tot wirsien

English translation: goot(e) day

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Dutch term or phrase:tot wirsien
English translation:goot(e) day
Entered by: Catherine Muir

08:37 Mar 22, 2012
Dutch to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / early 20th Century Indonesian novel (pidgin English required)
Dutch term or phrase: tot wirsien
I suspect this is pidgin Dutch for 'auf wiedersehen'. What would that sound like in pidgin English, I wonder?
Catherine Muir
Australia
Local time: 05:41
goot(e) day
Explanation:
From pidgin Dutch/Malay, via Dutch and Eng-US, to pidgin Eng-US:
tot wirsien - tot weerziens - good day - goot(e) day
With a touch of servility (touch forelock, bow head).
See also discussion entries by Kirsten & Henk.
'Tot weerziens', literally 'till (we) see (one another) again' may be best exemplified by the French 'au revoir' and German 'auf Wiedersehen', which are true equivalents.

Note: The inability of Indonesians to pronounce V & G helps to go from pidgin Dutch/Malay to Dutch itself, but indeed need not be carried over into the pidgin Eng-US; there one might as well play on whatever Eng-US pidgin one uses. Kriol-AU and Kriol-BZ can be seen as starters in the re-pidginizing process to a pidgin more familiar to the Eng-US reader.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 hrs (2012-03-22 16:37:53 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

'kute day' might be mispronounced/misread by the reader as 'cute day...'

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 days (2012-03-27 06:24:26 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Catherine, you suggested 'goot day' yourself. So I can't accept your 'Many thanks', but thank *you* instead for the points. :-)
Selected response from:

F Scott Ophof (X)
Belize
Local time: 12:41
Grading comment
I used 'goot day'. Many thanks.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +2goot(e) day
F Scott Ophof (X)
5till we meet again, see you later, goodbye, bye-bye, cheerio, ciao, so long
Petro Ebersöhn (X)
4see ya later
Carmen Lawrence
4latahz / laterz
Christopher Smith (X)


Discussion entries: 20





  

Answers


19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
see ya later


Explanation:
Of course there are innumerable ways of saying this; but this is one!

Carmen Lawrence
Greece
Local time: 20:41
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks, Carmen. Please see my note to Christopher below.

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37 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
latahz / laterz


Explanation:
There are various forms of pidgin English, but I found this reference on the internet: http://www.e-hawaii.com/pidgin/pidgin-english-words-starting...
The other page at http://www.june29.com/hlp/lang/pidgin.html might prove useful too.


    Reference: http://www.e-hawaii.com/pidgin/pidgin-english-words-starting...
    Reference: http://www.june29.com/hlp/lang/pidgin.html
Christopher Smith (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:41
Native speaker of: English
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks, Christopher. What about pidgin English from Holland, rather than Hawaii? Is there such a thing? What about a rough, anglicised version of 'Daaag'? This is really hard! Trying to keep the flavor of the use of pidgin Dutch that will be understandable to readers in US English!

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28 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
till we meet again, see you later, goodbye, bye-bye, cheerio, ciao, so long


Explanation:
It depends on the situation, or the style of the writer.

cheerio, ciao and bye-bye (or just bye) is very much informal. The rest can be used in any situation.

'till we meet again' sounds a bit too dramatic to use in everyday speech, except maybe in poetry or something like that, even though this is the correct direct translation.

I should say 'so long' would be a safe choice.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 hrs (2012-03-22 16:47:59 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I'm still learning, so if I post this in the wrong, please forgive me.
Catherine, I can't give myself out as an expert on pidgin. I only know that it is a mixture of two languages used when the speakers cannot speak on another's language, 'pidgin' being the Chinese pronunciation of 'business' according to Collins English Dictionary.

Petro Ebersöhn (X)
Local time: 20:41
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Afrikaans
Notes to answerer
Asker: I have requested that 'writeaway' delete his/her comment above. If not, I will lodge a complaint with the ProZ team. While your suggestion isn't exactly what I am looking for, I appreciate your effort and I'm sorry to see the tone of the so-called 'neutral' comment.

Asker: Petro, I found by 'googling' that 'tot ziens' is proper Dutch for 'until we meet again', so it seems it may not be pidgin after all. Is 'tot wirsien' proper Dutch, too, or is it a mixture of Dutch and German with several syllables missing?


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  writeaway: hardly pidgin anything
6 mins

disagree  Christopher Smith (X): The asker asked for pidgin English.
10 mins

agree  F Scott Ophof (X): The first two are correct translations of the pidginized Dutch, just not yet pidgin Eng-US. The Dutch influence in both Afrikaans and Indonesian makes Afrikaans very helpful in translating to (correct) English.
7 hrs
  -> Thanks Scott! And you are write, Afrikaans helps a lot in translating Dutch to English.
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7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
goot(e) day


Explanation:
From pidgin Dutch/Malay, via Dutch and Eng-US, to pidgin Eng-US:
tot wirsien - tot weerziens - good day - goot(e) day
With a touch of servility (touch forelock, bow head).
See also discussion entries by Kirsten & Henk.
'Tot weerziens', literally 'till (we) see (one another) again' may be best exemplified by the French 'au revoir' and German 'auf Wiedersehen', which are true equivalents.

Note: The inability of Indonesians to pronounce V & G helps to go from pidgin Dutch/Malay to Dutch itself, but indeed need not be carried over into the pidgin Eng-US; there one might as well play on whatever Eng-US pidgin one uses. Kriol-AU and Kriol-BZ can be seen as starters in the re-pidginizing process to a pidgin more familiar to the Eng-US reader.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 hrs (2012-03-22 16:37:53 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

'kute day' might be mispronounced/misread by the reader as 'cute day...'

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 days (2012-03-27 06:24:26 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Catherine, you suggested 'goot day' yourself. So I can't accept your 'Many thanks', but thank *you* instead for the points. :-)

Example sentence(s):
  • Goot(e) day, mista.
F Scott Ophof (X)
Belize
Local time: 12:41
Native speaker of: Native in DutchDutch, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
I used 'goot day'. Many thanks.
Notes to answerer
Asker: Yes, Scott, that's it! Thank you so much.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Petro Ebersöhn (X)
14 mins
  -> Dankie!

agree  Kirsten Bodart: beautiful :) If you add a movement to it, please make sure he would have had a forelock to touch ;)
17 hrs
  -> :-> But if I were that old man, I might silently add '...not really'.
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