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Smurfspeaking
Peewit in The Smurfs And The Magic Flute gets frustrated with trying to speak in Smurf.
Smurfing In Smurf
It's just not easy for humans to speak in Smurf!
What Are You Smurfing About
Don't bother asking for a translation!

Johan IconComics IconCartoon IconFilm Icon2021 TV Show Icon

Smurf: Our village has been smurfed by a smurf that smurfs smurf.
Homnibus: A "smurf that smurfs smurf"? I don't understand, what is he saying?
Peewit: Easy, he says that his village has been visited by a bandit who talks through his nose.
Sir Johan: Really, I suspect that he's talking about a plague that came from the sky.
King: No, no, you got it all wrong, it's a wolf that came from the forest.
Smurf: No, that isn't it either.
Peewit: An elephant who blew his horn then?
King: Or a wildman who drinks blood?
- A lucky escapee Smurf in the comic book version of "The Cursed Land" trying to tell that their village had been demolished (Smurfed) by a dragon (A Smurf) that breathes fire (That smurfs smurf).

The Smurf language is basically a variation of a human language where the word "smurf" is substituted for whatever noun, verb, adjective, or adverb is being used. It is a rather intuitive form of communication, since only Smurfs seem to know without any sense of confusion what one Smurf is really saying to another Smurf in Smurf. It mostly depends on what context the word "smurf" is being used in since it can hold any number of meanings, including sometimes profanity, as accidentally and then later deliberately invoked by Patrick Winslow in the 2011 Smurfs movie.

In "Where's My Smurfway?" in the 2021 TV series, Smurfette stalls Brainy by asking if she should be "smurfing" in public. It is unknown what exactly the "smurfing" part of this conversation means.

Occasionally, debates tend to break out in the manner of the word "smurf" being used in compounded words and phrases, as one Smurf might say "corksmurf" and another Smurf might say "smurfscrew", though both are correct forms of the word. This verbal debate led to the events that took place in the 1980s cartoon show special "The Smurfic Games" as well as the comic book story "Smurf Versus Smurf".

In the animated version of The Smurfs And The Magic Flute, Peewit attempted to ask for a glass of water in Smurf to a fellow Smurf, only to get other things instead. Brainy tries to explain, "to speak in Smurf, the verb and noun must both agree, and adjectives make the meaning vary" -- though as usual he gets bludgeoned over the head. Peewit also mistranslated a message that was spoken by another Smurf in Smurf, which required Papa Smurf to provide the correct translation. In "The Fake Smurf" comic story, when Gargamel (Hogatha in the 1981 series adaptation) was masquerading as a Smurf, he was confused when the Smurf (Vanity in the 1981 series adaptation) tried to tell him something in Smurf.

Not all Smurfs speak in Smurf. Wild in the 1981 cartoon show uses squirrel chatter and hand signals to communicate to other Smurfs. Hackus, a Naughty that was turned into a Smurf in The Smurfs 2, and Wild in the comic book and 2021 TV series, have speech patterns similar to Bigmouth's mannerisms in the 1981 series and 2021 series and thus isn't likely to speak in Smurf fluently.

The Smurf language is considerably more exaggerated in "The Smurfs And The Magic Flute" than in later stories, and Papa Smurf had to translate for Johan and Peewit. The Smurf language only got more comprehensible when they starred in their own series' first comic book story, "The Black Smurfs".

Common expressions

  • Smurfy -- when used in a positive manner, it can mean happy, merry, or something that is totally agreeable with the ways of a Smurf; when used negatively, it can mean crazy, silly, or foolish.
  • Unsmurfy -- used to mean bad or something that is totally disagreeable with the ways of a Smurf.
  • Smurftastic -- same as "fantastic" or "interesting".
  • Smurfy idea -- same as "good idea".
  • Isn't that smurfy -- same as "isn't that great"; it can be used either positively or negatively.
  • That's just smurfy -- same as "that's just great"; usually used in a manner describing disgust or disappointment.
  • Great smurfness -- same as "great goodness"; used to indicate shock or surprise.
  • Holy Smurf! -- same as "holy cow!", usually used by Farmer Smurf.
  • In the name of Smurf/a Smurf -- same as "in the name of God".
  • Great smurfs of fire -- same as "great balls of fire"; usually used by Papa Smurf.
  • Smurf and begora -- same as "faith and begorrah"; usually used by Miner Smurf.
  • Smurfaroo -- same as "yahoo"; usually used by the Smurflings.
  • What in the Smurf? -- same as "what in the world?", used to indicate astonishment or disbelief.
  • Smurf for your lives! -- same as "run for your lives!", used to indicate danger.
  • Smurfsense --- same as "nonsense", used to indicate something that does not have any meaning or make no sense.

Real-world origin

The original term and the accompanying language came during a meal Peyo was having with his colleague and friend André Franquin in which, having momentarily forgotten the word "salt", Peyo asked him (in French) to pass the schtroumpf. Franquin replied: "Here's the Schtroumpf — when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back" and the two spent the rest of that weekend speaking in schtroumpf language. The name was later translated into Dutch as Smurf, which was adopted in English. This origin appears in veiled form in the original French version of "The Smurfs And The Book That Tells Everything".

External Link

  • "Smurf Misunderstandings", a fan-created "non-canonical" short featuring Smurfs who also can't understand each other in Smurf. (NOTE: The nature of the video may not be appropriate for general audiences.)
  • Smurfing at TV Tropes, for examples in other media about similar types of languages.
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