Tänavalt / From the Street
(H)ommiku ummik
PHOTO
A fantastic
reklaam (advertisement) for its witty play on words. Not
Tere hommikust (Good morning), but
Tere ummikust (Hello from the
ummik).
If a drain is
umbes, it's clogged. If it's
umbne inside a room, there's a lack of fresh air. If there are a lot of vehicles on the road, which are hardly moving, it's a
liiklus/ummik (traffic jam).
A few of my Estonian friends, who lived in Toronto for a number of years before returning to Eesti, did a funny direct translation and referred to the
fenomen of the never-before-witnessed Canadian traffic jam as a
liiklus/moos,
moos being the jam you put on your
pannkook. But that was a joke.
Since words beginning with an H almost always lose it in spoken Estonian –
hobune (horse) sounds more like
obune and
hernes (pea) like
ernes, then
Tere ummikust is most certainly what you can hear in many parts of Estonia, especially in places where there is a more distinct regional dialect.
This is an ad for the Olerex
bensiini/jaam (gas station) aka
tankla, where you "tank" (the verb
tankima) or fill your tank. It also serves
kohvi to go (in a cup marked
Teeline – Wayfarer) and certain
ampsud (snacks / mouthfuls), such as the given breakfast sandwich. Looks like fried egg with
peekon, lettuce and a slice of pickle on dark rye. Sitting on the passanger seat of a car. The text below reads:
Naudi värsket ummikueinet! Enjoy a fresh "gridlock" meal! And in the hard to see box in the upper right:
Õnnelik ummikutund 7.00-10.00 – Happy traffic jam hour 7:00-10:00. Must also be the time you can order the
või/leib (sandwich).
The image of eating said
hommiku/söök or
ummiku/söök (breaky) while sitting in a
liiklus/ummik, with the announcer on your car raadio shouting
Tere hommikust!, to which you can shout back
Tere ummikust! is
perfektne. I wish I'd thought of it.
Nagu rusikas silma/auku – fits "like a fist in your eye" or
kümnesse! – "into (the) ten", as in Bullseye!
Riina Kindlam, Tallinn
