20 Mind-Blowing Facts About The Minions

1. The Minions Have An Actual Language

Minions Concept
Universal Pictures

Although the Minions seem to be speaking gibberish with the occasional English word mixed in, the truth is a lot more complex. Minions speak "minionese," a polyglot pidgin that borrows words from many different languages. 

The filmmakers have yet to release a full translation of any Minions movie, but they swear that every word the Minions speak corresponds to a word in English. Sometimes those words are just slightly tweaked from English, like "bello" for "hello," "tank yu" for "thank you" and "papayo" for "bye-bye." 

Other times, the words are borrowed from Japanese ("Kampai," cheers), Spanish ("Para tu," for you), Tagalog ("Pwede na," can we start?) or some other language, even Furbish ("Wee-tee-toh-toh!", let's sing!).

Did we miss any unusual facts? Let us know in the comments!

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T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.