this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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Originally from https://old.reddit.com/r/polandball/comments/1gg2ifk/eurosummer/

Shark is hai in German and haj (pronounced hai) in Swedish. blåhaj means blue shark.

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 month ago

"We are sinking! We are sinking!"
"What are you sinking about?"

[–] mrmule 31 points 1 month ago (4 children)

This is for the Swedish interpretation of the spelling, blåhaj is also a popular child's song in Sweden.

The å is pronounced almost exactly like the English word 'awe'.

j in Swedish makes the sound of English’s y

Blå haj is then pronounced as - 'bloa high'

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The å is pronounced almost exactly like the English word 'awe'.

Blå is then pronounced as - bloa

ಠ~ಠ

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The thing that my girlfriend struggled with when she moved to sweden was our swedish letter "y". She can do it now, but it still doesn't come naturally, she has to consciously move the right muscles to pronounce it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

honestly i'd more say it's like the english E, just sliiiightly different.
swedish I and Y are basically identical

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say identical. If you pronounce the name "My" it sounds different if you're actully saying "Mi"? Or "Fyra" vs "Fira", "By" vs "Bi" etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

i said basically identical, that's a qualifier to specify that it's not actually identical, just really really close with a minor difference.

it's the kind of thing where it's so close that you can alter what you hear by just showing someone saying the other word while playing the same audio.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

the thing this misses (understandably because even swedes don't realize it) is the precise pitch (yup, swedish is basically a tonal language, like less complicated chinese
i really can't put it into words but if you listen to a swede saying it you'll hear the sing-song-y-ness, and that the end sounds of the words are.. stressed? and lengthened

there's also sort of a stop in blå, b'lå, i think we sort of eject the B more? at least i do

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The å is pronounced almost exactly like the English word 'awe'.

Maybe for the British. Å is pronounced like the beginning of "oar" or the middle of "four".

[–] mrmule 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Exactly Four, oar, core,

Shock and awe! 😂

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

Blahaj is blaa-hai but its blåhaj which is pronounced as blo-hai

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

I'm not sure landlocked Nepal swims that well

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

But I like mispronouncing it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Me too, always makes me keen for baja tacos and I subconsciously make a positive association with the instance/word.

[–] FilthyShrooms 3 points 1 month ago

Real, there's something fun about saying "blaaahj"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

blah hodge 🤣🤣🤣

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Wait, "blo" as is "blow" or "blue"? English is stupid language...we have no accents to show which form of a vowel we're using. I'm assuming "blow", as that makes the most contextual sense, but again, English is dumb.

[–] NickwithaC 11 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

blow-high

Edit: well, kinda. the sound doesn't exist in English but the closest i can think of is the o-sound in "score". and there's no diphthong, which is why people tend to write "blo-". it's a flat sound, which English sort of doesn't do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

They don't have one for blåhaj, but Wiktionary has an audio file of someone pronouncing blå (blue) in Swedish. The second half of blåhaj sounds like English "Hi," and the phonemic transcription of the full word is /ˈbloːhaj/. The /bloː/ part is kinda like how someone from Glasgow or someone with a strong German accent might say "blow."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Sounds like "bloh" to me

[–] nifty 3 points 1 month ago

Don’t know why I thought it was pronounced “blow ha”.