For some languages below, we have listed the translation in its native characters. If your browser can't handle this, it may just show ?????????.
credit for this idea goes to Bob Lehto
Acholi | Raa |
Afrikaans | Seekoei |
Albanian | kali i nilit |
American
Sign Language (ASL) For a
video, visit |
“With each hand, make a fist and stick out the thumb and pinky fingers. Align the right hand on top of the left hand (palms facing each other). Move hands apart from each other in an up and down motion to simulate the opening and closing of the hippo’s jaws.” |
Anuak | Rei |
Arabic (#1) | Grinti (in dispute) |
Arabic (#2) | Faras Al-Naher (Nahar?) (thx to Tareq Khorsheed--see note below) |
Arabic (Egyptian dialect) | Kalb el
nil (dog of the Nile), or Sayyid ishta (Mr. Cream) (thanks to Mary S) |
Armenian | begemond (thx Albert, the king of fat) |
avon | havonip~avono~pavonot~avona~mavonus |
Azeri (language of Azerbaijan) | begemot or hippopotam (thx Jakub) |
Basque | hipopotamo |
Bemba (copperbelt region in Zambia) | Imfubu (thx Helen in NZ) |
Bengali | Jalahastha or Jahlto |
Bosnian | Povodni konj (thx to Jase Allen) |
Botswana | see entry for Setswana |
Braille | (thanks Danielle) |
Breton | douvarc'h (thx Jen) |
Bulgarian | Khipopotam |
Catalan | hipopòtam |
Chilala | Nourvu |
Chinese | Mandarin:
He Ma Cantonese: Ho Ma; (thx to Carol) (thanks Danielle) |
Cockney | ippo (thanks to Ian Hill) |
Creole | rivyechwal (thx to Cheyanne and Robyn) |
Croatian | Nilski konj |
Czech | Hroch |
Danish | Flodhest |
DJ lopodopo | Hippolopodopomus (thx to Jenna) |
Double Dutch | hivogippovogopovogotovogmuvugus |
Dutch | Nijlpaard |
Dutch (perhaps Boer Dutch?) | De Zeekoe (thx to Jacky) |
Eggerish | heggipeggoteggameggusegg (thx to "gibling") |
Egyptian | Deb (thanks Albin Forsell) |
Elkshnishvow | Umhibtowvawpottomottommustamoos |
Elven | Togenta (from Scott R. "The History of Middle Earth Vol.1") |
English | Hippopotamus |
Ernestish | shmotamuss |
Esperanto | Hipopotam |
Estonian | Jõehobune |
Ethiopian | Hoboj |
Farsi | اسب ابى )ج.ش.(؛ كرگدن |
Finnish | Virtahepo |
French | Hippopotame |
Frisian/Frysk | Nylhoars |
Gaelic | each-aibhne |
Georgian | behemoti or hipopotami |
German | Flusspferd or Nilpferd |
gibberish | hippoglutean (thanks to Alex Fabian) |
gibberish II (AKA oppish & ubby dubby) | Huhthegippuhthegopuhthegotuhtheguhmuhthegus (thx to Beth B) |
Greek | Ιπποπόταμοσ (thx to Louis Gatoulis the Greek God) |
Hawaiian | Hipopokamu |
Hebrew | B'Hemot or Soos-Nahar |
Hindi | Jal Hasti
or Daryayi Ghoda (water horse) thx to Ravindra in Mumbai |
Hungarian | Vizilo |
Icelandic | Flóðhestur (thx to Jóhann Páll Kristbjörnsson) |
Ido | hipopotamo |
Indonesian | Kuda Nil from Lien "Lex" Heikens: "Kuda = horse in Bahasa Indonesia and Nil is of course Nile" |
IPA (international phonetic alphabet) | [hə.ðə.gɪ.pə.ðə.goʊ.pə.ðə.gɑ.tə.ðə.gə.mə.ðə.gəs] |
Irish Gaelic | Dobhareach (thx to Jen) |
Italian | Ippopotamo |
itta | hitta~gip~itta~go~pitta~go~titta~ge~mittagus |
Japanese | Kaba (or kabba) |
Justurt | untegleban (thanks Alex F.) |
Kazakh | Бегемот (behemot) (thx Jakub) |
Kenyan | Kiboko |
Korean | Hama |
Krahn | Nimeh kla |
Kreyol | ipopotam |
Kurdi | حەسپێ رووبار (Hespê rûbar) |
Latin | Hippopotamus |
