ADD: The Loudenboomer Bird (Hoffman/Manning)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 03:39 AM

Mustn't it be the other way round with your grandma? Germans tend to pronunce the English w like v, due to the German usage. Although the double u should be pronounced as labial, we Germans use it now for the voiced labio-dental. The use of v is ambiguous, unvoiced labiodental like f and voiced labio-dental like the English v. Don't ask me for the hidden logic, I'm afraid there is none.
The pronunciation of Ruth [also German spelling] like Rut is standard procedure in German. Luther designed the aspiration of the Hebrew taw by adding an h which is not spoken in our language.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Artful Codger
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 08:54 PM

Reminds me of Dave Morrah, who wrote some books retelling fairy tales and poems in fractured German-English; I think one of them was called Der Wizard in Ozzenland. This would have been around the late 50s/early 60s. The lyrics aren't his, clearly, or they'd start: "Earlisch in den Morgen".

As for mastering our "th", Europeans are constantly exposed to English through music, films and Bush's posturing, and they often have an active need to use it themselves. But when do we in America hear ANY German? Even foreign visitors prefer to speak English here, as their English is quite fluent - if not better than ours. Learning foreign languages in America is an exercise in futility; one's knowledge too quickly fades from disuse. So don't bother us with your silly umlauts; give us a trilled r for Spanish, and we're set for life. :-}

Meine kleine Grossmutti lived in America for close to sixty years, and although she generally spoke English quite well and named one of her American daughters "Ruth", she always said "t" instead of "th". (She also pronounced "v" like "w"; I never figured out the logic behind that.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 03:44 PM

The hit version I knew was recorded by Don Lang in the early 1960's. I remember seeing him perform it on the "6:05 Special" (fans of Pete Murray - 2 minutes silence).

This is how I remember it:

Early in the morning
While I'm still asleep
Comes a little birdie
Going cheep-cheep-cheep
And this little birdie
Has this silly name - he's the
Kleine kleine fliegel flugel aufgenwecken and biegel bugel ergenschplitten de laudenboomer bird (approximately!)

Gonna put some bird-seed
On the windowsill
Just to keep him happy
Just to keep him still
'Cos although I love that birdie
I love my honey more - than the
Kleine kleine fliegel flugel aufgenweckenen and biegel bugel ergeschplitten de laudenboomer bird!

As indicated by someone earlier, it's "Germlish" - just a lot of German-type sounds strung together. It was very popular in its day.

DJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Bard Judith
Date: 01 Jan 06 - 11:26 PM

Mice in clogs and Amsterdam? Well, I've just got to muddy this thread a bit further then. I was taught this song when I was quite young, and the tune has faded a bit in memory but these are the words I remember...


I saw a mouse..
Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there! A little mouse with clogs on..
Went clip-clippity-clop on the stair

(line missing)
A windmill with mice in
It's hardly surprisin'
He sang every moment
"How lucky I am,
Livin' in a windmill
In old Amsterdam!"

and then something about the mouse meeting a female mouse and 'first they had triplets and then they had twins' and finishing off with the chant from the beginning: "I saw a mouse! Where?..." etc.

Judy ;)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Rumncoke
Date: 01 Jan 06 - 07:42 PM

Not my sort of song but I obviously heard it when I still had the all retentive memory - unfortunately it broke - and I can only vaguely recall a fragment, or maybe fragments -

Early in the morning, whilst I'm still asleep
Comes a noisy chirping, comes a cheep a cheep
Smack in the middle of my dreaming
Of kissing the one that I do really love.

Definately Max Bygraves, it is all mixed up with toothbrushes and mice in clogs and tulips from Amsterdam, with a tune a bit like Lily Marlene

Anne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Bill
Date: 01 Jan 06 - 07:14 PM

I have heard the song Compton mentioned (which may not be Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird at all) sung at a Scout camp in the Adirondacks, which claims to have created it about 50 years ago. Its similar lyrics are as follows:

Early in the morning
When I'm fast asleep
Heard a little birdie
Go cheep-cheep.
And the little birdie
Has a funny name.
His ... name ... is ...
Iga-fliga-fleega-fliga-ishca-nishca-naga-naga-iga-fliga-fleega-fliga-birdie!

