This phrase is used to indicate that something is totally incomprehensible to you. According to World Wide Words, it comes the Medieval Latin phrase Graecum est; non potest legi (It is Greek; it cannot be read). Medieval scribes, who weren't familiar with Greek, apparently wrote this phrase next to any text they came across in that language.
The equivalent of this phrase in quite a few languages compares incomprehensible things to an unknown language, particularly Chinese or Greek, while many of the Slavic languages associate Spanish villages with incomprehsion. The Chinese themselves compare such things to a 'heavenly script'. The Japanese use a string of nonsense syllables which imitate the sounds of unknown languages, especially Chinese.
| Language | Idiom |
|---|---|
| Arabic (Egyptian) | (hal ana batkallem hindi?)
هل أنا بتكلم هندي؟ Am I speaking Hindi? |
| Belarusian | Гэта для мяне кітайская грамата
(Geta dĺa m′ańe kіtajskaja gramata) - It's Chinese writing to me. |
| Bulgarian | Говориш ми на патагонски (Govoriš mi na patagonski) - You're speaking to me in Patagonian! Това ми е тъмна Индия! (Tova mi e tãmna indija!) - It's dark India to me |
| Catalan | Això em sona a xinès (It sounds like Chinese) |
| Chinese (Cantonese) | 鬼劃符 (gwáiwahkfùh) it's like ghost script 雞腸 (gāchèuhng) it's like chicken intestines |
| Chinese (Mandarin) | 跟天書一樣 [跟天书一样] (gēn tiānshū yíyàng) It's like heavenly script |
| Croatian | Španska sela (Spanish village), kineski gradovi (Chinese cities) To mi je špansko selo (It's a Spanish village to me) |
| Czech | Je to pro mne španĕlská vesnice
(It's a Spanish village to me) Mám ti to říct čínsky/mongolsky/japonsky? (Should I translate this for you into Chinese/Mongolian/Japanese?) inf Mám vám to říct čínsky/mongolsky/japonsky? (Should I translate this for you into Chinese/Mongolian/Japanese?) frm Mluvím s Číňanem/Mongolcem/Japoncem? (Am I speaking with a Chinese/Mongolian/Japanese person?) |
| Danish | Det er (det rene) volapyk That is (pure) Volapük |
| Dutch | Dat is Chinees voor mij (That's Chinese for me) Dat is Latijn voor mij (That's Latin for me) Daar kan ik geen chocola van maken (I can't make any chocolate from that) |
| English | It's (all) Greek to me. It's (all) Chinese to me. It sounds like double Dutch to me. |
| Esperanto | Ĝi estas laŭ mi Volapukaĵo! (It's all Volapük to me) |
| Estonian | See on nagu hiina keel (It's like Chinese) |
| Finnish | Täyttä hepreaa (Complete Hebrew) Täyttä siansaksaa (Complete gibberish) |
| French | C'est du chinois pour moi (It's Chinese to me) C'est de l'hébreu pour moi (It's Hebrew to me) Pour moi, c'est du javanais (To me, it's Javanese) |
| German | Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (I understand only railway station) Spreche ich etwa chinesisch? (Am I speaking Chinese?) Böhmische Dörfer (Bohemian villages) Das ist Chinesisch für mich (That's all Chinese to me) |
| Greek | Εἶναι γιὰ μένα κινέζικα
(Íne gia ména kinézika) - it's Chinese to me Εἶναι ἀλαμπουρνέζικα (Íne alabournézika) - it's Arabic |
| Hebrew | It's Chinese to me - (Ze sinit bishvili)
זה סינית בשבילי |
| Hungarian | Ez nekem kínai (This is Chinese to me) |
| Icelandic | Þetta er hebreska fyrir mér (This is Hebrew to me) |
| Italian | Per me è arabo (it's Arabic to me) |
| Japanese | ちんぷんかんぷんだ (chinpunkanpun da) ちんぷんかんぷんでちっともわからない (chinpunkanpun de chittomo wakaranai) |
| Latvian | Tā ir ķīniešu ābece/alfabēts (It's the Chinese alphabet) |
| Lithuanian | Tai man kaip kinų kalba (It's all Chinese to me) |
| Macedonian | За мене тоа е шпанско село
(Za mene toa e shpansko selo) That's a Spanish village to me |
| Norwegian | Det er (helt) gresk for meg (It's (totally) Greek for me) |
| Persian | I don't understand Greek - (Yunaani nemifahmam) یونانی نمی فهمم |
| Polish | Równie dobrze mogłoby to być po chińsku (It could be in Chinese with the same effect - I would understand the same if it was in Chinese ... a u mnie wszyscy zdrowi (casual) (... yeah, everybody's healthy in my home) - suggests that the thing said before is completely out of place and nonsense |
| Portuguese | É grego para mim (It's Greek to me) É chinês para mim (It's Chinese to me) |
| Punjabi | ਕੀ ਮੈਂ ਫਾਰਸੀ ਬੋਲ ਰਿਹੈਂ? (Ki main farsi bol rihain?) - Am I speaking Farsi? |
| Russian | китайская грамота (kitayskaya gramota) - Chinese document/paper/letter |
| Serbian | шпанска села (španska sela) - Spanish villages |
| Sinhala | meka mata andara demala (this is Andhra Tamil, i.e. Telugu, to me) |
| Slovak | Je to pre mňa španielska dedina (It's a Spanish village to me) |
| Slovenian | Zame je to španska vas (this is a Spanish village to me) Govorim kitajsko? (Am I speaking Chinese?) |
| Spanish | Esto me suena a chino, no me hables en chino (It sounds Chinese to me, I don't speak in Chinese) Me suena como griego (It sounds Greek to me), Para mí que es griego (It's Greek to me) Eso es griego para mí (That's Greek to me) Es chino básico (It's basic chinese) Háblame en cristiano (Speak to me in Christian) |
| Swedish | Det är rena grekiskan (It is pure Greek) |
| Turkish | olaya fransız kaldım (I am French to the conversation/chat) |
| Yiddish | (s'iz targum-loshn tsu mir)
ס'איז תּרגום־לשון צו מיר it's Aramaic (the language of the targum) to me = |
Books of idioms, proverbs and sayings in many languages
People who have contributed to this section
If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.
Information about the Japanese version of this phrase (in Japanese)
http://gogen-allguide.com/ti/chinpunkanpun.html
Some of these translation come from:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/It's_all_Greek_to_me
http://forum.wordreference.com/archive/index.php?t-112977.html
Greek To Me: Mapping Mutual Incomprehension
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/362-greek-to-me-mapping-mutual-incomprehension/
It's all Greek to me | It's raining cats and dogs | As easy as falling off a log | A sandwich short of a picnic | It's small world | When pigs fly | Out of sight, out of mind | Crystal-clear
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