12

In the Minions movie, the Minions seem to speak bits and pieces of at least English and Italian (I think). For example, when counting, they count, 'uno, duo, tree'. When they wanted to know what was going on, they would ask, 'que paso'. And, of course, English words like 'boss' were scattered throughout. I didn't understand most of what they were saying, but this leads me to wonder what language(s) they were speaking.

What language, or mash up of languages, did the Minions speak?

Improve this question
6
  • 3
    "Some of the words are from other foreign languages like Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Filipino."; despicableme.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Beckoliver.marron/…
    – Valorum
    Jul 26, 2015 at 0:13
  • Great catch! That looks the start of an answer :-)
    – atk
    Jul 26, 2015 at 0:19
  • 3
    I for one don't understand the downvotes here… +1 from me. (As a corollary, or perhaps a different question altogether: if the Minions are so many millions of years old, how come their language, such as it is, seems to consist entirely of fragments of modern-day languages from all around the world? And what did they speak before humans started developing their laryngeal and lingual muscles to accommodate speech?)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Jul 26, 2015 at 16:40
  • 3
    They speak Minionese. Various human cultures adopted words from their language over the millenia, not we from them :)
    – Stan
    Jul 26, 2015 at 21:06
  • 1
    seriously +1 from me as well, seems to be a valid question. Why so much flurry of downvotes ??? do explain so that the OP can better himself / herself.
    – RicoRicochet
    Jul 27, 2015 at 9:26

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
11

This is addressed on this site.

The Minions speak 'Minion-ese', which is described as being

especially created for Despicable Me Minions? Some of the words are derived from Spanish, Japanese and even Korean words.

Here is a Minion-ese Dictionary from which we see the following real languages are used:

  • Korean (Dul)
  • Italian (Gelato)
  • Japanese (Kampai)
  • Spanish (Para tu)
  • Filipino (Pwede na)
  • English (Banana)
  • Russian (Source)

EDIT

As pointed out by @b_jonas in the comments, German is also used when Kevin is thought to be dead

Improve this answer
4
  • 3
    (Of course, para tu is not proper Spanish—that would be para ti.)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Jul 27, 2015 at 13:24
  • Didn't one of the creators state in an interview that the language was largely based on French?
    – Stormie
    Jul 27, 2015 at 13:37
  • Nice answer, @N_Soong. +1
    – Praxis
    Jul 31, 2015 at 14:10
  • 1
    German is included as well. When the minions think Kevin died, they clearly say "tot".
    – b_jonas
    Jun 20, 2016 at 6:50
2

There was definitely French in there...one of the minions says "la-bas..." (at one point in the film, when the minions split up in different directions). Interestingly enough, I also picked up a phrase in Bahasa Indonesia, when one of the minions responds "Terima Kasi" or "Thank you".

Improve this answer
-1

They speak wide variety of languages mostly are the mixture of languages.

here is the language translated and origins.

http://www.fiz-x.com/minions-banana-language-translated/

Improve this answer
1
  • Welcome to SFFSE! This is what we call a 'link-only' answer; your answer's quality would be greatly improved if you extracted the information from the site you have linked to and detail this information in your answer, citing the website of course!
    – Often Right
    Sep 18, 2015 at 9:08

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.