Guinea pig in different languages

Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato

Adult Guinea Pig
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I use Makaton (a simplified form of sign language) a lot with work and today I found out that Guinea pig is the sign for the letter G (putting one fist ontop of the other) followed by the sign for pig (making circles infront of your nose with your fist). But this got me thinking does anyone else on the forum speak other languages and what is the word for Guinea pig in that language?
 
Swissgreys said:
How interesting - in German it is Meerschweinchen, which also translates directly to sea pig (because they came from over the sea I guess).
So the word is different, but the meaning is the same as @RosieLily in Estonian!
Click to expand...
It's interesting how English, German, Italian and Estonian all include the word for pig even though they're nothing like pigs
 
And my daughter has said I should also include the Swiss German word which is Meersäuli (Meer-soy-lee).
The kids here (and a lot of adults) would shorten that to Meeri (meer-eee), which I guess is technically slang, but also implies affection or endearment.
Our piggies were always Meeri's :love:
 
I love how many languages make reference to the sea... perhaps because they were brought to Europe by ships. "Little pigs from the sea" is adorable.

My only other language is French, they are indeed called "cochon d'Inde" in French. It means "pig from India" or "Indian pig."
 
கினிப் பன்றி is how we say guinea pig in my language. In english, it’s pronounced as Kiṉip paṉṟi. The weird thing is, I know how to read, write and understand Tamil. But I have no idea how to speak it 🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️. I’m not rlly that good at forming sentences in my language
 
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