Simlish

Simlish is the language of the Sims. It is assumed that Simlish is the official language of SimNation.

There is no official Simlish dictionary, but an unofficial dictionary, based on The Sims 2, can be found here. (Archived)

History
Simlish was created because Will Wright, creator of The Sims, knew that the game needed dialogue, but thought that using real life languages such as English would cause the dialogue to be repetitive and would be expensive translating the entire dialog Sims may say. Wright did consider experimenting with Navajo, a Native American language, but decided that it would be better to use a "nonsense language" that couldn't be translated, because the meaning could be left to the player's imagination.

Some say it may be a mixture of Ukrainian, Navajo, and Tagalog, but this has not been confirmed.

Non-Simlish phrases
On occasion, non-Simlish phrases are heard in the Sims games.


 * In The Sims, when a child is eating food, he/she may say "Mmm... yummy!"
 * In The Sims, when a female adult is chopping food sometimes they will say "Ouch!"
 * In The Sims, when a male adult is disgusted sometimes he will say "Yuck!"
 * In The Sims, when a Sim is ordering pizza on the phone, they may say "No way!", a common gossiping phrase.
 * In The Sims 2, while playing with a stuffed bear, toddlers might say a phrase similar to "Stupid bear!".
 * In The Sims 2: University, Sims who reject the "school cheer" interaction say something that sounds like "No love for gerbits." ("Gerbit" appears to be Simlish for llama.)
 * In The Sims 3, a female Sim might occasionally say "Urocka (bit of silence) lalala kondo" when she declines an opportunity.
 * In The Sims 3, a female character on the KidZone television channel says "Oh, hello!"
 * Sometimes in The Sims 3: Late Night, when a Mixologist serves a good drink, the Sim who drinks it will say "Awesome!" in English.
 * When watching the Sports Universe channel or playing Football on the computer, one of the announcers will say "Look at him go!" followed by Simlish.
 * When there is a child aging up with the Birthday Inferno Birthday Cake, if there is another child on the lot, that child will say "Happy birthday!" if you listen very closely.
 * In The Sims 3, Sims that are on the phone with another Sim tend to say weird, funny phrases (especially when they're inviting the Sim over). Some common phrases are: "You're blonde! Zep you're blonde," and "You're...You're Jessy Madoo!"
 * During scouting events in The Sims 3: Generations, a child may ask "Where do nooboos come from?" ("Nooboo" is the Simlish word for baby.)
 * In The Sims 3, when playing computer games, you can sometimes hear a voice say "Ref. 59'" from the game.
 * In The Sims 3: World Adventures, male Sims are sometimes heard to say "Come'on!" while using the Board Breaker.

The Sims
The Sims featured a lot more Simlish than SimCopter (the first Maxis game to feature Simlish), and was also a lot clearer. Some common phrases are "ralalalalib bubaya," "commun snanna," and "o frazinnratt," but the number of available phrases were limited, which led to some repetition.

The Sims 2
The Sims 2 comes with more audible and newer phrases like "e wam." Common phrases are now "daj daj" and "ackabunad." Common greetings include "sule-sule" and "dag dag". When there is a problem, Sims will say "shooflee" and "anaconda" often. When some female Sims walk by another Sim, their greeting varies from "Ooh, voodoo!" to "Lick a rock!" They reportedly swear sometimes. Much to the amusement of many players, pregnant Sims have been known to shout "WooHoo!" while giving birth. When female elders play at the poker table in Nightlife, they will often say "Texas Goushem" which is probably a reference to Texas HoldEm (a type of poker card game). In the Pets expansion pack, when a Sim is teaching their pet to "shake," they will say "shurb" repeatedly, as well as when they teach to "speak," they will say "sperk."

When an object is in their way, females will say "Nib! Frabanage! Haloo! Frinding," or, "Oh! Ambloo. Umm...sesaru?" Males will usually say "Gah! Do caraweeb hushizey." Other male route failure phrases include "Ugh! Dondish! Iguay!" and "Wassey! Woohoo! Ipuepueseh?" With teens, the females may say "Crom noopla! Nakasiki!" while males will say "Akapoog! Gillapano! Giborg!" or "Dungab! Dibeegz! Hallagidou" If there is a problem, female teens/young adults might say something like "Gravala! Miinou!" or "Marachalavi!" while males might say "Aboppaitabaa!" when the child say "Oh! Nikoshab! Wubba Shig Vadou!" and "Blidag ivab wub ajig bado" and then female elders would say "Wosh! Holag? Honyo butib!" and the male elders say "Geh! Hosho mido! Gerro Gerro!" and "Mah! Milato! Halaree"

The Marco Polo from Seasons was originally named Timle Tourneau, and you can clearly hear Sims exclaiming "Timle" and "Tourneau" instead of "Marco" and "Polo". Tim LeTourneau is, in fact, one of the staff of EA. When Witches and Warlocks in Apartment Life use the cauldron, they will say the last names of EA staff members, such as Macarevich, Majekodunmi, and Parmeley.

