Latin version more closely, and feels more concise due to that fact.
It’s also super annoying when English-speaker make new “languages” which are just English with each word substituted by another.
The joke assumes that Latin is just a dialect of English.
So, what I’m trying to hint in a subtle manner between the lines is that the joke is not among the best ones out there. Of course you can go to some meta levels and find something funny about someone being so stupid that they assume that words have 100 % equal meanings across languages. But, meh.
The joke reeks of monolingual ignorance miles away.
We make these kinds of jokes with every language pairing. But you’re in an English language community. Of course you’re going to be seeing English jokes.
But they tend to be based on people knowing that
When I say “count the ticket, it’s hundreding” in the meaning “lower the flag, it’s raining” (based on the Finnish word “laskea” meaning both “count” and “to lower”, “lippu” meaning both “ticket” and “flag” and “sataa” being both the partitive form of “hundred” and “it rains”, the joke is about the Finnish language having funny homonyms.
And similarly here the arse of the joke is English being funny in having to meanings for the word “come”? It’s not usual to make such jokes with words that are actual cognates. They are more usually made with word pairs such as read and read, or read and red. I mean, jokes are goof things to have, but they shouldn’t be based on the laughee being ignorant.
What would be a fantastic name for a brothel, however, is this:
the joke is about the Finnish language having funny homonyms.
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say by giving me an example of a joke in Finnish.
It’s not usual to make such jokes with words that are actual cognates.
Part of what makes jokes funny is the unexpected nature of it, and the first interpretation you typically think of is the literal translation. It would just sound like someone legitimately trying to communicate while mixing up their languages.
The point is that the joke as done by the OP makes no sense outside the English language, just as jokes in other languages based on there being words with multiple meanings or similar sounding words with different meanings in that language, make no sense outside that language.
That joke doesn’t at all work in “Latin”, it only works when translated back to English because “to come” has two different meanings.
Right, as is the case for any word play. You need to know the languages involved to understand them. What I don’t understand is why they think this is a problem.
I came, i saw, i came.
This is a bad translation because the English word “to come” has a double meaning (it also means ejaculation or having an orgasm), while in Latin it doesn’t. There’s a big risk of a misunderstanding, so “I arrived” is a much better translation IMO.
Why do you think “I came” would be better? 🙃
“I came” has a double meaning in english but “Veni” can only mean “I came” (as in I came to this area) in latin. “venire” means “to come” it’s then conjugated into the first person singular perfect indicative.
“Adveni” would be “I arrived”.
Thank you so much for eloquently destroying the above comment’s pedantry. Reading your response was magical. Please don’t ever stop.
Oh my God honey, I’m arriving! I’m arriving!
Works for me
The double meaning is the entire point of the shitpost?
And ‘I came’ tends to be the commonly used translation because it is less syllables, matching the cadence of the Latin version more closely, and feels more concise due to that fact.
I do understand it’s the entire point.
It’s also super annoying when English-speaker make new “languages” which are just English with each word substituted by another. The joke assumes that Latin is just a dialect of English.
So, what I’m trying to hint in a subtle manner between the lines is that the joke is not among the best ones out there. Of course you can go to some meta levels and find something funny about someone being so stupid that they assume that words have 100 % equal meanings across languages. But, meh.
The joke reeks of monolingual ignorance miles away.
We make these kinds of jokes with every language pairing. But you’re in an English language community. Of course you’re going to be seeing English jokes.
Well, yeah. Up to a point, we do.
But they tend to be based on people knowing that When I say “count the ticket, it’s hundreding” in the meaning “lower the flag, it’s raining” (based on the Finnish word “laskea” meaning both “count” and “to lower”, “lippu” meaning both “ticket” and “flag” and “sataa” being both the partitive form of “hundred” and “it rains”, the joke is about the Finnish language having funny homonyms.
And similarly here the arse of the joke is English being funny in having to meanings for the word “come”? It’s not usual to make such jokes with words that are actual cognates. They are more usually made with word pairs such as read and read, or read and red. I mean, jokes are goof things to have, but they shouldn’t be based on the laughee being ignorant.
What would be a fantastic name for a brothel, however, is this:
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say by giving me an example of a joke in Finnish.
Part of what makes jokes funny is the unexpected nature of it, and the first interpretation you typically think of is the literal translation. It would just sound like someone legitimately trying to communicate while mixing up their languages.
The point is that the joke as done by the OP makes no sense outside the English language, just as jokes in other languages based on there being words with multiple meanings or similar sounding words with different meanings in that language, make no sense outside that language.
That joke doesn’t at all work in “Latin”, it only works when translated back to English because “to come” has two different meanings.
It would never work in Latin.
Right, as is the case for any word play. You need to know the languages involved to understand them. What I don’t understand is why they think this is a problem.