what is the word "vegan" in your language ?

[yorbo]

In french it is : végétalien

[berta_the_aspie]

veganer i think.

[fiamma]

vegetaliano/a, or vegano/a in Italian.

[Mr Flibble]

vegano/a in Italian.

proof that most italian words are english with o or a on the end

[fiamma]

You can come and do my job then, Mr F

[Lazuli Blue]

I can't find a word for vegan in Welsh, but vegetarian is llysfwytawr.

[Mr Flibble]

perhaps it is ysgum? Either that of llawr

[Hemlock]

I can't find a word for vegan in Welsh, but vegetarian is llysfwytawr.

How in the name of God do you pronounce that? (And I'm welsh too, the shame )

[pavotrouge]

How I love Welsh, but no idea how to pronounce it, either.

In German, it's basically the same... the adjective is "vegan", only pronounced differently and a vegan person is a "Veganer".

[medus]

in lithuanian language - "veganas/vegane"

[Bic]

Around here it translates to "silly hippy".

[vegcurry]

Spanish: vegano/s vegana/s *
I got this from the Vegan Society's helpful "Vegan Passport", which is always kept with my 'real' passport.


* No, I'm not Spanish but I've just got back from a Spanish speaking country.

[Paxi]

'wegan' or 'weganin' and 'weganka' for a girl (pronunciation: vegan or vegan-in). that's in polish.

[pavotrouge]

I think it's sad that there are actually languages that don't have a word for a vegans- e.g. Japanese...

[Pob]

Anyone know what it is in Slovakian?

I'm in Bratislava for 5 days. Found some places to eat, but still think I might struggle a bit.

[pavotrouge]

that's depressing, Pob...I used to work two month on a paper about Slowenia last year for business college but don't have a clue what vegan means in Slovakian T_T

[i<3tofu]

i found in almost any language besides english (that i kno, and obviosuly i dont know every language/ culture) there is a word for vegan but most people dont know what it means so it seems like your better off just saying strict vegeterian

[pavotrouge]

Yeah, I agree it's always better to learn how to say "without dairy, eggs etc." than the actual term... thinking of my coworkers (in a big city!) thinking veganism means eating nothing with gluten in it...

[Glossgirl]

Around here it translates to "silly hippy".

Lol

Hahaha

[kiwi.tyger]

Yeah, I agree it's always better to learn how to say "without dairy, eggs etc." than the actual term... thinking of my coworkers (in a big city!) thinking veganism means eating nothing with gluten in it...

LOL - I read that as "Cow-workers"!! I'm going to Greece in September, anyone know how to say 'vegan' in Greek? Is there a list somewhere with different languages?

[harpy]

I'm not sure if there is a Greek word for vegan. I was once told that "hortophagos" (vegetable eater) means vegetarian but I then read that it also means "village idiot" so I've avoided using it

I sometimes try to explain that I eat only vegetables but in general it's quite easy to pick vegetable dishes from the menu - I don't think they tend to bung in bits of bacon etc the way some other countries do.

This might help you:

http://www.rhizomatics.co.uk/gvn/greekvegan.html

Whereabouts are you going?

[kiwi.tyger]

Not sure yet - my mother is coming over from New Zealand, and we are going to go island hopping, trying to avoid the touristy ones where Brits just go to find British-style pubs and eat British-style meals!

I did classics at Uni so would like to go to Crete and Lesbos, mum wants to go to Corfu if we get time (it's miles away from all the others), but I'm still reading my Lonely Planet to make a plan.

[harpy]

That sounds great. I haven't been to Lesbos or Corfu but I have been to Crete several times and it's very veg*n-friendly on the whole. They grow a lot of vegetables there and usually seem quite pleased if you want to eat them

The touristy establishments can be the worst for veg*ns I've found. There are some that seem to serve only souflaki and chips and salad. (The chips are cooked in olive oil but even so chips and salad as a meal begins to pall after a while.)

Corfu, I've heard, is now extremely touristy but there may be some bits of it that aren't.