Latvian | NĪLZIRGS |
Lingala | ngubú or kibɔ́kɔ (kiboko) (thx Jakub) |
Lithuanian |
Hipopotamai (thx to Terra)
or Begemotas (thx to D Krinickas) |
Luganda (language spoken by Baganda who live mainly in Uganda) | Envubu or Nvubu (thx to Thomas Serumaga) |
Luxembourg | Nilpärd (thx to Nadine MEISCH) |
Macedonian | Нилскиот коњ |
Magyar | nílusi víziló |
Maltese (language of Malta Europe) | ippopotamu (thx Chris) |
Malagasy (from Madagascar) |
Kilopilopitsofy "floppy ears" (may be pygmy hippo) (thx to Mary S) |
Malay | Badak Air (thx to abdul rahman) |
Mandarin | "huh-ma" |
Mongol | Армана (armana) or усны үхэр (usny ukher) |
Min Nan | hô-bé |
Navajo | Tééhoołtsódii |
Norwegian | Flodhest (thanks Line Emilie Sverdrup) |
Ob | hobippobo (thx Samantha) |
Occitan | ipopotam |
Oppish | Hopippopopopotopamopus (thx to Jill) |
Persian | |
Pig Latin | ippopotamus-hay (thanks, Spencer!) |
Polish | Hipopotam |
Portuguese | Hipopótamo |
Romanian | Hipopotam (thx to Adrian Bradea) |
Runa Simi | hatun mayu khuchi |
Russian (I have rec'd more emails on the Russian word for hippo than all other languages put together; there is something about Russian that makes translating "hippo" a challenge! See below for some of the emails I have received.) |
âåçåíïô
or çéððïðïôáí or гиппопотам
(in Cyrillic); Begamot, Gippopotam (thx to Sasha Morozov) |
Serbo-Croatian | Nilski Konj (thx Jovica & Danielle) |
Setswana (language of Botswana) | Kubu (thx to Pete Smith) |
Shona (Zimbabwean local dialect) | Mvuu (thanks to Helen) |
Sinhala | haipotaembasamba |
Slovak | Hroch (thanks to Miroslav Sedivy) |
Slovenian | Nilski Konj (thx to andraz) |
Somali | jeer (thx to John Saeed) |
Spanish | Hipopótamo |
Swahili | Kiboko |
Swedish | Flodhäst |
Tagalog (Phillipines) | Hippopotamus |
Tamil | Neer Yanai |
Thai | ปโปโปเตมัส |
Tibetan | charto (thx Jakub) |
Tojiki | Баҳмут (bakhmut) |
Tshivenda | Mbvuvhu (thx to Josina Matsepa / Tshilidzi) |
Turkish | Suaygiri or Hipopotam (thx to Zeynep Durak) |
Ubby Dubby | hibippopabatabumubus (thanks to sctr563) |
Ukrainian | Гўпопотам |
Urdu | دریائی گھوڑا |
Vietnamese | Hà Mã (thx to vlrulz) |
Welsh | Afonfarch (thx to Jen) |
Medieval Welsh | Ypotame (thx to Moss Bliss) |
Zulu | Mvubu or
Imvubu (removed Boma Jan 2007) (see below notes) |
Got one to add? Email me
Here are some of the interesting comments & feedback we have received on this subject:
March 2010, from Jakub K. (winnux8)
I rec'd an email from Jakub with over 25 translations. Many using the correct
alphabet. Unfortunately, the version of Frontpage that I use to maintain this
web page can't handle some of them. But I've posted most of them (or the
transliteration). And of course, no email would be complete without more
Russian controversy!
"Hippopotamus is not either
âåçåíïô or
çéððïðïôáí in Russian , because these two words
are some gibberish signs, which don't mean anything! Hippopotamus in Russian is
бегемот (begemot) or гиппопотам (gippopotam)."
September 2008, from Tareq Khorsheed
I just noticed that the
Arabic word for Hippopotamus is incorrect. The proper name for it is
Faras Al-Naher which literally translates to horse of the river. I double
checked the translation on the google translate site.
