A MAP of Barcelona's underground rail system with station names translated directly and literally into English has been 'revived' on Twitter – and instantly gone viral.
Originally created by a Reddit user in 2016, hilarious examples which show the dangers of using computer-generated translation functions in place of learning a language include the stop for the world-famous Sagrada Família cathedral, named on the 'alternative' map as 'Sacred Family', and the chic main shopping street, the Passeig de Gràcia, coming out as 'Gracious Broadway'.
Twitter user El Boig de Can Fanga (@BoigBCN) asks followers which their favourite is – and answers range from 'Sea Jungle' for 'Selva de Mar' to 'Hardrock' for 'Rocafort'.
Some of the entries on the map are fairly predictable, such as 'Saint Andrew' for 'Sant Andreu', 'Triumphal Arch' for 'Arc de Triomf', 'Clinic Hospital' for 'Hospital Clínic', or 'The Three Towers' for 'Les Tres Torres', or even 'Mary Christine' for 'María Cristina'.
But others are hugely creative – especially those with the word Can, or 'home', in the name, or Vila or Poble, which are 'town' and 'village' in the catalán language.
'Can Tries' station becomes 'Choose Home', 'Can Vidalet' appears as 'Lifelet Home', 'Can Serra' is 'Saw House' and 'Can Peixauet' is 'Fishauet Home'.
'Poblenou' is, as might be expected, 'Newtown', and 'Poble Sec' comes out as 'Dry Town'.
Names with 'Nova' or 'Nou', being 'New' in the feminine and masculine respectively, appear fairly frequently – La Bonanova turns into 'The Goodnew', and 'Mercat Nou' is 'New Market'.
Some of the silliest (they're deliberate, by the way)
'Barró de Viver' converts into 'Baron of Garden Centre', the suburb of Santa Coloma becomes 'Saint Pigeon', 'Bac de Roda' turns into 'WheelBac', and 'Encants' becomes 'Charms'.
Really? There's a metro station in Barcelona called ‘Baron of Garden Centre'? Check out this and other gems on this brilliant map created by u/teologico on Reddit (photo taken from @BoigBCN on Twitter)
A handful use alternative translations where two are possible, such as El Coll station – coll means 'small hill', but also means 'neck', so, predictably, the spoof translation appears as 'The Neck', and Collblanc is 'Whiteneck'.
Actual suburb or town names, along with Santa Coloma becoming 'Saint Pigeon', are morphed completely – Bellvitge turns into 'Beautifulvitge', 'Cornellà' becomes 'Cornshe' (ella is 'she' or 'her' in catalán and in Spanish), Olympic swimmer Mireia Belmonte's home municipality of Badalona becomes 'Badalwave' (ona being 'wave' in catalán), and given that peu means 'foot', the city's prestigious Pompeu Fabra University becomes 'Pomfoot Fabra'.
Some of the most outrageous include Vallcarca, translated as 'Oldfashionvalley', 'Ciutat Meridiana', which turns into 'MaryDiana City', Fontana comes out as 'Anafountain', Reina Elisenda as 'Queen Elipath' (senda is 'footpath'), Singuerlín as 'Withoutguerlín' (sin is 'without' in Spanish), as fons is catalán for the far depths of something and fondo means this in Spanish, Ildefons Cerdà appears as 'Islebottom Sow', Sant Ildefons as 'Saint Islebottom', and the Line 1 terminus of Fondo is now simply 'Bottom'.
Going back to ona for 'wave', Urquinaona station is now 'Urwhatawave' (quina means 'which', as a question, or 'what a...!' as an exclamation, in the feminine).
Possibly the best of all is Entença station – given that the question, Entens? Is asking someone if they comprehend or follow you, this has been translated as 'Doyouunderstanda'.
Special mention also goes to Florida station, which is now called 'Flowered'.
The Reddit user behind this genius spoof
The original 'pidgin English' Barcelona metro map was created and uploaded onto Reddit by u/teologico on February 26, 2016, with the legend, in English: “Something I've done just for fun. I like to think how names sound when they are literally translated to other languages. Some are wordplays, some are phonetic or semantic games. I had fun doing it, hope you enjoy it as well.”
The ‘real’ Barcelona metro map, so you can have a go at literal translations of its stations yourself and see how they come out on the Reddit version. Don't forget to bookmark this page in case you take a trip to Barcelona, then just pull it up on your phone to work out where you're going in relation to where you are now. (photo: Barcelona municipal transport board)
Now it's been 'rediscovered' and given much wider coverage via Twitter – and in the national media – it looks very likely any English-speaker familiar with catalán or Spanish or who knows Barcelona well, or Catalunya natives who understand English, will certainly enjoy it.
User u/teologico mentioned 'names' literally translated – in the case of, for example, Spain's national president from 2004 to 2011, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who was known widely as just 'Zapatero', in computer-generated word-for-word swap to English, he would have been referred to as 'President Shoemaker'.
And legendary crooner Julio Iglesias would be 'July Churches'.
Whilst human names should not normally be translated for official purposes, some exception seems to have been granted when it comes to Royals – Spain refers to the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as La Reina Isabel II, to her late husband as El Príncipe Felipe, her children as Carlos, Ana, Eduardo and Andrés, and Prince Charles' and Princess Diana's sons as Príncipe Guillermo and Príncipe Enrique, for 'William' and 'Harry'.
Curiously, Spain does not translate Prince William's and Harry's wives' names, so Princess Catherine or, as the media refers to her as, 'Kate', is not called 'Catalina', but her three children are called Jorge, Carlota and Luis by Spanish reporters and society.
Spain has, in fact, had a Queen Isabel, and prior to King Felipe VI's coronation in June 2014, he was Prince Felipe, which means some confusion has always been inevitable.
