ロングテール.
Pronounced "Rongu tee-ru."
(Thanks to Kevin Kelleher for the pronunciation correction, and YF Juan for the further correction in the comments)
UPDATE: Other languages:
In Chinese it's:
长尾
Pronounced "Chaang Weei"
(Thanks to Ola Spannar)
In French, there's some debate about whether it should be:
La Longue Traîne
or
La Longue Queue
The first of those has something of the double-entendre semantics of "Tail" in English and is the cheekier option. So that's the one I prefer, of course.
In Brazilian Portuguese it's:
A Longa Cauda,
A Cauda Longa, or
A Cauda Comprida
(Thanks to Josh Bancroft; correction by André U. Manoel in the comments)
In Greek it's:
Μακριά Ουρά (Makria Oura)
Μεγάλη Ουρά (Megali Oura)
(Thanks to Yiorgos Adamopoulos)
In Dutch it's:
De Lange Staart
(Thanks to Tijmen in the comments)
In Romanian it's
Coada Lungă
(Thanks to JS Bangs)
And see the comments for Hindi, Russian, Korean and more....
How about the long tail of google searches?
http://philotech.blogspot.com/2006/08/long-tail-of-google-searches.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060817-7532.html
Posted by: TonyLeachSF | August 17, 2006 at 12:40 PM
Why this title !?!
Posted by: paris sortir | August 17, 2006 at 05:24 PM
Actually, the pronunciation "correction" is incorrect.
Using the Katakana writing as shown above, there is no "i" in "tei". Instead, it is a long "e" which is often expressed as "ee".
So it should be "rongu tee-ru". If you prefer to call it "tei-ru", it would require one more Katakana for "i" which should be written as a smaller character to indicate that it is part of the "te" syllable instead of being its own syllable.
But, who is checking...
Warm regards, YFJ
Posted by: YF Juan | August 17, 2006 at 06:27 PM
Brazilian Portuguese:
O rabo comprido
Posted by: Josh Bancroft | August 18, 2006 at 11:43 AM
In Greek:
Μακριά Ουρά (Makria Oura)
Μεγάλη Ουρά (Megali Oura)
Posted by: Yiorgos Adamopoulos | August 18, 2006 at 12:27 PM
In Dutch it's
"De Lange Staart".
Posted by: Tijmen | August 18, 2006 at 12:50 PM
Don't forget Pig Latin:
hetay onglay ailtay
sounds fun at least...
Posted by: Thatedeguy | August 18, 2006 at 01:36 PM
Please no, "O Rabo Comprido" is really really weird. It translates back to English as "The long asshole", not a very good name for a book, in my opinion.
In Brazilian Portuguese, you would prefer to have it named "a longa cauda", "a cauda longa", or "a cauda comprida".
Or maybe the other name is right and I just misunderstood what your work is all about. In that case, make sure to have age disclaimers in the cover of the book.
Posted by: André U. Manoel | August 18, 2006 at 02:43 PM
hi
i am currently reading the long tail (and enjoy it very much!) and i was wondering why here in the UK (in london to be exact) the book is called "how endless choice is creating unlimited demand" different from the US title?!
Posted by: royal | August 18, 2006 at 03:28 PM
Why not? In Romanian it's coada lungă.
Posted by: JS Bangs | August 18, 2006 at 03:37 PM
Let's see if I can make this thread even sillier:
There are multiple, conflicting romanizations of Japanese ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaji ). Following YFJ, Tokyo should be spelled Tookyoo - which of course no one does.
"Tee," "Tei" or even "Te" - it's all pronounced the same. Let's call the whole thing off.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Kelleher | August 18, 2006 at 05:59 PM
In Hindi it is "lambee poonchh", or "hanumaan poochh" ...
Posted by: Nishith Prabhakar | August 18, 2006 at 11:37 PM
Though many people won't be able to see correctly or read this.
In Korean, the translation is 긴 꼬리 . 긴 = long, 꼬리 = tail.
The transliteration of long tail is 롱(long) 테일(tail). FYI, Korean is phonetic.
For the Book Title, I think we will probably use the latter. 긴 꼬리 sounds too straightforward - animal tail.
Posted by: hyokon | August 19, 2006 at 12:55 AM
In Russian it's:
Длинный Хвост.
Pronounced "Dlinniy Khvost"
Posted by: Netmobius | August 19, 2006 at 03:41 AM
In Traditional Chinese Character:
長尾
Since July I started learning Tai Chi and one of the beauties of this martial art is the power of very small force can move a heavy guy and resist from attack. The magic inside is the accumulation of force from the human being. The Long Tail, also reveal the fact of success from aggregator model, which is quite similar to the Tai Chi theory.