Could not find what Grinti is in Arabic.
Enjoyed the site very much,
Thank you,
tareq
khorsheed
Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
February 2008, from Mary S
Although it is thought that the pygmy hippopotamus went extinct 1,000 years
ago in Madagascar, in one of the more remote parts of the country, the
kilopilopitsofy ("floppy ears") was reportedly seen near Belo-sur-Mer as
recently as 1976. The descriptions of the kilopilopitsofy sound remarkably like
the pygmy hippo. So the Malagasy word for hippo, well pygmy hippo, would be
kilopilopitsofy.
Also, in the Egyptian dialog of Arabic, hippos are referred to as both Kalb
el nil (dog of the Nile) and Sayyid ishta which literally means Mr. Cream,
although ishta is slang for cool, so Mr. Cool.
November 2007, from Jen Z
I have a language to add - Breton,
which is the local language here in Brittany in western France.
douvarc'h (plural: dourvarc'hed)
It is a celtic language and its nearest
relative is Welsh but the word for hippo doesn't seem to bear any
resemblance.
In January 2007, I rec'd this email from Dr. Harry Wilson:
the zulu word for hippos is Mvubu, or Imvubu, as correctly pointed out by
daphne years ago. the word Boma does exist in zulu, and it is another beastie
entirely! it is a common word in many southern african languages, like xhosa,
shona, matabele, etc.
it is a fence or barrier, constructed often around a village or a small camp from thorn trees and earthen ramparts (in more permanent installations), that is designed to keep lions and, more importantly, hippos out of the village at night. sometimes also includes the enclosed area surrounded by the fence.
Dr Harry Wilson
Scientific Editor
Institute of Molecular Biology, and the Agricultural Biotechnology Research
Centre
Academia Sinica
Taipei, Taiwan
In April 2005, I received this email from Carol So:
Hi, I am a chinese and i have just visited your page on saying
hippopotamus in different language. I just wonder whether the english
characters above the chinese characters of ªe°¨ are the pronunciations (the
Pinyin). If it is so, i think there're some mistakes. That pronunciation,
Shi Nio, actually refers to rhinoceros, but not hippopotamus, and the
correct pronunciation for hippo in mandarin should be "He Ma", and in
Cantonese should be "Ho Ma".
I enjoy your page very much, it's fantastic!
Sincerely,
Carol
A new hippo fan
In February 2005, I rec'd this email:
In May 2004, this email came in:
Subject:Hippo in Zulu
From:daphna - wine <daphna@xxx.co.il>
Date:Sun, 30 May 2004
To:xxx@hippos.com
The word for hippo in Zulu is actually "Imvubu", not boma!
In March 2003, I rec'd this email from:
Prof. Dr. Alexander Gelbukh (Alexandre Guelboukh Kahn),
Research Professor, head of NLP Lab,
Centro de Investigacion en Computacion (CIC),
Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN).
a Russian native speaker
gippopotam and begemot are (the only) correct transliterations
in writing.
Pronunciation: [bigim'ot], [gipapat'am]. [gi] as in "gift," not as in
"giant."
[Ed. notes: Prof Gelbukh wrote an interesting paper on using the Internet to
help with translations. See this
link; we are footnote reference #15]
Bill May April 2001
As a holder of degrees in Slavic languages and the experience of living some 10 years in Eastern Europe, I think I can shed some light on a few of the words for Hippo in Slavic tongues. Either
"Beg(e)mot" or "Gippopotam" (accent on last syllable for both) means Hippo in Russian. The latter is the more scientific term. My
guess is that "Behemot" is the Ukrainian rendition of the Russian "Begemot", since that language does not have a "g" sound and
usually substitutes an "h" for it in foreign words (and since Russian was widely spoken there up until the early '90s, it probably
found its way into general usage). I see someone has provided the Czech word "Hroch"
That word is also used in Slovak (although "Hippopotamus" might be understood). In Bulgarian the name is "Khipopotam" (accent on last syllable).
Another contributor to this page has been Danielle , from The Collector's Addition. She has contributed many of the more obscure languages; Persian, Gaelic, etc. She has a wonderful site full of collectibles, with a hippo stuck here & there <g>.