Afrikaans:

You could say “There are snakes on an airplane”

Daar is ‘n slang op the vliegtuig!

Or, the title of the movie would be:

Slang op ‘n Vliegtuig”

In Spanish: “hay una serpiente en el avion”

In Hebrew - “nachsh al a matos”

Each of those needs “motherfucking” in there.

the Bahasa Indonesia is wrong !!!
Snakes on a plane : Ular-ular di DALAM pesawat.
di atas is ABOVE not ON
and pesawat is refer to plane while kapal is refer to ship.
pesawat udara = airplane / earoplane ( air/aero=udara )

wow. that brings this snakes thing up to a whole new level. I love it!

Mmmm, this sounds good…
Here is my two cents and three languages…

Finnish: Käärmeitä lentokoneessa
Estonian: Ussi lennukis
Swedish: Ormar i flygplan

French:
serpents au avion

“serpents sur un avion” or “serpents dans un avion” would work as well. ’sur’ gives the idea of ‘on’ and ‘on top of’, ‘dans’ is ‘in’. au is a bit snappier for a title, and carries a nice vagueness of meaning useful for jokes.
I could very well be wrong about all this.
Long live Snakes on a Plane!

Don’t forget “Schlangen auf einem Flugzeug”, in German.

In welsh:

Nadroedd yn yr awyren
(literally snakes in the plane, since the welsh for on (”ar”) would imply on top of). I think…..

From an email:

Jules: You know what they call snakes on a plane in Paris?

Vincent: They don’t call it snakes on a plane?

Jules: No man, they speak French. They wouldn’t know what the fuck snakes on a plane is.

Vincent: Then what do they call it?

Jules: They call it ’serpents sur un avion.’

Vincent: Serpents sur un avion…

A little correction to the Estonian translation, it should be either “Usse lennukis” or “Ussid lennukis.”

“Ussi lennukis” actually means “on a snake’s plane.”

In georgian it’s

“gvelebi tvitmprinavze”

In Greek:

φίδια επάνω αεροπλάνο

FI-thia eh-PA-no eh-ro-PLAH-no

Literally, “snakes on plane”. Greek isn’t big on articles. The ‘δ’ is pronounced like ‘th’ in then

The German is inaccurate as well. “Auf” means “on top of”. You would say “Snakes *in* a Plane” (”Schlangen in einem Flugzeug”).

Also, the Spanish is in the singular, i.e. “There is a Snake in the Plane”. The plural would be “Serpientes en un avión”.

Φίδια στο Αεροπλάνο is the correct way to say it in Greek, pronounced Fithia (with a th as in “the”) sto Aeroplano.

The French is not quite correct. It would be “Serpents dans un avion” - “Serpents sur un avion” is “Snakes on top of a plane”, which is also hilarious.

I have some level of reticence to change the translation from literally saying “ON” a plane to the less literal yet more correct “IN” a plane. Somehow, Snakes IN a Plane doesn’t seem as funny.

Maybe I’ll put them both up.

Portuguese for “Snakes on a Plane” is “Cobras num Avião”, if you’re interested.

[...] In addition to me, they had an interview with David Ellis and played clips from Subatomic Warp’s fan song and fan audio trailer… and they even read a few foreign title translations. NPR also did an interview a few weeks ago with Samuel L. Jackson for those of you who are looking for a little bit more backstory. [...]

While the Hebrew one literally does mean “snakes on a plane”, in this case it would be more correct to say “Nachashim al matos”, which means “snakes on a jet”. “Aviron” is barely ever used now, unless you’re talking about a toy.

Actually, it should probably be “Nachashim bamatos” instead of “al matos”. Otherwise you’re talking about them sitting on top of the plane as opposed to being in the cabin.

And not to forget Irish Gaelic- Nathracha i Eitleán!

Nathracha in Eitleán, rather

the Russian translation, “zmeya na vertolyotye,” actually means “snakes on a helicopter” — a great name for the sequel!!

the correct Russian would be “Zmeya na samolyotye.”

russian:

змеи на самолете (snakes on a plane)

or the more techincally correct (but less funny):

змеи в самолете (snakes in a plane)

and змеи на вертолете (snakes on a helicopter) would still be a terrific name for the sequel

Don’t forget portuguese, it’s “Cobras em um avião”

Tagalog/Filipino:

Mga ahas sa eroplano

In Polish:

Węże w samolocie!

or with the mf…. bit:

O k…, węże w samolocie!

Bulgarian:
Змии в един самолет
(Zmii v edin samolet)

The NPR story rocked!