[stumbleine]

vegano/a, vegetaliano/a, vegetalista or vegetariano/a estricto/a. this is spanish. anyway, i don´t think many people here know what these mean (except for the last one, which is not my favourite, specially for the "strict" adjective)

[pavotrouge]

I love the "vegetaliano" term... there is also a very nice Spanish vegan forum, not as good as this, but loads better than any French/German forums I've been on!

[Yoggy]

In Thai, there's no word for vegan (at least I don't think), but vegetarian is "jeh" (the syllable is drawn out, not short). To say "vegan" you would have to add that you don't eat fish, fish sauce, dairy or eggs.

Also, Yorbo is right that in French it's v&#233;g&#233;talien, but sadly I've never met a French speaker who knows what it means, they usually just think I've screwed up the word v&#233;g&#233;tarien lol.

[harpy]

The only places where I've managed to use the French word "vegetalien(ne)" successfully are vegetarian restaurants in Paris. But it's a start

[BlackDog]

In Australia it's 'F*****g lentil eating, tree hugging, dole bludging, hippy waste of space' which sums me up to a T!

[Magenta]

In Dutch, a vegan is 'een veganist' and the adjective is 'veganistisch'. We have the words, but I don't think it's generally known what they mean, as I've had to explain it to several people. Oh well, I guess that's normal in most countries.

The only places where I've managed to use the French word "vegetalien(ne)" successfully are vegetarian restaurants in Paris. But it's a start

It is! How are the vegetarian restaurants there? Oh man, I tried that word in a regular restaurant and a shop in a village in France where I was last week, but I don't think they had the faintest idea what I was talking about. I ended up making my own food, which was fine by me anyway

By the way, isn't that végétalisme a bit different from veganism? I bought a little (cook)book about it when I was there, and that's all about health. It states (or at least I think it does, but my French isn't all that good actually) that 'végétaliens' avoid meat, fish, dairy, eggs, white sugar, other refined stuff and alcohol. One of the recipes I saw uses honey. Anyway, I thought it was interesting to find out more about all the same!

[pavotrouge]

some vegans consume honey, mainly those who haven't given much thought on the topic yet.

[Magenta]

Yeah, I see - but still, alcohol and sugar are in principle vegan, aren't they? I just got the idea that v&#233;g&#233;talisme focuses more on health than anything else, and that in French there was the distinction between vegetarianism, veganism and then 'v&#233;g&#233;talisme'. I thought that was sort of interesting But I could be wrong about that, since this little book is all I ever really read about veganism in France.

[howdawg]

In Mandarin, vegetarian is pronounced something like Su Ti de
Cantonese is more like Sou Choi.. These both basically mean that you eat vegetables.. You then must explain further...

Hebrew is Tevoni (pronounced Tee Vo Nee), and means naturalist, but most people understand that it's vegan...

[ynef]

It's simply "vegan" in Swedish (pronounced "veh-gAHn" if read by an English person). I'd say that most people think that vegans are "some sort of vegetarians", but that the political/activist aspect is the only thing that differentiates vegans from vegetarians.

Sweden has been going through a vegetarian revolution lately, with alternatives to meat-based foods popping up all over the place. Sadly, vegans are (as usual) left out -- almost all of the new products rely heavily on eggs and/or milk for protein or taste.

[alilihippie]

Most people in Greece (at least young people) speak English. Though be careful they may try to serve you fish. Ironically, I rarley saw a pita there. I made a picture book, because pronouncing another language for me is impossible. Well, I never used it, because most people speak better english than I do.

[xrodolfox]

Spanish: vegano/s vegana/s *
I got this from the Vegan Society's helpful "Vegan Passport", which is always kept with my 'real' passport.


* No, I'm not Spanish but I've just got back from a Spanish speaking country.

I'm from Chile, and there we just sayed, "vegano/a"
No "s", because the plural form wasn't the norm. Even in English I say, "We're vegan" using "vegan" rather than "vegans". Only when talking about others would we say, "Those people are vegans", and in which case the plural applies. The same goes for Spanish.

"Nosotros somos vegano".

