唧唧歪歪 in English

[Kenny同志]

I’ve been silent for quite a while. Hope  you are all well.

 

Anyone know the equivalent of 唧唧歪歪? It’s a somewhat strong phrase meaning making unnecessary annoying remarks.

 

Here are two example sentences I pulled off the Internet:

http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2013-10-23/141428511321.shtml

小车司机咽不下这口气，他推开车门，照准周师傅的头就是几记猛拳。“让你多嘴，几个烟头就唧唧歪歪，扫了不就行了嘛!”

http://www.ycwb.com/ePaper/ycwb/html/2012-09/17/content_1492631.htm

谁知婆婆听后一脸不高兴,生硬地说:“我做了几十年饭,当然懂得如何炒茄子了,用不着你在这叽叽歪歪。”

 

Any ideas, folks?

 

By the way, the degree to which people find it offensive may vary from person to person but I’d be absolutely offended if so described.

[skylee]

Babble / babbling?

[Kenny同志]

Thanks Skylee. Babble can certainly be a possible translation in certain contexts but I am afraid it's still quite different from 唧唧歪歪.

[semantic nuance]

nag?

 

rant?

[gato]

"Yammer" and "whine" are pretty close in usage:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=yammer

[Kenny同志]

@SN

Thank for your input, SN.

 

I think nagging is less strong than the term but it can also make a possible translation, just like babble. Rant might not because they are too much different.

 

@gato

Thank you, gato.

 

I think yammer and whine are probably the closest two I can get.

In fact, I thought of whine but wasn’t satisfied with it because 唧唧歪歪 doesn’t necessarily mean complaining. As far as the usage of the term is concerned, it’s perfectly fine that what one 唧唧歪歪s is just some unloud annoying noise.

[roddy]

Blathering on, wittering on come to mind.

Good to see you posting, Kenny.

[skylee]

I would appreciate some advice on this - how far apart are "babble" and "blather" and "witter"?

 

Kenny said that 唧唧歪歪 means "making unnecessary annoying remarks".  But now I am confused as to what it really means based on Kenny's comments in #3 and #6 ...