On August 9 I deliver a speech to the Rotary Club of HongKong Sunrise, introducing this interesting and controversial topic to the entrepreneurs.
Posted by: Mingles Tsoi | August 20, 2006 at 05:14 AM
Here it is in Turkish :
"Uzun Kuyruk"
Cheers !
Posted by: Cevdet Basacik | August 20, 2006 at 12:32 PM
In Swedish: "Den långa svansen"
Posted by: Kal Ström | August 20, 2006 at 03:00 PM
And in Danish it would be "Den Lange Hale"
Posted by: Henrik Jepsen | August 20, 2006 at 05:47 PM
and in hebrew:
הזנב הארוך - "Hazanzv ha'aroch"
:)
Posted by: Itai Rabinowitz | August 21, 2006 at 12:27 AM
In Finnish that would be: Pitkä Häntä, or Pitkähäntä. I'd use in this case Pitkähäntä, cause in this case the whole name is important, not only 'tail' (häntä).
Nice post. I wish other blogs would test their readers' nationalities this way... fun and educational (?). =)
Posted by: Antti Lindström | August 21, 2006 at 04:55 AM
Swahili
"Mkia Refu" pronounced mmm 'keeah reh foo'
Cheers, love your book.
Posted by: AfroM | August 22, 2006 at 08:54 PM
In Urdu, it would be:
Lambhee Poonchh
OR
Lambhee Dum
Posted by: Asad | August 22, 2006 at 09:27 PM
In Croatian, it would be:
dugi rep
Posted by: Marko Kovac | August 23, 2006 at 02:22 AM
In Norwegian: Den lange halen
Posted by: Karl Philip Lund | August 23, 2006 at 08:43 AM
oh, i've got one multilingual!
in serbian/croatian/bosnian it'd be
Dugi Rep
Posted by: jasmina corovic | August 24, 2006 at 04:21 AM
I am surprised that there is no Spanish entry which would be
la cola larga (a "general" tail)
or
el rabo largo (a "zoological" tail)
==
As for the Japanese Katakana pronunciation discussion. I think the acid test is how closely it translates back from the Romanization into the Kana because Kana is phonetic. To the extent that a third person would add an "i" when there is no "i" in the original "spelling", there is room for potential improvement.
For the example of Tokyo. The first "o" is indeed a long vowel. But, the literal romanization should be Toukyo or Tookyo because the second "o" is a short vowel. And, it is for this reason, if you read some of the older (English) text on Japan, there is that bar thing on top of the first "o" in Tokyo. Furthermore, proper names such as Tokyo has really become part of the English vocabulary which is usually treated differently.
For instance, in Japanese the only difference between a "building" (biru) and a "beer" (biiru) is the long vowel. And, naturally, it would be wise to make a clear distinction in these cases. :-)!
Anyway, it is a free world and an "i" usually does not amount to much.
Warm regards, YFJ
Posted by: YF Juan | August 24, 2006 at 10:39 PM
In Slovenian it's:
dolgi rep
Pronounced 'dole-ghee rep'
Posted by: Irene Hoffman | August 27, 2006 at 08:20 AM
In German:
Der lange Schweif.
To some germans the word 'Schweif' will seem old-fashioned.
Unfortunately the obvious alternative 'Schwanz' has an ambiguous conotation.
Posted by: Maximilian Schich | August 28, 2006 at 05:12 AM
In lithuanian it's ILGA UODEGA.
Posted by: Arnold | August 29, 2006 at 06:30 AM
In Afrikaans (South African language) it translates as 'die lang stert'...
Posted by: Alan Alston | September 01, 2006 at 12:24 PM
In French the translation should actually be:
La Queue Longue
The placement of adjectives in French can be tricky but in this case as in most the adjective comes after the noun. Only in a few cases does the adjective come before the noun and that also depends on the meaning.
Posted by: Aaron | September 04, 2006 at 02:44 PM
"dlinui hvost" - in Ukrainian, but it is sound also funny in connotations, so analogy or synonims ti be used. recomendation.
Posted by: Alex Bukinis | September 09, 2006 at 11:57 PM
In basque:
"Buztan luzea"
Posted by: Mikel | September 12, 2006 at 11:56 PM
In Malay:
"Ekor panjang"
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Posted by: jgfhsuih | October 04, 2006 at 06:19 PM
Mandelbrot uses "Traîne épaisse" for French of Long Tail. It sounds good indeed.
Posted by: Vincent | February 06, 2007 at 08:37 AM
In Slovak:
Dlhý chvost
Posted by: Ivan | July 18, 2007 at 11:12 PM
Given the high levels of Japanese entrepreneurship, aren't japanese also referred to as the "Jews of Asia?"
Posted by: pda accessories | November 11, 2009 at 12:46 AM