Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?

Subject: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Genie
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 08:15 PM

I know we have lots of threads about mondegreens (though they don't all use that term), but a Russian friend recently told me about an experience she had, with English being a secondary language for her, that made me wonder how often our "accents" may yield lyric faux pas when we're singing in a language other than our native one.

Here's what happened to her:

One of the local grocery stores is willing to save grocery bags/sacks for her.   Not sure if they're used ones or not, but anyway, one of the young male checkers does save them for her.   So, one day my friend went to the grocery store and said she was looking for this particular young man.   When they asked her what she needed to see him about, she replied, in her rather thick Russian accent, she replied "I came to get secks from him."

(That's not a typo. That's the way the word "sacks" came out.)

So I began to wonder, since I sing in quite a few languages besides English, if my American accent has ever produced similarly embarrassing lyric pronunciations. I'm not sure, but it would not surprise me.   I know a couple of times I've gotten my tongue twisted in another language and come up with a non-word that sounded embarrassingly like a real, inappropriate word in the other language. E.g., when I changed the word "schneit" in the song "O Tannenbaum" to "scheit" or when I changed "m'estremesco" in the song "Cuando Calienta El Sol" to "m'excremento."

Any of you folks have examples of lyrics-gone-awry-via-a-foreign-accent?

Genie

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Greg B
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 10:09 PM

Ever see the 'Two Ronnies' episode where a fellow from the
Midlands is trying to purchase something in a hardware store
where the Queen's English is spoken?

"Got any 'ose"

"Sor tips?"

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Cluin
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 10:29 PM

Is that a custard or a meringue?

Na, yer right!

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 12:44 PM

I once asked a young female French student at the breakfast -table, if she would like some " Preserve" ( with an acute ), thinking it to mean "jam", and was mortified when her mother stonily informed me that, No, her daughter did NOT require a Condom !!However, she DID find the " Soft Verges " signs on our motorways amusing, ( as do all French people ) , as "Verges" is an old French word for Dicks, or Cocks !! Meanwhile, I have recently been listening the Tom Lewis offering "Poles Apart ", and am surprised to discover that the Polish for " North West Passage " is-------" North West Passage" .....No misunderstanding there, then ???

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Bert
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 01:12 PM

I'll try to indicate the accents as well as I can in this.

When Mum was first in Canada she wanted to buy a bath plug.

She asks the guy for "An inch and a harf barth plug" in her Cockney accent

After quite a few misunderstandings and repetitions. The light dawns and he says "Ah you want an inch and a haf bath stopper." Where bath was pronounced the same as in haf.

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 02:10 PM

Ah, concha is a shell in European Spanish, but something else entirely in Argentina!!!

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Micca
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 02:27 PM

Offer a German a free "gift" and watch the expression on their faces, and try being with someone ordering "Toten mit crem" instead of "Torten" they entire restaurant dissolved into hoots of laughing

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Genie
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 05:07 PM

An older friend of mine used to teach high school in San Jose, to a class largely composed of native Spanish-speaking kids, many of whom still spoke English with a decided Spanish accent.   A popular song at the time was Teresa Brewer's recording of "Music! Music! Music!."   The kids used to ask for the song often -- this was back in the '50s, when kids still had music class regularly, and they probably could sing it then -- and seemed to relish loudly requesting "the puta song."    Jim didn't really need to ask why they called it that, since, when the kids sang it with their Spanish accents, the first line sounded like:

"Puta nother nickel in ... "

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: blind will
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 05:21 PM

I'm reminded of a time several years ago when I was working in a store.

A man with a thick Jamaican accent was looking for a fan, so he came up to me and asked "Do you have fun?" I answered and informed him that I did have fun sometimes.Not pleased with my answer, he asked me the same question two or more times.I kept giving him the same answer.Finally he got mad at me and said "Don't you speak English?", before he walked away.A little while later I figured out what he really meant and told him that we had no fans.

On another occasion a Jamaican guy asked me for "bug" (meaning bag).

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 07:20 PM

I have the misfortune to be summat of a dialect and accent sponge. Four weeks in any region with a strong local accent, and even my wife has difficulty understanding me.

I once had the Nawf Lunnon accent, but now after thirty years it's mostly somewhere between grammar school standard and Kentish.

I den't spend any time in Newcastle or Brum. Imagine it....halfway between Jimmy Nail and Jasper Carrott.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Nick
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 07:40 PM

Not in song but an apocryphal story probably -

Sir Vivian Fuchs (rhymes with "books"), the mid 20th-century Antarctic explorer, was once about to give a public lecture in the north of England. He was taken aback, in a stiff-upper-lip way, to hear himself introduced by the compere as "Sir Vivian Fucks". After the lecture, he took the compere aside and said quietly: "Look, that's not quite the correct pronunciation of my surname, you know." The compere replied [insert Lancashire accent here]: "I know that, Sir Vivian, but we couldn't very well call you Fooks oop here now, could we?"

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Bainbo
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 07:51 PM

Apparently, when he set off on a southern expedition, the Daily Express ran the story under the headline: "Fuchs off to Antarctica."

The sub-editors were so pleased with themselves that, when he set of for a return expedition the following year, they headlined it: "Fuchs off again."

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Genie
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 10:50 PM

LOL, Nick! Perfect example of the dangers of dialect variation!

Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 13 Aug 07 - 08:29 AM

Years ago, I was in a bar in Tokyo & was asked to sing a typical British folksong.

I did 'The Wild Rover' , thinking audience participation.

They joined in very enthusiasticly with the chorus;

'No nay never, no more....'

I was told afterwards why by a Japanese friend that in Japanese, 'nomore' means 'Have another drink!!'