The Sims 3
The Sims 3 has the largest Simlish vocabulary. Common phrases are "teg teg," "swebsi madoo," "madoof napso," "abondandlain...en som," "hubble herbi," "etne condoroy," "shawbo glub," "switz zorg," "tippaha yooredful," "shabow," "sussel," "ibzy biz ochoy," "ayba miyba mo," "sa dooga," "ib ou," "narbo puhzed," and "yargbo bay tazzle." Sims also shout "Shamo! Jatzkey," "Wala," or, most often, "Ugh! Chee waga choochoo! Ugh!" when they cannot reach a certain area (accompanied by a "no footsteps" speech bubble). "Un jandebo" is common for a flirtatious action.

When a Sim is about to woohoo and someone else besides the partner is in the room they may shoo the sims and say "Blanche, blanche!" (White,White in French)

The Sims 3 is also the first Sims game where players can adjust the Sims' voices to sound exactly as they want them to sound.

The Sims 4
In The Sims 4 website, there is a note in Simlish, next to the newsletter subscription. The message itself is claimed to hold meaning thanks to a clue on the Sims 3 Facebook page.



The Sims Medieval
It has been stated that Sims in The Sims Medieval do not speak Simlish, but rather a precursor to Simlish known as "Old Simlish." Compared to modern Simlish, Old Simlish has a more elegant sound, and more closely resembles languages such as French (in one such example, when someone kneels to a King in front of a throne, the King may say "Deboo!", which is similar to "débout", the French word for "stand up"). The difference between Old Simlish and Simlish may be similar to the differences between modern English and Middle English.

Old Simlish phrases are also used by role playing children in The Sims 3: Generations.

Simlish Songs
The Sims 2 features many renditions of popular songs sung by the original artists. Some have music videos created by EA, such as Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine" or Katy Perry's "Hot 'n' Cold." However, there are also other songs that don't feature music videos but can be found in the game, such as The Veronicas' "When it All Falls Apart" or Tata Young's "Zoom." These songs can be found in various radio stations in the game depending on the song's genre.

The Sims 2 for the PC is not the only game that features Simlish songs. Paramore's "Pressure" can be heard in The Sims 2 for the PS2 and various Black Eyed Peas songs are heard in The Urbz: Sims in the City, where the band is one of the prominent NPC characters found in Cosmo Street. There's also a Simlish version of "Time Bomb," performed by All Time Low, that can be heard in The Sims 3: Generations trailer.

Some of these songs are only available on Sims radio when certain expansion packs are installed. Ones with music videos often give clues to which expansion pack they are found in, such as Hot 'n' Cold (Apartment Life), Pocketful of Sunshine (Freetime), Fa Fa Fa (Freetime), and Smile (Seasons).

Videos
These are a few examples of Simlish music videos.

Known Simlish Translations

 * Sul sul: Hello/Goodbye
 * Chumcha: Pizza
 * Sperk: "Speak"
 * Nooboo: Baby
 * Checkmar: Checkmate
 * Vous: You
 * Laka: Like a
 * Plees, dag vous neenle aws: How are you doing, or how are you today.
 * Zo hungwah: So Hungry
 * Fretishe: Everything
 * Miza: In the way
 * Clops: Clothes
 * Kik: Kiss
 * Mik Up: Make Out
 * Dobbinips: Dominoes
 * Litzergam or Vadish: Thank You
 * Shooflee: Distress call, possibly "Help me"
 * Chika: Change
 * Mik: 1
 * Mak: 2
 * Maka: 3
 * Kat: Cut
 * Gerbit: Llama
 * Wabadebadoo: I'm on fire!
 * Zep tor maboo: Help! There's a fire!
 * Fruby: Friday
 * Nart: Night
 * Wub mezino: Just a moment
 * Nubba: Number
 * Gronk: Not Happy/School
 * Shurb: Shake
 * Dag dag: Hello/Goodbye/Okay
 * Woven: Dog/Canine
 * Minnai: Tonight
 * Dwam: (an expletive)
 * Ilana: Island
 * Jigga: Pee/Puke

SimCopter
SimCopter was the first game to feature Simlish.

Sid Meier's SimGolf
In SimGolf, Sims will speak Simlish while a translation appears above their heads.

SimCity series
In both SimCity 4 and SimCity Societies, citizens can be heard speaking in Simlish if the player zooms in close enough.

Spore
In non-English versions of Spore, Simlish is spoken by Steve and "the voice in the tunnel." The Simlish used is the same no matter what non-English language it is.

MySims Series
In the MySims series, the Sims speak Simlish when talking to each other or expressing an emotion.