Japanese should be:

飛行機にいる蛇たち
“Hikouki ni iru hebi-tachi”

(This is what is said in the NPR story. It makes more sense…the ‘iru’ makes it grammatically correct, and the ‘tachi’ makes it clear that there’s more than one snake)

In Hindi;

Jehaaz meh Saamp hai

In Czech:
“Hadi v letadle”

In Mandarin:

蛇在飞机上
she2 zai4 fei1ji1 shang4

In Zulu, it’s “izinyoka eziseqwelamoya”
(I think.)

French:
Des serpents dans un avion.

Esperanto:
Serpentoj en aeroplano.

I’ve alphabetized the list. Now it’s easier to see if a language is already posted or not.

tha’abin ‘ala ta’ira (literal, funnier “snakes upon an airplane”)
tha’abin fi ta’ira (better-but-not-as-funny “snakes in an airplane”)

oops!–that’s Arabic, by the way. I have snakes in my brain!

Norwegian: Slanger på et Fly!

Hm, I think the Swedish translation should really be: “Ormar på ett flygplan”

French:

serpents sur un avion

Pronounced: “Serpents soor eww ah-vee-ohn”

Uhm, IIRC the Esperanto for aeroplane is not “aeroplano” but “aviadilo”.

Sorry, both “aeroplano” and “aviadilo” are correct.

I’m seriously considering Japanese title for this movie and it should be:
“Hikouki no naka ni hebi” or even, “Hikouki ni hebi”
It translates like “snake, inside the plane” but it is I think more poetic and shorter. Single snake is not gramatically correct, but we omit plural lot of times even when we talk about them, when it comes to Japanese. “tachi” makes snakes more human and if we use that in title it’s more like they are the main character (I know they are, but it’s funnier when we talk like they are objects)

Could we get some sound files for translation

Recordings of the translations would be great! Anybody who wants to record them, let me know and I’ll be happy to post them.

[...] Oh, and for all the new visitors coming after watching Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, check out all the fan produced videos, songs, clothing, icons, comic strips, foreign translations and graphics that this site has to offer. Also, sign the petition to help me achieve my quest of attending the Hollywood Premiere of Snakes on a Plane. [...]

In Serbian (Srpski):

zmije u avionu

Esperanto anyone?

Serpentoj en aviadilo.

Oops, looks like you have Esperanto already. How about an attempt at Old English instead?

Naedras (or, snacan) in lyftnaccam.

Cheers.

[...] 30 Foreign Translations Snakes on a What? Snakes on a Blog documents my quest to attend the Hollywood premiere of Snakes on a Plane. If I’m really lucky, this blog will do more than just document the quest, it will aid it. Read my first and second pleas. Sign a Petition asking that I be allowed to attend. If you want to learn more about Snakes on a Plane, start at the bottom of the archives and read up. Internals Recent Posts [...]

In Hungarian: Kígyók a gépen

Of course the Romans had no word for “airplane” but here’s my shot at Latin:
“Serpenes in Aeroplanum”

“Gjarpën në për avion”
~Albanian~

Vietnamese:

Con rắn trên máy bay

(I may be missing an article.)

Turkish:

Uçaktaki yılanlar

Question: how do you know the word for “plane” in Old English?

we say “nyoka ndegeini” in kikuyu means snakes on aplane

same in kiswahili “nyoka ndani ya ndege “

[...] Heh.  If he would have checked my list of foreign translations, he would have seen it’s “Serpientes en un Avión.” [...]

The Latin would probably be better rendered as Serpentes in Aeroplano, I think. (In with an accusative gives the sense of “coming into,” which I guess is technically accurate, but I sort of like the suspended-in-time effect the use of the ablative gives, which I feel is more in keeping with the original).

It could also be the highly alliterative Angues in Aeroplano — I’m not sure what sort of connotations anguis has as opposed to serpens, but they can both mean “snake.”

Aeroplane in Old English…

Well, if it’s anything like Latin they have a comittee which invents new words for modern things.

Gujarati (transliterated):

Plane maa sapo che. (There are snakes in the plane)

Plane par sapo che. (There are snakes on the plane)

Brian
Go Tufts! SMILE. I saw the newsweek story about the movie and when i saw your name i knew it had to be you! Good job, sir! can I add a translation for your blog page, it’s in Taiwanese, one of the other languages spoken in some Chinese countries, other than Chinese. In Taiwanese SoaP would be: “Zwah Di Weilingi”

Danny B.