Although, in practice, most people in Chile used the genderless "vegan" just as often as the Spanishized "vegano/a". I frankly prefered the "vegan" term rather than Spanishizing it.

[LucidGreen]

In korea, there is no word for vegan.
but there is a word for vegetarian. it's called "che-sik-ju-i-ja"

[hazybluesky]

In Russian, a vegetarian man is "вегетарианец"(vegetarianets [with a hard g]) and a vegetarian women is "вегетарианка" (vegetarianka [with a hard g]). Vegan doesn't have a word that I've heard... many Russians have a hard enough time comprehending a vegetarian diet to even begin imagining a vegan one..

[bringsMore]

Vegan doesn't have a word that I've heard... many Russians have a hard enough time comprehending a vegetarian diet to even begin imagining a vegan one..

Russian word for vegan is "веган" (I prefer the stress on the first syllable, but it's not common).

[hazybluesky]

Oh, good to know! Thanks!

[Declan]

Russian word for vegan is "веган" (I prefer the stress on the first syllable, but it's not common).

Our Russian lektor stressed the first syllable too. There were at that point only three members of staff in the Russian dept and one of them is vegan so it was a word the others knew. But I swear I never want to hear anyone say Ну, молодый челобек, как можешь жить без сыра?! ever again

[bringsMore]

But I swear I never want to hear anyone say Ну, молодый челобек, как можешь жить без сыра?! ever again

How comes you learn Russian?

[Declan]

How comes you learn Russian?

I do it at uni, I thought it would be fun and something different and it turned out to be hell :P Тоже or также?! Читать or прочитать?!

[rulska]

In Greek it's simply vegan transliterated as βίγκαν. There isn't a special word, although there is a word for vegetarian (the 'hortofagos' mentioned above) and some people also use 'fytofagos', which means herbivore and is mainly used to describe plant-eating animals.

There was a debate at a time on how to properly translate 'vegan', with suggestions including terms like 'ethical vegetarian' and 'total vegetarian', but in the end the local vegan society rightly opted for the internationally recognized 'vegan'.

I'm not sure if there is a Greek word for vegan. I was once told that "hortophagos" (vegetable eater) means vegetarian but I then read that it also means "village idiot" so I've avoided using it

I sometimes try to explain that I eat only vegetables but in general it's quite easy to pick vegetable dishes from the menu - I don't think they tend to bung in bits of bacon etc the way some other countries do.

What I've found useful, esp. when ordering bakery goods is to ask if the item is suitable for fasting (nistisimo), as fasting rules here proscribe something very close to a vegan diet. Bear in mind that some animal products are allowed, mainly honey, fish eggs (but not birds' eggs) and sea food (shrimp, mussels, squid etc but not fish), but these are rarely hidden ingredients.

[Anouk]

In slovenia, the terms would be "vegetarijanka" for a female vegetarian, "vegetarijanec" for a male vegetarian, "veganka" (stress on a) for a female vegan, and "vegan" (stress on a, again) for a male vegan.

[shiny2008]

In China, it would be "严格素食"(pronounce as "yán gé sù shí") or 全素(pronounce as "quán sù").

[violet7]

In slovenia, the terms would be "vegetarijanka" for a female vegetarian, "vegetarijanec" for a male vegetarian, "veganka" (stress on a) for a female vegan, and "vegan" (stress on a, again) for a male vegan.

Anouk, i'd say stress on e ...at least some of us say so but it's probably not that important after all.

[Declan]

Anouk, i'd say stress on e ...at least some of us say so but it's probably not that important after all.

My ex was Slovene and she used to say "vegan je" when talking about me. She was from Ljubljana - maybe it's an accent or dialect thing?

[violet7]

Maybe the term varies from individual to individual, it's difficult to say what is "slovene" here. Some say vEgan cause consider the word derived from english, some don't care about that.

[veganese]

The word for vegan in Catalan is "Vegà", pronounced "ber-gah". And "Vaganu" in Aranese, pronounced "bah-gah-noo".

[leedsveg]

I'd be interested to know if there's an Inuit word for vegan.

lv