More Polish

There are some Polish language words in Discworld which don't seem to be grouped elsewhere. Probably fell off the edge, missing the circumfence, or something. So far the count is three (or four if you're fussy): Schmaltz as in Schmaltzberg, Sto Lat and Tak.

"tak" means "yes"? "Sto Lat" is a traditional song meaning "one hundred years", often performed at birthdays and celebrations? I know "schmaltz" means "fat" or "grease" in Yiddish (memo - golems would know this?) - didn't know it was also Polish, but it makes sense - not every word in Yiddish is German-derived!

According to the "apf", alas, neither "sto helit" nor "sto kerrig" have any meaning in Polish - I've no reason to doubt this, but could you confirm? Interesting discussion, though, as quite a lot of Roundworld languages seem to have little shout-outs on the Disc, and not all of them can be put down to English and its habit of promiscuously adopting anything that takes its fancy from wherever! AgProv (talk) 19:59, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

As the apf so eruditely quotes:

Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam. Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam. Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz -- niech zyje, zyje nam. Niech zyje nam!

Which loosely translates to:

Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us, Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us, Once again, once again, let him live for us!

It's interesting, though. I'm wondering about some sort of "comparison page" listing non-English names for places and characters and how they evolved in the minds of the translators... for instance, in Dutch/Afrikaans you get Mustrum Riediekel de Bruin for a certain wizard, and Opie/Ouma Weedersmeer for a certain witch. both have interesting back-stories. AgProv (talk) 20:20, 27 November 2014 (UTC)