Here's a fun game for all the family. Can you identify these items from the world's favourite purveyor of stylish but affordable home furnishings, namely Ikea of Sweden?
a) Logga: is this most likely to be a gateleg table, a clothes' rack or a toothbrush holder? b) Trogen: baby's cot, soap dish, photo frame? c) Peng: packing-box, clock, mirror. And how about Slöjda, Pelto, Pyssla, Fjärding or (we are not making this up) Fartfull?
Thanks to Cal Henderson - architect, among other things, of the internet photo-site Flickr - you too can now go to iamcal.com/games/ikea/ and enjoy endless hours of amusement trying to guess what all those bizarre, wacky Ikea product names might actually refer to. Cal's game does not yet include the company's latest line, BoKlok, but I can tell you that it is pronounced "boo-klook", is Swedish for "smart living", and is the name Ikea has given its range of budget prefab accommodation, currently nearing completion in (for some reason) Gateshead.
There is, however, a way to win every time at the Ikea Game. It involves learning Swedish and a lot of Scandinavian place names, unfortunately, but that accomplished you will never again be fooled into thinking that Julfrid could ever be a dining table rather than a straw goat. For Ikea product names follow a system: because the company's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, is dyslexic, he found that naming products with proper names and words made them easier to identify.
Sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage and doorknobs are named after places in Sweden (Klippan, Malmö); beds, wardrobes and hall furniture after places in Norway; carpets after places in Denmark and dining tables and chairs after places in Finland. Bookcases are mainly occupations (Bonde, peasant farmer; Styrman, helmsman). Bathroom stuff is named after lakes and rivers.
Kitchens are generally grammatical terms, and kitchen utensils are spices, herbs, fish, fruits, berries, or functional words such as Skarpt (it means sharp, and it's a knife). Chairs and desks are Swedish men's names (Roger, Joel); materials and curtains are women's names. Children's items are mammals, birds and adjectives (Ekorre is a set of children's toy balls; it means squirrel). So now you know.