# Indonesian: polo manis ani thijs



## samc_curious

Hi all new here!. Looks like a great place to learn more about languages. This is proabably daft but its driving me crazy! I have seen this phrase on pictures all over the net. Curious to discover the language and meaning of the phrase  polo manis ani thijs I tried google. Got nothing went through a few differrent languages to try and get a translation nothing. I guess it could even be a riddle. Wondered if it could be something like a tibetan mantra or a language which is not widely known.

Anyway thoughts anyone?!


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## L'irlandais

Hello samc,
Welcome to the forum.
Some other T-shirts on the « keep calm-o-matic » website have a phrase followed by people’s names.
So this appears on créations by somebody called ani THIJS (Flemish/Dutch name?)
polo manis looks like their catchphrase. So certainly not an unknown language, such an obscure mishmash of two unrelated languages.  polo + manis.

polo as in Polo-shirt, is said to be derived from the Balti word for ball.
manis without any accents on is harder to pin down, perhaps an attempt to give her polo a scientific classification as a species, like « Apristurus manis«  a species of shark.


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## Red Arrow

When I search for it on Google, I get: _Selamat masuk malam. Enjoy your evening. Polo manis ani thijs.
_
The first sentence is Indonesian. ("Good night") The second one is English. Thijs is indeed a common Dutch name. Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony so I am pretty sure the third sentence is some minority language spoken in Indonesia.

There are 700 languages spoken in Indonesia. Good luck finding the correct one 

EDIT: In Indonesian and Javanese, "manis" means 'sweet'.


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## L'irlandais

Well you might exclude 63 of them, which are dying/endangered languages and unlikely to be present on the WWW, given the advanced age of their native speakers, and the isolation of the communities where they are spoken. Those lucky enough to have an online presence are surely most likely promoting their language rather than being obscure about it.

Given that this Ani Thijs individual, has many entries on the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON website.
And that some, but not all of them are bilingual Indonesian + English.
If the third line was a minority language translation, then one might expect it to vary as much as the bilingual bit varies, right?


			
				Ani Thijs said:
			
		

> Selamat hari ulang tahun
> Cheers on your birthday.
> _polo manis ani thijs_
> 
> Selamat Malam Selamat Tidur Selamat Mimpi
> N A M A S T É
> _Polo Manis Ani Thijs_
> 
> Selamat Hari Labor
> _Polo Manis Ani Thijs_
> 
> Yout Kalo Mina
> May Prayers Be Heard And Your Dreams Come True
> _Polo Manis Ani Thijs_
> 
> Sending Love Light to Everyone
> N a M a S T É
> _Polo Manis Ani Thijs_
> 
> Along with at least 10 image variations on
> Selamat Malam
> Sleep well.
> _Polo Manis Ani Thijs_


Cute Polo(shirt), still sounds like a signature line to me.


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## Red Arrow

If Ani is part of the name, then we don't need to search further. It's just Indonesian. Maybe this line comes from a TV show or something.


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