Farsi (Persian) - maar tooeh havapeima

Brian,
Glad yu got the translation of Taiwanese. The 23 million people of Taiwan, where folks like to eat snake soup and drink snake blood in Snake Alley in Taipei, for the virility they say, will be happy to see TAIWANESE language included in the list of translations, as more than 50% of the people here speak Taiwanese daily, although they also speak Chinese. There’s even one professor at Wenzao Uni in the south, who speaks Yiddish, her name is S.C. Chang.
Hey, that reminds me, how to say SOAP in Yiddish? Leo Rosten anyone?

danny

YIDDISH, how could we forget the mamaloschen?

“schlang oif an aeroplan” YIDDISH

or shorter

“schlang oif a plan” (since areoplane is airplane, plan is plane_

From a native Greek speaker: The above Greek translation of snakes on a plane is wrong (and sounds weird) The correct way to say Snakes on a Plane in Greek is:

Φίδια στο αεροπλάνο
FI-thia sto a-eh-ro-PLAH-no

or

Φίδια πάνω στο αεροπλάνο
FI-thia PA-no sto a-eh-ro-PLAH-no

and Greek is actually pretty big on articles.

Have a nice day :-)

Dear Sirs:

It seems to me as a native Taiwanese person that “snakes on a plane” in Taiwanese should be “Zwah di hweilinggiding……. “Hwei”, not “wei”. However, in ”Peh-oe-ji”, the traditional Taiwanese spelling system using the Roman Alphabet, it should be: “Chôa tī hoe-leng-ki-téng”.

Sincerely,

Taiwan Tim

In Danish it’s:

“Slanger på et fly.”

Hey, here’s how to say it in Thai:

“Ngoo nang kruangben”

This is response to the Taiwanese translation. Please don’t ask me for accuracy as I don’t speak the language, however, my girlfriend is a native speaker. She prefers the first translation over the second, and feels that this rendition may prove more accurate (at least for her Taiwanese): zwah di hwenggiding. Again, I don’t have any idea, my languages are English and Spanish.

Best,

Chris

Ay carajo, hay vivoras en el jodido avión! Another Spanish version, and a sure way to get everyone’s attention when flying Avianca over Colombia.

Hay, how about a way to share personal snake pics. I have two, one with a full-grown Boa in Bangkok, the other, a baby Anaconda in Cartagena, Colombia, and some with caymans, alligators, a monkey and an iguana the size of my prostate!

In Malayalam, it is

“vimanathil pambu”

Thanks

In Icelandic:

Snákar í flugvélinni.

or

Snákar um borð í flugvélinni.

Regards

notation to the german translation:

must be: “Schlangen in einem Flugzeug”

or even better: “Schlangen im Flugzeug”

“Schlangen auf einem Flugzeug” means the snakes are on the roof.

Had the same idea about the German translation.

Should be changed to: “Schlangen im Flugzeug”

In Swedish, however, it would be better to say: “Ormar på (flyg)planet”

french should read: des serpents dans un avion
or are they on top of it?

> notation to the german translation:
> must be: “Schlangen in einem Flugzeug”
> or even better: “Schlangen im Flugzeug”
> “Schlangen auf einem Flugzeug” means the snakes are on the roof.

Right. Even better, yet, might be “Schlangen im Flieger”. (”Flugzeug” is slightly formal, like “airplane”; “Flieger” is colloquial, like “plane”.)

Hey. In Luxembourgish (which IS a language) it would be:
Schlaangen am Fliiger.

For the Serbian translation, it’s a tad bit wrong. Your translation says “Snakes in a Plane”. “Zmije na Avionu” would be “Snakes on a Plane”. I don’t know, put both up if you wish. Just giving an alternative.

[...] There are currently 46 foreign translations of Snakes on a Plane listed, but reader Jess submitted one that I thought required a little bit of extra attention. Snakes on a Plane in American Sign Language: [...]

“Catalan” is an european lenguage talked by 8 milion people across Barcelona (Catalonia), Andorra and several parts of France and Italy.
So, in catalan, “Snakes on a plane” is “SERPS A UN AVIÓ”.

I’m thinking for a more emphatic Japanese way…since we’re adding “motherfucker” in the mix…maybe…“Hikouki ni hebi-tachi aruzo!” But this really has to be said in a certain way to get the same sorta punch.

Re the Serbian — technically, “zmije u avionu” is “snakes in a plane”. “Snakes on a plane” would be “zmije na avionu”, but as that literally means snakes on top of a plane rather than inside it, both could probably be used.

someone HAS to translate this into Klingon

DANISH TRANSLATION: Slanger paa et fly

I think that:

“slanger ombord pa et fly”

would be a more correct danish translation.

“slanger på et fly” means that the snakes are on top of the plain.

