Fictional Languages
In the original French edition, Hergé made up an artificial language for the Arumbaya tribe and their sworn enemies, the Rumbabas, based on Marols or Marollien, a Flemish dialect spoken in the city of Brussels. Although Hergé was Francophone, he may have heard this dialect from his grandmother.
For the 1947 English-language edition, the translators made use of an accurate phonetic transcription of the London Cockney dialect, transmogrified into a Native South American-looking language by an exotic-looking orthography and scattered apostrophes. Ridgewell is the only living white man who is able to speak this lingo, and he acts as an interpreter. When one of the Rumbabas shows them three shrunken heads on sticks, the native comments, "Ahw wada lu'vali bahn chaco conats!" (p. 50 of the English-language edition), which means "Oh, what a lovely bunch of coconuts!" a reference to the popular 1944 song "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts".
When the chief is asked about the Walker expedition he says: "Dabrah naidul? Oi, oi! Slaika toljah. Datrai b'giv dabrah naidul ta'Walker. Ewaz anaizgi. Buttiz'h felaz tukahr presh usdjuel. Enefda Arumbayas ketchimdai lavis gutsfer gah'taz! Nomess in'h!" (The brown idol? Oy, oy! It's like i told ya. The tribe gave the brown idol to Walker. 'E was a nice guy. But 'is fellas took our precious jewel. And if the tribe catches 'im they'll 'ave 's guts for garters! No messin'!)
When Tintin is hit by a golf ball, Ridgewell shouts "Ai tolja tahitta ferlip inbaul intada oh'l! Andatdohn meenis ferlip ineer oh'l!" which means "I told ya to hit the flippin' ball into the 'ole! And that don't mean 'is flippin' ear-'ole!" (p. 52).
When the tribes are talking among themselves or addressing Snowy, they're translated into proper English.
The dialect makes a brief reappearance in Tintin and the Picaros.
Read more about this topic: The Broken Ear
Famous quotes containing the words fictional and/or languages:
“One of the proud joys of the man of letters—if that man of letters is an artist—is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world’s memory.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)