# Swedish or Danish?: oestranchiovis



## jasminasul

Hello,
I'm proofreading the Spanish translation of a Swedish film and I don't seem to find this word. 
I'm also not sure if it's Swedish or Danish. Is this the correct spelling?

Then we're having two _krebsehaler _with _dildmayonnaise._ 
And then it's _ditto _with filleted _*oestranchiovis *halvfjers_  and raw _aeggeblomme._ 
An Oskar Davidson Creation, some _smoerrebroed_  with _ekstrafint skrabet råt koed..._


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## serbianfan

The rest of the text is Danish, but this word seems to be a mixture. Oysters is østers in Danish and anchovies is ansjovis in Swedish. I searched for 'oyster anchovies' in English to see if that existed, but it doesn't seem to. Maybe the words should be separate: oysters and anchovies (?)


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## jasminasul

I thought it was either _oyster anchovies_ or _Eastern anchovies_. I don't see why the English translator didn't solve this. If everybody spoke Nordic languages they wouldn't need subtitles.
Thank you serbianfan, I will just flag it so that they can correct it.


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## serbianfan

"If everybody spoke Nordic languages..." Well, you should have welcomed the Vikings and offered them sangría when they came to Spain, instead of chasing them away, then you'd all be speaking Scandinavian today...


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## jasminasul

We welcomed everybody in Andalusia. People just came and stayed, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Jews.
It was the Northerners that wanted to kick everybody out. *With tongue firmly in her cheek*


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## AutumnOwl

Could it be östersjöansjovis = inlagd sill från Östersjön
Ansjovis (fiskkonserv) – Wikipedia


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## jasminasul

So _öster _means East and Östersjö is the Baltic Sea? That might be it. Thank you again.


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## raumar

The Östersjö explanation is plausible, but I found another possibility:





Apparently, "Østers ansjos" was a type/brand of canned anchovies, produced in Norway:
Bjellands  – Østers ansjos, med renseanvisning – Skrototeket

It does not exist today, but this is maybe from an old movie?


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## jasminasul

It is, yes. With a very young Max von Sydow.
Thank you raumar.


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## raumar

I did some more googling, and discovered that there were "oyster anchovies" in Sweden as well. In Swedish it is "ostron ansjovis":
Carlotta - Objekt

So this must have been a general type of anchovies, not a specific brand  name.


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## piccando

It seems like "Østers-ansjos" has been used as a trade name of the more accessible sprats.


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## Parlons Suédois

piccando said:


> It seems like "Østers-ansjos" has been used as a trade name of the more accessible sprats.


In Sweden, the product called "ansjovis" on the shop shelves, and which is an important ingredient in Janssons Frestelse, is based on the fish with the latin name Sprattus sprattus, and a certain mix of spices. It has quite a pungent flavour, and the texture is more like pickled herring than cooked fish. The stuff that you might find on a pizza or in your salade niçoise, is called "sardeller" in Swedish. And the tin marked "sardiner" on the shelf might contain almost any small fish, including Sprattus sprattus and actual sardines (Sardina something-or-other).


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## Sepia

Anything that would have to do with "Østersø" or "Östersjö" would be wrong because they don't live in the Baltic Sea. They live in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. Besides, what is known as the Euorpean Anchiovy is the species  _Engraulis encrasicolus_ 

Sweish "sardeller" are probably the same - when I buy them in Germany I also have to look for "Sardellen". I have no idea what they would have to do with oysters. They are quite small, expensive, and their main function in cooking is simply to add taste. At least in Italian cooking. The smallest ones have such a strong tast thay you can hardly eat them solo.

According to Aftenposten  Ansjosen er i boks   the socalled "norsk ansjos" is actually a "brisling" - sprattus sprattus.  

Why they call them "østers-ansjoser" is still not clear to me. Scandinavian cooking is not my cup of tea.


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## winenous

Sepia said:


> According to Aftenposten  Ansjosen er i boks   the socalled "norsk ansjos" is actually a "brisling" - sprattus sprattus.


...and if you click on the link given by @raumar, it says they are "brisling" on the side of the can. But on the bottom it refers to the fish as "ansjos". 

I was looking at the words for various small fish recently for another reason, and quickly concluded that there was a lot of confusion, between and within various countries. It seems very few people care about scientific species, and they are just marketed with names they think customers would understand.

In the UK, the John West brand sells tins labelled "brisling" and "sardines", and as far as I understand it they are basically the same thing, but "brisling" are a bit smaller. They also have "sild", which John West say are small herring. Wictionary says "sild" is "any young herring (other than a sprat), especially if canned and processed in Scandinavia for sale as a sardine" - so maybe "sardines" are sometimes "herring". In the UK, anchovies seem to be usually small brown canned fillets, which you put on pizza, but you can get white anchovies (cured differently), which are larger and not canned.


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## serbianfan

Wow! Jasminasul, I bet you didn't expect so many replies. I think I almost have enough material now to do a PhD on this topic!


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## jasminasul

I was going to write that this is the thread that keeps on giving.
You crack me up serbianfan.
Thank you and thanks to all of you guys for your help.


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## AutumnOwl

Sepia said:


> Anything that would have to do with "Østersø" or "Östersjö" would be wrong because they don't live in the Baltic Sea. They live in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. Besides, what is known as the Euorpean Anchiovy is the species  _Engraulis encrasicolus_


The fish called _ansjovis_ in Sweden when it ends up in a tin is not the true anchovy, it's _skarpsill_, as others here have explained. The true anchovy is called _sardell_ here. The _skarpsill_ lives in the Baltic Sea, and it can be fished and turn into ansjovis now. Skarpsillen mår bra i Östersjön – nu kan du äta hållbar ansjovis. Eller?


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## Sepia

I hope you are all aware that this is only one of many cases where the fish that is sold as food is called something totally different than it biological name. 
This seems to be legal although I cannot quite understand why. Maybe it is because it has been done for hundteds of years before thete were any consumer protevtion laws.


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## jasminasul

I've just heard back from the project manager. Apparently he's trying to read the menu in Danish and he's botching the pronunciation, to the mirth of his Danish-speaking date, but they could not translate this into English.
I have suggested: _Ost... oest... 'oestranchiovis' or something like that_.
And in Spanish:  _Ost... oest... 'oestranchiovis' o algo así_.
Another solution could be using the phonetic transliteration of difficult French words, like: _Be... Bo... 'Boof' Bourguignon._


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