The French translation is a little off. Serpents sur un avion is technically correct, but implies that the snakes are literally on top of the plane, whereas a lot of French media sites have been using the title ‘Serpents dans un avion’, meaning ‘in a plane’. Other ways of phrasing it would be ‘Serpents en avion’ or ‘Serpents à bord d’un avion’, but I’d still stick with ‘Serpents dans un avion’ as being the most correct. Just my input :) Also, writing ‘Des Serpents dans un Avion’ is techincally grammatically correct, but Des/Les is almost entirely left out of film titles and in cases like this.

This is a correction to the Albanian traslation in the formal Tosk dialect:
“Gjarpërinj në një avion”
Your current translation is in the informal Geg dialect.

The French is right!

“Serpents DANS un avion.” would be saying “Snakes IN a plane.” And we all know this is heresy.

“Serpents sur un avion,” would be okay. Sur means “on” as well as “on top of.”

Par Example…

Un village sur la mer= A village on the coast/sea.

Serpents sur un avion= Snakes on a plane.

And, I’m not sure this is completely right, but “Serpents dans un avion baise-de-mere.” is as close to “Snakes on a Muthafucking Plane” as I’ll get.

For French you could try:

“Serpents en Avion”

if you wanna be insanely nerdy (which I am) snakes on a plane in elvish would be “lyg no’ da tal”. that actually snakes on a plain but thats the best i could do…

Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin are pretty much the same language. There are some differences of course but my best guess would be that all of the languages have ’snakes on a plane’ written exactly the same. If someone that speaks the languages listed above would like to verify this, that is 3 more languages.

“Saapharu havai jahajma”

This is how I think you’d say it in Nepali… but I could be way off.

Cheers.

Dear Sam,
I have your nxt movie:
Snakes in a Cathouse or the Mansion of Aching Snakes….actually it’s Hearts…
Barbara

[...] I’ve gotten fourteen free t-shirts, one free hat, one free button and one free mug. A fan started petition requesting I be allowed to attend the premiere is over 1550 signatures. There are currently 53 translations of “Snakes on a Plane” into foreign languages and well over 100 poems. I’ve been interviewed by three TV crews. SnakesOnABlog.com has appeared in a large number of newspaper stories, linked to by 1139 blogs, and over 6,000 other webpages. I’ve been invited to one Comic-Con. [...]

In Slovenian the translation goes:

“Kace na letalu”

(the c-letter is in fact a c with a ˇ above it,
making it a ch sound: “č” - i don’t know if the
fonts on this blog support this letter).

Good luck with the site.

You don’t have Klingon up there…

Here’s my new favorite t-shirt

http://www.dyoapparel.com/cink/r.jsp?E=zonads%40gmail.com&F=soap

no parsiltongue>>>. harry would be depressed. and so would patrick o’brien

The swedish translation is wrong, the right translation:
Ormar på ett flygplan.

“Ormar i flygplan” which it says here means in english: “Snakes in Plane”

REPTILES DANS L’AVION (French)

SERPENTS EN AVION

HD.

The arabic is (in Roman Letter) hayaat fi taairah. It means Snakes in a Plane.

Because my boss is out today, because I promised Brian an ASL video of this and failed to come through, and because I pretty much have no life, I did some research into the Klingon vocabulary, and this is what I found:

ghargh = serpent worms (the closest Klingons have to the Earth snake)

duj = vessel, aircraft

Until I hear back from the folks at the Klingon Language Institute, this is gonna have to suffice.

Here’s one more for extra credit:

IngLIS Hol DajatLh’a’ Sos nga’chuq–”ENGLISH! M-F’r! Do you SPEAK IT?”

[...] I’ve gotten twenty free t-shirts, one free hat, one free button and one free mug. A fan started petition requesting I be allowed to attend the premiere is over 1720 signatures. There are currently 55 translations of “Snakes on a Plane” into foreign languages and well over 100 poems. I’ve been interviewed by three TV crews. SnakesOnABlog.com has appeared in countless of newspaper stories, linked to by thousands of blogs, and over 6,000 other webpages. I’ve been invited to one Comic-Con. [...]

Romanian:

Şerpi într-un avion

how to say “snakes on a plane” in Cherokee: no plural for snakes, so translated by using “many snake on plane” phonetic pronunciation in parentheses:
u-tsu-ti (ooh chew tee) i’-na-dv (ee nah duh) na-nah (nah nah) ga-no-hi-li-do (gah no he lee doe)

As many people say here, the French title written here is not correct.
“Sur un avion” would mean that they’re on the top of the plane, outside of it ; whereas “dans un avion” mean they’re inside of the plane. “Snakes” can be translated be “serpents” or “des serpents”. The exact translation would be “Des Serpents dans un avion”. However, the official title in France is slightly different : it’s “Des Serpents dans l’avion”, and in fact it sounds better to me. Believe me, I’m French so I know what I’m talking about. ;)

in kisii

ching’iti ase endege

In pig latin, it’s akes-snay on-ay ane-play (or nakes-say on-ay lane-pay. Whatever.

