# Swedish: spökjursfodrade pungskinnshandskar



## bella439

Hello,

I'm stumped on a phrase I came across in a Swedish book I'm reading. (The book is written in dialect.) Most I can understand, but the following phrase totally stumps me:

spökjursfodrade pungskinnshandskar

<Deleted text>

Best regards,
bella439


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## Södertjej

Welcome to the forums. 

Please provide the full sentences and some context. Scrotum skin gloves sounds very odd to me...

Btw, isn't it spök*d*jursfodrade? This is a spökdjur


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## bella439

Thanks for the replay!

The spelling I gave is correct. And yes, scrotum gloves sound extremely odd to me as well! That's the only translation I could come up with, though.  The context is this:

Ja bar lovikkavantar, men morfar had spökjursfodrade pungskinnshandskar, some kosta mer än dom flesta hemmen på svarta marknan.

<Deleted text>


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## Södertjej

A couple of things:

1. The way it's written it looks like chatspeak/texting, (meaning writing as things are pronounced) so I wouldn't take the spelling very seriously there. I know spökdjur but never heard of spökjur though. And using those cute animals for glove lining is beyond my understanding.

2. Please just one question per thread, as the forum rules require. You'll find them on the link above.


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## bella439

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I had overlooked the particular rile you're talking about. I will certainly keep that in mind for future posts.


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## USB-anslutning

The meaning of pung here probably isn't scrotum, it's more likely to be pouch, like what kangaroos have.
So it's tarsier-lined pouchskin gloves.


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## bella439

Thank you so much for the reply! I really appreciate it.


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## Magnus A.

Your quotation is obviously from Nikanor Teratologen’s [pseudonym for Niclas Lundkvist] 1992 novel _Äldreomsorgen i Övre Kågedalen._ That book is not written in standard Swedish, but – especially in the dialogues – in a language influenced by the spoken Swedish of the northern part of the province of Västerbotten, “Skelleftebondska” (though largely normalized). That is why the silent _d_ in _spökdjur_ has been omitted.

I suppose those who have suggested the translations previously in this thread have not read the book. Considering the grotesque and frankly abominably revolting personality of the morfar character, I’m convinced that _pung_ should be ‘scrotum’ in this case. No “pouch” there!

So the correct translation would actually be
*“tarsier-lined scrotum-skin gloves”* – I’m afraid!

The author may well have chosen to use the word _spökdjur_ (‘tarsier’) because the Swedish compound literally means ‘ghost-creature’. The association to ghosts is of course lost in the English translation.

(And it should be “dom flesta *hemman*” – not “hemmen”. _Hemman_ means ‘homestead’ or ‘farm’.)


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## Södertjej

Där ser man! Det var jätte intressant, tusen tack!


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## bella439

Thanks! I really appreciate it.


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