Welcome to Language Day! If you haven’t read the introduction yet, please do it here. Let’s start with something fun! Some Disney characters, and more precisely, the three nephews of Donald Duck. How do you say Huey, Dewey and Louie in some other languages? Would you expect them to be like in English, or just something that would sound just as fun? Let’s see!
Let’s take first the country of origin, the United States. And the rest of the Americas.
Huey, Dewey and Louie (USA) Hugo, Paco y Luis (Mexico & South America)
Then the Nordic countries (including here Estonia). Followed by the rest of Europe and Asia. See how in so many different ways we can depict these three Disney characters - telling as much of the languages and cultures themselves. In Japan for example we can see the influence of the English language. In many other countries the names were formed right after the characters first came out in the comic books in 1937. Sometimes the order of the names vary, depending which sounds better or more natural in each language. Sometimes the only hint you might get is that the three names follow a pattern and sound just perfect together.
Hups, Tups ja Lups (Estonia) Knatte, Fnatte och Tjatte (Sweden) Ole, Dole og Doffen (Norway) Rip, Rap og Rup (Denmark) Ripp, Rapp og Rupp (Iceland) Tupu, Hupu ja Lupu (Finland) Билли, Вилли, Дилли (Russia: Billi, Villi, Dilli) Cin, Can ve Cem (Turkey) Huguinho, Zezinho e Luizinho (Portugal) Hui, Dui, Lui (Slovakia) ヒューイ・デューイ・ルーイ (Japan: Huey, Dewey, Louie) Hyzio, Dyzio i Zyzio (Poland) Χιούη, Ντιούη και Λιούη (Greece: Huey, Dewey que Louie) Jorgito, Juanito y Jaimito (Spain) Kulík, Dulík a Bubík (Czech) Kwik, Kwek en Kwak (Netherlands) Qui, Quo e Qua (Italy) Riri, Fifi et Loulou (France) Tick, Trick und Track (Germany) Tiki, Niki és Viki (Hungary) Finally, here’s a cartoon to enjoy. Not one of the Duck Tales, but a Classic! Donald’s Snow Fight from 1942. And yeah, to read more about Huey, Dewey and Louie, go here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fIomAY6SYA&t=138s Updated 29.10.2018