Saturday, November 07, 2009

Aray Devaa ! Oi troi phat oi! !

It is a truth universally accepted, that whenever individuals of varied religious persuasions, or even absent religious persuasions have seen or heard something, and been at a loss for comments, . they have shaken their heads, clutched the nearest pillar,lamppost or person, and invoked the name of Someone Up There, and said, "Oh! my God!"......in their respective tongues.

Today , the world has become smaller, and it is not unknown for someone to be at lunch in India, and be chatting simultaneously with someone having breakfast in the UK, or , an early dinner in Australia, or even a previous day's dinner in California, all at the same time. And I am not even mentioning what people in , say Japan, or Kenya, or South Africa may be up to.

Should you be shocked into a heavenly exclamation while communicating, here's how you say it in various languages:


  1. Afrikaans: O God!
  2. Albanian: O Zot!
  3. Arabic: Ya Allah!
  4. Bahasa Melayu (Malay) Ya tuhanku!
  5. Basque: Jaungoikoa!
  6. Bengali: Oh Allah! (as used in Bangladesh), Hey Bhagoban (as used by Indian Bengalis)
  7. Bosnian: Boze moj!
  8. Bulgarian: Bozhe moi
  9. Catalan: Déu meu!
  10. Celtic: Mo Dhia!
  11. Czech: Pane boze!
  12. Danish: Åh Gud!
  13. Dutch: O, mijn God!
  14. English, Old : Wa min God!
  15. Esperanto: Mia Dio!
  16. Estonian: Oh mu Jumal,
  17. Farsi: Oh! Khodayeh Man!
  18. Finnish: Voi Luoja!
  19. Flemish: Godverdoeme,
  20. German: O mein Gott!
  21. German (Upper Austrian dialect): Hümmi, Orsch und Zwirn!
  22. Greek, Modern The'Mou! Hristo Mou !

  23. Gujarati: Aare Bhaghwan!
  24. Hebrew Oh Ellohim!
  25. Hindi: Hay Bhagwaan!
  26. Hungarian: Jaj Istenem,
  27. Icelandic: Gud minn godur!
  28. Inuktitut (Greenlandic) Åh gootinga!
  29. Irish, Modern Ó mo Dhia!
  30. Italian: Dio mio!
  31. Italian (Trieste dialect) Co dio!
  32. Japanese: ahh, kamisama!
  33. Korean aigo, OtchOna!
  34. Kyrgyz: Oh Kuday!
  35. Latin: Deus Meus!
  36. Latvian: Ak Dievs!
  37. Lithuanian Dieve mano,
  38. Macedonian O, Gospodi!
  39. Malayalam Entey Deiwame
  40. Maltese Alla tieghi,
  41. Maori Aue Te Ariki!
  42. Marathi: Aray Devaa!
  43. Norwegian, New Herregud!
  44. Polish: O Moj Boze
  45. Portuguese: Meu Deus!
  46. Romanian Dumnezeule!
  47. Russian Gospodi!
  48. Sanskrit He mama deva!
  49. Sinhala Ane Deviyane!
  50. Slovenian: Moj Bog!
  51. Spanish: Dios mio!
  52. Swahili: Siyo!
  53. Swedish Oh, Herregud!
  54. Tagalog: Ay Dios ko!
  55. Tamil: Ada kadavule!
  56. Telegu Ore devudo!
  57. Turkish Aman Tanrim;
  58. Urdu Au Mere Allah
  59. Vietnamese: Oi gioi oi! / Oi troi phat oi!/ Chu'a toi oi!
  60. Welsh A Dduw!
  61. Yiddish gotenyu!
The interesting thing is, that if God actually decided to answer , he would probably raise an eyebrow, and ask , "Yes ?".....

In Greek, He would say, "Nai" (Sounds like "n-ae")

In my language, Marathi, it means , NO.

I give up.

Maybe we should leave God out of all this and just look amazed, and say "Well, I never ....."

Now to find how to say that in all these languages......:-)

11 comments:

  1. that was quite interesting...but one more language i remember...Mumbaia Hindi...here they say hailla - a slang for hae Alla

    ReplyDelete
  2. what an amazing data up there.. you did all that searching ? great :) But it really is amazing that we call GOD is so many languages but HE has his own language of answering...no complications at all...

    ReplyDelete
  3. And of course there are variations...starting with 'awwww gaaawwwd' !

    Which i am sure is going to be there for every language out there !

    You are right. Funny that God is involved !

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love it! And, yes, it is funny that God is involved! Makes you wonder how that got started. "Well, I never...." works quite well for me! Great post as always, my friend!

    Have a great day!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  5. My favorite is Oh Zot! There is a cartoon in the US where an anteater and when he gets an ant the sound is Zot. That one cracked me up.

    Actually in our religions here in the US it is sacreligious to take the Lord's name in vain. I'm usually pretty serious about it, but try to refrain. Oh Zot works really well for me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Okay, 'Well, I never ....' would be:-
    Ei bine, eu niciodată nu .... in Romanian,
    Ну, я никогда ....in Russian,
    Bem, eu nunca ....in Portuguese,
    Evet, asla ....in Turkish,
    खैर, मैं कभी नहीं ....in Hindi,
    حسنا ، أنا أبدا in Arabic

    ....,
    Eh bien, je n'ai jamais ....in French,
    Nå, jeg aldrig ....in Danish

    :) You can many find more on this site( http://www.frengly.com/ ). But keep in mind that it translates Holy Crap as पवित्र बकवास ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maybe we should all learn sign language? I wonder if that is the same in all countries.

    In any case God probably doesn't need a language to answer- as we say in Marathi- tyaa hridayiche hyaa hridayee- without any need for words!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have learnt my 'arre deva' here. But Bangaldeshi Bengalis would say "Hai Allah", not Bengalis in India, We say "Hey Bhagoban", "Bhagoban" meaning God.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Folks, thank you so much for your nice comments. Aabhaar ! Danke Schoen ! Merci Beaucoup ! Shukriya !

    ReplyDelete
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