> Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2015 18:54:36 -0600
> From: jim.felder@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: Friday LVC Language observation
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> 
> Once I bought some gadget at the hardware store and when I got it home, I
> read that it was "fabriqe au dinde" (made in Turkey) meaning in French the
> turkey bird not the Turkey country (Turkei).
> 
>
> 
> Sales of Chevrolet's Camaro didn't fare so well in Spanish-speaking
> countries where it was interpreted to mean "shrimp" and I am sure that
> everyone recalls hearing about their Nova car as being interpreted as "No
> go." 
> Jim
> 
Now that one about the Chevrolet Nova being interpreted as "no go" in Spanish is
one of those Internet tales that is simply untrue, but keeps circulating.  In Spanish "Nova"
means "new" - no Spanish speaker would ever break down that word to 'no va', 'doesn't go', 
anymore than an English speaker would understand 'asphalt' to mean the place where snakes 
stop moving ('asp halt').

The Chevy Nova in fact sold very well in Latin America.

However, translations are fun.  I stayed in a Holiday Inn in small-town Quebec once which had one of 
notices that you hang on the doorknob to order room service. It told me that, 'To order the little breakfast, 
please, fulfill this doorknob."

James
Living in the capital of Franglais in Canada, Ottawa.