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Can anyone tell me whether Spoonerisms exist in languages other than English? I.e: Could we take a word like Geschwindigskeitmesser and swap the letters around and still make it understandable? By the same token, could we also see a word like "la poubelle" changed to "pa loulelle" or something and still have the same meaning for a French person? Would an Italian say something like "Pi Tiacacerrebe?" or a Spanish speaker "Nomo co!"
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Thu, September 22, 2005 - 7:22 AMMaybe i'm behind the times, but could you provide an english example?
Cause i'm not sure exactly what this whole thing is. -
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Thu, September 22, 2005 - 11:00 AM"Tip of the slongue" = "Slip of the tongue"
Typically a "dishwasher" becomes a "woshdisher" or "wishdosher"
There are others... -
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Thu, September 22, 2005 - 11:59 AMOk, that's what i found on the net.
You suggested that they are "understood" by the listner, and the fact is, they aren't. One of the examples was Bunny in a hole, Hunny in a bowl"
do other languages have such slips of the tongue? Of course. ARe they understood? not any more than these are understood in English. I might be able to understand what you mean by Woshdisher in context, but if you said, simply "I'm a woshdisher" I'd look at you and wonder if you had bumped your head.
But language acts virtually the same in all forms, and the human brain is hard wired the same. so if it is natural to accidently flip words or sounds in some contexts, then it will be equally natural to do so in German, Japanese, French, Hopi, etc.
i hope i'm answering what you're asking. cause i wasn't really sure. :-)
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Unsu...
Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Thu, September 22, 2005 - 1:03 PMThere is in Finnish, I assume you mean that you do it on purpose, not by accident. You take two words and swap the first two letters.
There's even a kids' "language" that works like that: add the word "kontti" to each word and swap the first letters in the combination:
talo > talo+kontti > kolotantti (talo = house) -
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Unsu...
Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Thu, September 22, 2005 - 1:51 PMThat sounds an awful lot like "Pig Latin", though somewhat more complex.
There's a town in the Napa Valley which got its name from a spoonerism, when a speaker talking about the hot springs, called the place the Calistoga of Sarafornia. (Saratoga, NY, was famous for hot springs.) -
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Thu, September 22, 2005 - 5:32 PMHow interesting! I never knew about Calistoga! Now I do...
But I am really looking for (intentional) word corruptions in European languages like French, German, Italian and/or Spanish. Spoonerisms in the English language, in addition to what is normally expected by this kind of language usage, have been attributed to childhood education, also the way the human brain is supposed to react under some medical circumstances, like stroke and shock trauma. (Aphasia sometimes manifests like this...)
I have heard Spanish speakers like Mexicans, and also French Canadians come out with slang expressions which point to the possibility that they might also reverse the initial letters of words in Spanish and French too.
If I find out any more, I'll post it here... -
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Mon, January 16, 2006 - 11:32 AMIt isn't precisely Spoonerism, but French has verlan. Some links:
french.about.com/library/v...verlan.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlan
And from that Wikipedia page:
"A very similar process (vesre, from Spanish revés) is used in Argentinian slang Lunfardo, in Colombia, and in Greek slang podana (the reverse form of ana-poda, i.e. backwards)."
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Wed, November 2, 2005 - 8:14 AMIn talking about Sonoma and Napa Valleys in the wine country, I learned to refer to them collectively as Sonapanoma.
Craig in Arcata
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Thu, September 22, 2005 - 8:40 PMThanks for this...
I have found quite a bit on the Web. And it looks like there will be plenty more still to find... Here are a couple of links to look at which describe the phenomena of "Spoonerisms" quite comprehensively:
www.smithsrisca.demon.co.uk/spee....html
perso.wanadoo.fr/patrick.l...sms%20.htm
Anyone finding a source that combines these European languages, could you please post the links here, please? Thanks! -
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Wed, November 2, 2005 - 7:15 AMI know one in Dutch, but I'd rather not repeat it here since it is quite offensive. I'm sure there are more, less offensive ones, but I can't think of them right now.
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Fri, January 13, 2006 - 2:00 PMi have a whole book dedicated to Irish and Gaelic Spoonerisms. But I thought there was more to it than just an exchange of letters. An example that stands out is,
"'They're off,' said the monkey, as he sat on his circular saw." -
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Fri, January 13, 2006 - 2:33 PMWikipedia has a good section on it in their "spoonerisms" article. I'm so sad my French prof's never taught us any...
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Re: Spoonerisms in other languages?
Sat, January 14, 2006 - 11:25 AMIsn't that a Tom Swifty?
Like: "I've got my hands full" said the mortician in dead Ernest. (There's more vulgar form, but I don't remember it.)
From www.fun-with-words.com/tom_sw...s.html:
"I need a pencil sharpener," said Tom bluntly.
"Oops! There goes my hat!" said Tom off the top of his head.
"I can no longer hear anything," said Tom deftly.
"I have a split personality," said Tom, being frank.
"This must be an aerobics class," Tom worked out.
Craig in Arcata
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