funny place names in your country/language!

ich   Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:17 pm GMT
Hi all!

I'm just curious to know if there are funny place names with an ambigious meaning in your country?!

The following places are located in Germany, and yes it's not a joke, they do exist - okay, some of those place names have been changed recently because of...well, just guess!

Pinkler - engl. Pee-er
Killer
Darmstadt - bowel town
Zuckerfabrik - sugar factory
Luschendorf - bore village
Oberhammer - german expr. for "that beats everything" or "cool"
Großvargula - untranslateable
Krätze - scabies
Puffendorf - brothel village
Wichsenstein - well...
Betteldorf - begging village
Schlangenbad - snake pool

But there are also other countries' names or place names in Germany, like...
Brasilien - Brasilia
Norwegen - Norway
Ägypten - Egypt
England
Kalifornien
Texas
Fredrik from Norway   Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:35 pm GMT
Outside Trondheim in Norway there is a village called Hell!
And it gets worse....on the railway station there is a sign saying "Gods expedition" (Older Norwegian for "goods expedition = cargo handling office).
Here you can see it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%2C_Norway

Another funny Norwegian place name: Å (means river, though).
Fredrik from Norway   Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:37 pm GMT
BTW "Hell" is ambitious in Norwegian too, but not in the bad sense. It just mean "luck"! ("Hell" is "helvete" i Norwegian).
Fredrik from Norway   Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:40 pm GMT
Oops, I meant "ambiguous", not "ambitious"!
BTW the Norwegian Miss universe, Mona Grudt, listed herself as a native of Hell!
Fredrik from Norway   Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:42 pm GMT
Those German ones are pretty funny! I don't know why I never saw the name Darmstadt in that light, it's pretty obvious!
ich   Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:51 pm GMT
--Outside Trondheim in Norway there is a village called Hell!--

LOL, this one is great - especially in combination with the expression "gods expedition"! Sounds like the title of a Hollywood movie...

--BTW the Norwegian Miss universe, Mona Grudt, listed herself as a native of Hell!--

We all are able to guess the reaction an english-speaking interviewer must have had, when she said: "I'm a native of Hell! And I'm proud of it!" LOL
Benjamin   Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:50 pm GMT
Lickey End — a village in England very near to where I live.

This isn't quite the same thing, but there's also a village called Woolsfadisworthy, but it's actually pronounced 'woolsery'.
greg   Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:20 pm GMT
Il y a un village qui s'appelle <Y> en France.
Guest   Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:59 pm GMT
"Il y a un village qui s'appelle <Y> en France. "

Yes and the last letter is mute! LOL!
Lolly   Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:11 am GMT
Some names in Brazil:


Rio de Janeiro = January River
Minas Gerais = General Mines
Recife = Reef
Espírito Santo = Holy Spirit
Ubatuba = Big Rock
Pará = Sea
Bahia = Bay
Sergipe = Crab river
Paraíba = River with no fish
Uberaba = Clear Water
Goiás = Identical
Ipanema = Lousy water
Porto Seguro = Safe Harbor
greg   Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:39 am GMT
« Guest » : « "Il y a un village qui s'appelle <Y> en France. " Yes and the last letter is mute! LOL! »

Non, heureusement pour Y le <y> se prononce : [i].

En revanche, il y a un autre village qui s'appelle <Eu>, mais il n'y a qu'une seule voyelle : [ø] = [2]. (Ça permet de ne pas le confondre avec <eu> = [y] qui est le participe passé du verbe <avoir>).


;)
Guest   Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:10 am GMT
In New Zealand

*Dannevirke
*Invercargill
*Whakapapa (wh=f so its fakapapa) unsure if there's a whakamama (fakamama)
ich   Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:51 am GMT
-- Guest : « "Il y a un village qui s'appelle <Y> en France. "
Yes and the last letter is mute! LOL! --

haha, this one was good! I remember dimly that there are also scandinavian towns with one-letter names, but I don't know for sure.
In the german-speaking countries, the shortest place names are "Au","Ay", "Ed", "Ob" and "Oy".

But I really had a good laugh when I saw the following:

"Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu"

this is the Maori name for an hill in southern New Zealand and it is one of the longest placenames in the world.
see on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu
ich   Sat Aug 26, 2006 8:03 am GMT
There is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, called <Krk>

it somehow looks funny because there is no vowel in it ....although I know that the letter <R> may have a vowel character in Croatian.
Ivo   Sat Aug 26, 2006 8:11 am GMT
''There is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, called <Krk> ''

It's pronounced like English name Kirk, with a difference of R being alveolar.