Playschool has a lot to answer for

Um yeah.

So for some reason, when I came across the word "sein" (wall) this morning, I felt compelled to translate the Play School classic "Here's a house with a wall" into Estonian.

The original lyrics are sadly (and strangely) missing from the Play School website (Play School is all about the songs, people - the songs should be on the site), but you can find some of the Play School songs here, for the time being.

The original lyrics are:

Here's a house with a wall
with a wall
with a wall
Here's a house with a floor
with a floor
with a floor
Here's a house with a roof
with a roof
with a roof...
(Here's a house falling down...)
There's no house anymore
anymore
there's no house anymore!

And, here's my attempt, cobbled together from my own limited knowledge, a handy online dictionary and Google's translate feature - and now with corrections offered by actual speakers of Estonian!:

Siin on maja seinaga
seinaga
seinaga
Siin on maja põrandaga
põrandaga
põrandaga
Siin on maja katusega
katusega
katusega...
(See siin on maja, mis on kokku kukkumas)
Maja ei ole enam
ei enam
Maja ei ole enam!

For comparisons, when you run the lyrics straight through Google you get this:

siin on maja seina
vastu seina
vastu seina
siin majas korrus
mille põranda
mille põranda
siin on maja katus
koos katuse
koos katuse...
(Siin on maja alla kukkumine ...)
Ei ole maja enam
enam
Ei ole maja enam!

But, Google's version changes depending on where you put the line breaks. Sometimes it has "siin majas" rather than "siin on maja".

I don't know if Google is more on the money than I am, but my version fits in better with the music. Well, except for that põrandaga line, but there wasn't much I could do about that - all of the Eesti words for "floor" had too many syllables.

Actually I've always wondered about this song. Is it one of those silly little kid's songs that are just about sounds and patterns, like Hickory Dickory Dock, or is it trying to teach a valuable lesson in architecture: houses with only one wall cannot be expected to remain standing?