26 January 2010

Tobacco Warning

When dealing with two languages, it is interesting sometimes to compare the translated versions of texts, to see whether the two versions have the same meaning. Here is the English version of the health warning on a packet of cigarettes in Brunei:
And here is the Malay version of the warning on the same packet of cigarettes:


It seems that the Malay version is less intense: it says that cigarette smoke endangers (membahayakan) your baby, while the English version says it harms your baby.

Is this deliberate? Has a decision been made to tone down the message in Malay? Or is the difference just accidental? I guess we'll never know.

(My thanks to Adrian Clynes for giving me this example.)