My missus is Hungarian, I'm sure it's a lovely language but it just sounds like Klingon to me.
replyWhich makes it hilarious when she's annoyed at the boy.
The fact that Sz in Hungarian reads as s and other way around, S becomes sh - is mind-boggling especially for Poles, where Sz is pronounced as sh. and S remains s.
replyWait for the Italian where "cc" makes a "ch" sound and "ch" is "k"
reply* When followed by e or i.
In Spanish "z" always sounds [s] (except in Spain where it sounds [θ]), but "s" can often sound [z].
replyFunnily enough, there are quite a few IKEA products with Finnish names. (Most are place names from northern Sweden, where there's a significant Finnish minority.)
replyThe Tornedalen people are kinda their own group with their own language (Meänkieli). To an outsider it might sound like Finnish, but it's not much closer to Finnish than Yiddish is to German.
replyMeänkieli split from what became the Torne Valley dialects of Finnish in 1809, when an international border suddenly appeared in the middle of the region. To a Finnish speaker it sounds like a bit old-fashioned dialect, but it's mostly intelligible. It's definitely closer to standard Finnish than Karelian, which takes a lot of effort to understand.
replyNot so sure. As a native Finnish speaker, I'd say most of us would understand Meänkieli just fine, especially anyone raised on the coastal areas where colloquial Swedish loans are more common in general.
replyNow I want a HÉTFŐ desk, and a SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR... something.
replyBasque would be truly weird since it is one of a few known language isolates
replyImagine an alternative reality where a KALLAX is a ԿԱԼԼԱՔՍ and the stores have pushy salesmen with impressive amounts of visible chest hair.
replythe joke is a bit too hairy to my taste, and yet I can't help but imagine how good would be the restaurant in that reality!
replyI heard the raktajino is really good! Qapla'!
replyTheir ads could star the Kardashians.
replyYou really wanna get weird, there's those continents of Asia, Africa, and South America, full of different sounds to use for names. Ikea is Swedish, so they get to propagate Swedish culture to the rest of the world.
replyI can just imagine Chinese IKEA, their entire product list would be Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī Shì shì shì shì.
replyWith a side of tasty meatballs.
replyI've had tasty meatballs. It was the lingonberry sauce that I was introduced from Ikea.
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