Swedes and character names in strange languages

[Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr.]

Hi all!

Lately there has been written much about the Disney Character names in
Chinese – and much of this postings is ironically written by Swedes who IMO
should clean their own house before taking care of other people's business.

Ah, I guess I have to explain this above reaction for you. You see, this
topic has triggered some old thoughts and feelings in me. Thoughts and
feelings dating back to the 1970s when I first read the book "Jeg, Mikke
Mus" (=Io Topolino) which contained a list of the names of several Disney
Characters in various languages. In the Norwegian version of the book these
languages are:
Norwegian, English, French, German, Danish, Italian, Jugoslav(*), Greek,
Japanese and Arabian.
(*) An obvious insult against the readers intelligence as the correct would
have been "Serbo-Croatian", just as we speak about "Dutch" not
"Netherlandic" or "Hollandic" and about "Hebrew", not "Israelic".

So, as you can see the list did not include Swedish, Finnish, Dutch,
Spanish, Portuguse or Icelandic names. I still think that list STINKS.
Obviously Norwegian readers would have been much more interested in the
Swedish and Finnish names instead of some Japanese and Arabic rubble they
can't possibly understand (pardon my language) a shit out of. And please
remember that this was way before the age of internet, I.N.D.U.C.K.S., COA
and "Who's who in Duckburg".

The recent discussion here at DCML have now provided a possible explanation
of the missing Swedish names in "Jeg Mikke Mus" and the appearance of the
Japanese and Arabic "rubble" instead. Perhaps the people in the Swedish
redaction by then (in the 1970s) was thinking like some Swedes in DCML of
today – that some Asian "rubble" is as interesting as their own Swedish
names. Well let me just tell all Swedes this: for Norwegian and I bet also
Danish readers of any age, Asian "rubble" is definitely *not* as interesting
as Swedish names!

Anyway, now in the internet-age we Norwegians, Danes and everybody else can
easily find any Swedish Disney Character name we are looking for, so you
Swedes can feel free to concentrate on Chinese or whatever Disney Character
names you like.

Sigvald :-)