lucy24 - 3:11 pm on Feb 25, 2013 (gmt 0)

Innocent words in one language -given a mistaken context- can be translated into bad words.

Oh, ###. You mean naaraajiiruluk doesn't mean "My esteemed colleague from Kuujjuaq" after all? I'm in trouble now...

But seriously: Doesn't even have to be translation. A machine can do just fine without ever leaving its home language. Uhm, no, google, I don't need any ads for exterminators, thanks all the same. Conversely it only takes a moment of absent-mindedness for a human to achieve something of machine-translation caliber. As when the Italian version of my page about typing Greek spoke of a chiave (=clef) rather than a tasto (=touche, I guess). Oops.

Although there is apparently a French restaurant in Japan which goes by the name of "a ta gueule"

What-- you thought Japan only made war on the English language?

I'm guessing there's an etymological connection to "gullet" in there somewhere.

which btw is illegal

I'm sure you realize that calling something illegal doesn't make it illegal. It's the rare law that is beyond interpretation. ("But he took my parking space! Any jury in the world would agree it was justifiable homicide.")