Comments on: Please help translate this email

Question: Please help translate this email

Frisbee Girl — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 13:00:19 -0800

Does anybody know what this says, or at least what language it is? Stastne vianocne sviatky vrodinnom kruhu a v novom roku vela zdravia a spokojnosti praju LIZAKOVCI. My girlfriend received it in a text message from an international number, and we are both perplexed. It doesn't appear to be Polish or Russian. [posted for kyleg who has used his weekly AskMe and posted to MetaChat. The agreed possibility of the language is Slovak.]

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 13:04:36 -0800

Slovak?

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 13:05:19 -0800

der, you know it's Slovak. Sorry. And I thought I was so smart linking to Google searches instead of actually knowing something useful. Move along.

By: teddyb109

teddyb109 — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 13:09:06 -0800

Slovak seems like a good guess. I know enough Czech to make out "novum roku" as new year, and remember Xmas cards that basically went vesele venoche and something new year. My best guess is something like, health, peace and happiness in the new year, or something to that effect.

By: Frisbee Girl

Frisbee Girl — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 13:11:04 -0800

Nelson, it's ok, I just realized that I wrote 'email' instead of 'text message' in page header in addition to dorking the format.

Ah, well.

By: SuperNova

SuperNova — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:27:22 -0800

You could Google the phone number or country code to see what country it's associated with. Not that that would solve it, but it might give a hint/confirm your suspicions.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:49:12 -0800

Stastne vianocne sviatky vrodinnom kruhu a v novom roku vela zdravia a spokojnosti praju LIZAKOVCI.

Happy holy night birth of the king and new year much health and calm / peaceful somethingorother (family name).

Must be Slovak, as it is almost Polish... no other Slavic language comes that close.

By: kyleg

kyleg — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 15:22:52 -0800

Thanks meatbomb, that sounds pretty plausible. The country code is Slovakia, so we're pretty sure on the language. Too bad we don't know enough Slovak to reply. I wonder how it got to us in the first place. There are probably enough Slovaks in Chicago (where she's from) for it to be a wrong number.

By: b.

b. — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 19:00:37 -0800

I confirm, it is indeed Slovak. The translation is:

"Merry Christmas in a circle of your family and a lot of health and contentment in new year wished to you by FAMILY NAME (plural)".

These are fairly cookie-cutter wishes. According to the tone and style of the message, it was probably sent by acquaintances or distant relatives.

There is around one million Slovaks living in US and a lot of Slovaks immigrated to Chicago in late 19th / early 20th century. So I guess you are right - it was simply a wrong number.

If you want to reply to them, I can translate a message for you. (check your mail)

By: Sharcho

Sharcho — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 07:51:02 -0800

This Online Language Identifer works very well.