Snus Product Names?

[lxskllr]

I've been curious about the snus product names lately. They give a health warning in Swedish, as is the ingredients list, yet the names are all Anglo?? I was wondering if any of you could provide insight into this. I find it odd that they'd choose an Anglo name when the product doesn't really have much of a presence outside of the Scandinavian countries.

[Zero]

The names are almost all Swedish except for a few.


Ettan - swedish for "first"
Grovsnus - "coarse snus"
Knox - tradename, afaik (cheezwhiz, etc)
Skruf - same as above
Level - ok, that's english
Kronan - "crown"
General - swedish is the same as english (General, Generallöjtnant, Generalmajor, Brigadgeneral)
Diplomat - same word as english
Granit - "granite"
Offroad - ok, that's english
L.D. - initials?
Gustavus - proper name
Probe - english, ok... but it's made with yank whiskey
Kicks - same word as english (to kick)
Roots - that's english... trendy?
Gotlandssnus - from Gotland, Sweden ("home of the goths")
Röda Lacket - "red lacquer"
Göteborgs Rapé - from Göteborg, Sweden - Rapé is from French for "grated"
Nick & Johnny - 'nuff said.

So that's five out of the lot which have english names.


... I think that's most of them

[lxskllr]

Catch
Rocker
Lucky Strike - This one I understand
Metropol - This almost seems universal, Google seems to like Russia most though.
Wise
Mocca - Rather generic, just a trademark name

I guess it is a minority, and I didn't realize some of the words are the same, but still... Considering there's either no market presence, or outright illegal to sell to most of the English world I find it a little strange. Even on some of the Swedish named brands they'll use English descriptive terms :^/

[alex]

The use of english words could be for the 'hip' effect. I know in Japan many companies will use English in their advertising or even brand names for the 'cool' factor. Just an idea.

[Zero]

Yeah, lots of cinema comes from the US so language definitely has hip-factor. Metropol is swedish for "metropolis", btw.

True, though - even General has the slogan "The one taste", for example. The english that is used is pretty cherrypicked, mind you. It's probably safer to trademark a foreign-language based brand name than something which was swedish and in common use - makes it more distinctive. Picking the "best" english ones early means scooping them from the competition as well.

[Craig de Tering]

Yups.
Catch, Rocker ,Wise just sound...well...catchy :lol:
As for Röda lacket, Göteborgs Prima Fint and Göteborg Rapé... I know the first means "Red Seal" and the last means "Gothenburg's Rasped" (meaning a rasp was used on the tobacco, I read so somewhere). Don't know what "fint" means though.

[Subtilo]

The names are almost all Swedish except for a few.

General - swedish is the same as english (General, Generallöjtnant, Generalmajor, Brigadgeneral)

Yes, I thought that too for a long time. But actually it refers to something else. I quote and translate from Swedish Wikipedia:

Namnet General har inget med den militära tjänstegraden general att göra utan general i detta fall betyder "allmän" eller "generell". Under 1800-talet var det vanligt att tobakshandlarna kallade sitt vanliga standardsnus för "general-snus", dvs "allmänt snus".

(http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_%28snus%29)

The name General has nothing to do with the military rank general, unless it refers to the terms "ordinary" or "general" (responding to 'ordinary'). In the 19th century it was common for tobacco dealers to call the standard snus "general-snus", meaning "ordinary snus".

[Subtilo]

Göteborgs Prima Fint (...) Don't know what "fint" means though.

'Fint' refers to 'fine' as in 'fine cut' tobacco.

[Soft Morning, City!]

Okay, so I'm a little bit embarrassed about asking this, but it needs to be asked.

How do you pronounce the word Rapé, as in Goteborgs Rapé? All of my friends see my cans of GR and ask me how it's pronounced, but I've never been sure. So if anybody could give me a phonetic spelling of it, it would be of great help.

Seeing as how GR is one of my favorites, I feel I should be able to pronounce it.

[KentuckySnusser]

Rah-pay

[lxskllr]

Okay, so I'm a little bit embarrassed about asking this, but it needs to be asked.

How do you pronounce the word Rapé, as in Goteborgs Rapé? All of my friends see my cans of GR and ask me how it's pronounced, but I've never been sure. So if anybody could give me a phonetic spelling of it, it would be of great help.

Seeing as how GR is one of my favorites, I feel I should be able to pronounce it.

Embarrassed having cans of goat rape sitting around the house eh? :P I think its pronounced Goat e borg rap ay

[Soft Morning, City!]

lxskllr:

Ah, that's how I thought it was pronounced. I've just never been positive of it. It seemed like the most logical pronunciation.

Thank you much.

[Zero]

I think its pronounced Goat e borg rap ay

close - the swedish soft "G" is pronounced like a "y" and the ö is similar to the german (but softer), so it's sort of: "yeuh'-te-beu-rye's rap-ay"

[Soft Morning, City!]

Zero:

Thank you, thank you. I shall now speak the name that my friends find most comical with precision and pride.

Goat Rape no longer.

[lxskllr]

close - the swedish soft "G" is pronounced like a "y" and the ö is similar to the german (but softer), so it's sort of: "yeuh'-te-beu-rye's rap-ay"

Thank's Zero, I thought J gave the Y sound. What does J sound like?