Penguinese (also known as Pinguish) is a fictional language spoken by the characters in Pingu. It is uninterpretable to the audience leaving the dialogue up to the viewers imagination.
It consists of babbling, muttering, and Pingu's characteristic sporadic loud honking noise, which is either spelled as "Nug Nug!" or more popularly "Noot Noot!".
Distinguishable Words
- Sallis - Eel
- Realvou - Plaice
- Coo-coo - Lobster
- Milk - Milk
- Fish - Fish
- Strawform - Haddock
- Grorlip - Big
- Surry - Catch
- Fodder - Ball
- Loop - Circle
- Arzt - Doctor
- Tellibelli - Toy
- Ciochilani - Drink
Loanwords from real languages
In the original series, Penguinese featured the occasional loanword from English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish and Russian. e.g. "Fish", "Merci" ("Thank you"), "Danke" ("Thank you"), "Ciao ciao" ("Bye bye"), "Ppalli ka" ("Go fast"), "Dobry" (Good") and "Spasibo" ("Thanks") respectively.[1] The fact that at least three different words for thank you are used suggests there are different dialects of Penguinese.
Writing
Penguinese has its own writing system which is a conglomeration of the real-life Cyrillic and Hebrew alphabets, yet Robby once used the Latin Alphabet in School Time, implying there are multiple alphabets, somewhat like some real world languages (such as Japanese, with 4 main scripts). The original series features at least two real Latin script words of German (Arzt (Doctor) and Zirkus (Circus)). In Pingu in the City, Penguinese uses a modified version of the Latin-script alphabet with abstracted letters.
In Popular Culture
Penguinese is a recognizable element of Pingu and allows the show to be enjoyed anywhere, as it negates the need for dubbing, which allowed Pingu to be aired without translation in most territories.
Controversy
There was a small controversy involving some parents who believed Penguinese would hinder the vocal development of their young children, many of which were still learning to talk. A similar controversy occurred with another BBC show, "Teletubbies". This died down quickly however.
Trivia
- On some streaming prints of Pingu, if you turn on subtitles, they just say "Penguin Noises" and often change when a different sound occurs.
Images
