Language games Quastenflosser’s revenge Tristan Miller, Technische Universität Darmstadt. Illustration: Cappippuni In Babel No8 we introduced you to ‘zoonyms’, or words denoting animals. Some zoonyms, like ‘ferret’ or ‘aphid’, have no obvious meaning apart from the creature that they refer to. Other zoonyms are semantically transparent: words like ‘catfish’ or ‘ladybird’ are formed by combining existing words with their own surface meanings. The connection between these surface terms and the animal is often obvious, though sometimes the relationship is more mysterious. The world’s languages show a remarkable diversity in zoonyms. Below are twenty-five semantically transparent ones from twenty- five different languages, along with literal translations of the surface terms. Can you correctly match these foreign zoonyms below to the English ones listed at the bottom of the page? 1. Armenian 2. Bulgarian броненосец (armour-clad) 3. Burmese 6. Dutch stokstaartje (little-stick-tail) 7. Egyptian Arabic ions Solut e 51 g on pa A possible морской котик…? (earth-pig) 4. Chinese 海牛 (sea-cow) 5. Cree ᒥᐢᑕᑎᒼ (big dog) (mountain mouse) 8. Finnish pussiahma (bag-wolverine) 9. Gaelic muc-mhara (sea-pig) 10. Georgian ნემსიყლაპია (needle-swallower) 11. German Schiffshalter (ship-holder) 12. Icelandic hrúðurkarl (scab-man) 13. Japanese ハクチョウ (white bird) 14. Jèrriais raînotte dé mé (sea frog) 15. Korean 나무늘보 (tree-sluggard) 16. Luxembourgish Himmelsdéierchen (little heaven-beast) 17. Manx stroineairkagh (horned nose) 18. Navajo hazéítsʼósii (slender squirrel) 19. Ossetian бабузфий (duck-nose) 20. Russian морской котик (sea-kitty) 21. Spanish oso hormiguero (ant bear) 22. Tamil 23. Turkish sinek kuşu (fly bird) 24. Vietnamese thú lông nhím (porcupine fur beast) 25. Yiddish ריזח־לכעטש (spike-pig) (k) horse (l) hummingbird (m) ladybird (n) locust (o) manatee (p) meerkat (q) platypus (r) porcupine (s) remora (t) rhinoceros (u) seal (v) sloth (w) swan (x) Tasmanian devil (y) whale բամբուկե արջ (bamboo bear) (a) aardvark (b) anglerfish (c) anteater (d) armadillo (e) barnacle (cut-parrot) (f) chipmunk (g) dragonfly (h) echidna (i) giant panda (j) guinea pig Babel The Language Magazine | November 2017 31