Hi! In Swedish it would be more like “Ormar på ett flygplan”.*

Hey! Whoever translated Snakes on a Plane to Swedish did not do it correctly ^^ It’s “Ormar på ett Flygplan” not “Ormar i Flygplan” LOL!

English:
“Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!”

Finnish:
“Rajansa kaikella! Vittu mä oon saanu tarpeekseni näistä vitun kärmeistä tällä vitun lentokoneella!”

Just to tell you, the swedish translation is incorrect. The swedish sentence “Ormar i Flygplan” litterarly translates into “Snakes on Airplanes” or “Snakes in Planes”.

The correct sentence would be “Ormar i ett Flygplan” or, if Snakes on a Plane means that the snakes are actually ontop/outside on the roof of the plane, then it is “Ormar på ett flygplan”.

However I think that the sentence should go “Ormar i ett Flygplan, because otherwise it is a highly incorrect sentence.

“Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!” translates into “Nog är nog! Jag är trött på dessa mammaknullande ormar på detta mammaknullande flygplan!”

eh, it got quite long eh?

In Quebec, it is being called not “Serpents sur un avion”, or even “Serpents dans un avion”, but “Serpents à bord”: Snakes on Board. Needless to say, I have been wandering the streets of Montreal the last four days, bewildered, shocked, hurt.

Is there something we can do before the film opens in France to correct this travesty?

North Sámi: ‘Gearbmašat girdis’

:)

Bengali — Plane-e shamp

Swedish: Ormar i ett flygplan

på ett flygplan sounds weird. As if they’re on top of it or so :S

In Mongolian: Ongots deer mogoi

“ORMAR PÅ ETT FLYGPLAN” is the correct Swedish translation. Snakes (”Ormar”) On (”På”) A (”Ett”) Plane (”Flygplan”).

As someone else wrote, “Nog är nog! Jag är trött på dessa mammaknullande ormar på detta mammaknullande flygplan!” is a highly entertaining and nice translation of “the line”.

But! You don’t say that you’re “i” (IN) a plane. You say you’re “på” (ON) a plane. Or, well… I guess there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings, but “PÅ” is the most accurate translation for the movie title.

Even if “på” literally means “on top” in Swedish, you still use the expression when you’re talking about being *on* planes, trains etc.

A car would be the exception… See? It works the same way in the english language. You’re ON a train. You’re ON a plane. But you’re not ON a car, you’re IN a car. Works the same way in Swedish.

USE THIS TRANSLATION!

“Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!”

In swedish, if you would translate it the real way:

“Nu får det räcka! Jag har fårr nog av dessa jävla ormar på detta jävla flygplan!”

“Snakes on a Plane”

In swedish, if you would translate it the real way:

Ormar på ett Flygplan

USE THIS TRANSLATION!

“Ormar i Flygplan” would be “Snakes in Planes”

in swiss-german (schwitzerdütsch) - Switzerland

schlangä im flüger / schlangae im flueger

Hi i’m french, i just watched the wonderful movie 30 minuts ago. The real french movie title is “Des serpents dans l’avion” and not “Serpents sur un avion”
Bye !

The german translation is still not correct:
‘Schlangen im Flieger’ means: ‘Snakes on THE plane’, and not ‘on A’

The very best translations would be:

Schlangen in einem Flieger
or
Schlangen in einem Flugzeug

Flugzeug is in a special way also correct: The word Flieger is/was more common in the western part of germany. East-Germans used to say Flugzeug. To be fair both translations should be mentioned.

I know that this translation is longer. But this should not be the point. You wanted a correct translation? Here it is :)

Greetings!
Jojo

Or, just for kicks, let’s hear it in SIMLISH:

“Ziggáhn…moarf-tu…Plennaáhda!” (Male version of phrase)

“Michósten…muuh-fahn…Shem-Tigwah?” (Female version of phrase)

“Eezahmofay! ree-fah Woo-dah!” (Child version of phrase)

Here’s how it would look visually:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j130/bulldozerbegins/snapshot_91526b95_b1727bfb.jpg

More snakes are needed! The following languages (Afar, Alsatian and Aramaic) are not yet in the list.

Regards!