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"By the whiskers of Kurvi-Tasch!"

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miloumuttmitt
Member
#1 · Posted: 14 Jul 2004 02:39
Kurvi-Tasch clearly has a curvy moustache.
Take away the "mous" from "curvy moustache" and you get
"curvy-tache". Sounds like Kurvi-Tasch, doesn't it?
Well, a lot of Bordurian is basically word play. "Sztopp" sounds like stop, Kronick and Klumsi sound like chronic and clumsy, Szhrinkoff sounds like "shrink off", etc., etc.
Post.
pauldurdin
Moderator Emeritus
#2 · Posted: 14 Jul 2004 09:28
You've got that right for the English translations! They're probably different in the French though.

A lot of the Syldavian names that appear are similar -- my favourite has to be Wiskitotz from King Ottokar's Sceptre.

Paul
miloumuttmitt
Member
#3 · Posted: 15 Jul 2004 01:29
The French name for Kurvi-Tasch is Pleszky-Gladz.
Besides, I got King Ottokar's Sceptre today.
GurraJG
Member
#4 · Posted: 15 Jul 2004 13:02
miloumuttmitt
The French name for Kurvi-Tasch is Pleszky-Gladz.

Yes, it sounds like plexiglass.

-Gustav
finlay
Member
#5 · Posted: 12 Aug 2004 20:32
The Hotel Zsnorr is originally named the Hotel Sznorr by the officer in the airport; what's going on there?

A lot of Bordurian in incredibly transparent. Syldavian's less apparent, so it's a lot better.

I once saw someone's website with a "guide to characters", where Szhrinkoff's first name was listed as "Herr" (lol!); then the person had wrote "why do they refer to him as Stefan?"
R3cov3ry
Member
#6 · Posted: 21 Aug 2012 11:36
It's the same with the language used by the Rumbabas in both The Broken Ear and Tintin and the Picaros - it looks like a made up language, but if you try to pronounce it, it is actually English but with a London Cockney accent.

For example: "Ahw wada lu'vali bahn chaco conats!" on p.50 of The Broken Ear means "Oh, what a lovely bunch of coconuts!"

Moderator Note: Hi, and welcome to the forums! You’re right that Michael Turner gave the Arumbaya (rather than Rumbaba) language a Cockney twist - there’s a discussion of it here.
You might also like to read the article Arumbabya Explained by Andrew Pilcher from our articles section.
FormulaFourteen
Member
#7 · Posted: 23 Jan 2014 05:14
OK, so I have a question... As this thread notes, Borduria's Marshal's original name, Pleszky-Gladz, was anglicized to Kurvi-Tasch. If you look closely throughout The Calculus Affair, though, you will find decorative mustachios hidden everywhere... (maybe this is really obvious to everyone, but I was surprised when I suddenly noticed them just this last year!) A specific example would be on pages 46 and 47. On page 46, frame 21, we see a poster picture of Kurvi-Tasch with his trademark mustache as well as the mustache insignia on the military official's armband. Page 47, frame 6-7: the orange plaque on the wall and the officer's collar both have small mustache logos; frame 12, mustache logo on statue; frame 16, a mustache wall decoration.

Does anybody know if these details were already there in the original Belgian versions, and were simply used opportunistically by LLC and MT during translation, or if they were added in the first English edition to add to the effect?
Balthazar
Moderator
#8 · Posted: 23 Jan 2014 09:45
FormulaFourteen:
Does anybody know if these details were already there in the original Belgian versions, and were simply used opportunistically by LLC and MT during translation, or if they were added in the first English edition to add to the effect?

I'm pretty sure that the moustache motif, which as you say is worked into everything in Borduria (including the car radiator grilles) is there in Hergé's original version - as a satire on the iconic nature of dictators' moustaches - and simply inspired LLC and MT to extend the joke with their name for the dictator. I've not read that anything in this book was redrawn for the UK publication (unlike the complete re-draw of The Black Island, for instance), though now someone may correct me on that!

FormulaFourteen:
maybe this is really obvious to everyone, but I was surprised when I suddenly noticed them just this last year!

It certainly wasn't obvious to me as a child reader, but it's always great when you notice things like that in a Tintin book you've been reading for years, especially when you spot it for yourself, rather than just discovering it from a book about Tintin. (I can't actually remember whether I spotted this moustache-motif one for myself or not!)

(PS: In using the British English spelling of moustache in my post, absolutely no criticism or correction is intended of your equally valid mustache spelling!)
Richard1631978
Member
#9 · Posted: 23 Jan 2014 20:00
I spotted the moustaches quite quickly, certainly it took me a read or 2 to spot them all.

It's a clever use of a motif by Herge.
RicardoOlcese
Member
#10 · Posted: 31 Dec 2018 18:38
Azs a yôung Bordurian, I demand that peôple in thizs fôrum treat the glôriouzs whiskers of our Leader Kurvi-Tasch with môre rezspect. I hôpe you underzstand thizs zsimple request. Amaïh!

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