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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[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 66 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] mrmule@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago (3 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'

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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

Blå is then pronounced as - bloa

ಠ~ಠ

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week 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

[–] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 weeks 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.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 week 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.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week 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.

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 weeks ago

I'm not sure landlocked Nepal swims that well

[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

But I like mispronouncing it

[–] eighty@lemmy.one 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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

[–] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] TokenEffort@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 weeks ago

blah hodge 🤣🤣🤣

[–] PeachyMcPeachface@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 weeks 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@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago
[–] lime@feddit.nu 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.

[–] LordAmplifier@pawb.social 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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."

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

Sounds like "bloh" to me

[–] nifty@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

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