Gone to buy some birdseed
For my window sill
Just to keep him quiet
Just to keep him still.
It's for the little birdie
With a funny name.
His ... name ... is ...
Iga-fliga-fleega-fliga-ishca-nishca-naga-naga-iga-fliga-fleega-fliga-birdie!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Dec 05 - 10:25 AM

It occurs to me that "Ballad" springs from a time when far more English speakers knew German. How many people today would know right off the bat that "Ritter" is "knight?"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Dec 05 - 10:22 AM

Thanks, Joe, for posting the song about the knight and the maiden with noddings on. Based on a lyric by Heinrich Heine, wasn't it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Barrie Mortimer
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:01 PM

That first line doesn't ring any bells or stir up any memories, but I'll keep on hoping somebody does something to shut me up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Compton
Date: 10 May 05 - 01:33 PM

If you don't keep bumping this, Barrie, I will!
First Line was..."Going to put soem birdseed on the window sill"
...struggling with second line.!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Barrie Mortimer
Date: 29 Apr 05 - 05:28 PM

Not half as sorry as me, Compton! I think I'll ask for this song to be sung at my funeral. That should give my executors one heck of a problem! lol.
Joe Offer said in January that he'd found these words: "the kleine kleine fliegel flugel aufgeweckene biegel bugel ergeschplitten lauteboomer bird."
I'll keep bumping this message up until somebody comes up with a title and a singer, so be warned - I'm like a terrier with a rat.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Compton
Date: 11 Apr 05 - 12:53 PM

Max Bygraves comes to mind...these days happily not too often.!
Didn't it go?... and pardon any mispelling!.
"Eine kline fleigle flugel, alphen a beck and a bleegle blugle,elgne shlitten lowmer bloomer bird"!!

I'm almost sorry I remember this!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Barrie Mortimer
Date: 11 Apr 05 - 11:50 AM

I still haven't found this b***** bird!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 12:23 PM

P-L-E-A-S-E somebody find the words and put me and Barrie and everyoidy else out of der misery!

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 03:17 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 04:44 PM

Jim - earsplitting, that makes a lot of sense.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Barrie Mortimer
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 10:28 AM

Thanks Jim. I've now gone in a complete circle! lol. Following Joe Offer's post, I have searched Danny Kaye and Hans Christian Andersen sites with no joy, but have sent a message to the guy on Britboards who posted the more complete line that Joe quoted. I'm like a terrier with a rat when I get going! I vill succeed in mein quest. Maybe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 06:31 PM

I'm guessing "ergeschplitten" should be "eargeschplitten" = ear-splitting

Steve Parkes gives a quote: "Eine-kleine-fliegel-flugel ... (and it was bird, I think)" back in the thread Lyr Req: Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces. Verses?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Ooh-Aah2
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 03:22 PM

My father often repeats this to tease my German wife. He learned it in Glasgow University aboutforty years ago!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 02:37 PM

The whole song seems to be intended to sound like German; there are some witty puns (for German ears).
- kleine = small
- fliegel = the added L rhymes with the next word. Fliegen = to fly, Fliege = the fly
- flugel = Flügel = the wing (when will you Anglo-Saxons finally learn to pronounce this easy sound? We mastered your goddam TH!)
- aufgeweckene = aufgeweckte = pt. pf. pass. of to wake up
- biegel = like fliegel, from biegen = to bend
- bugel = Bügel = coat hanger, stirrup, yoke et al.
- ergeschplitten = ? to split with a German ending?
- lauteboomer = booming loud

Lederhosen = leather trousers; common in Bavaria, and associated with entire Germany all over the world.

Sorry to be of no more help.

Hans Breitmann's Ballads are influenced by Pennsylvania Dutch; Cleland studied in Heidelberg where he achieved a good handling of German. I noticed that he choose mostly German words which sound similar in English with a bad accent. His poems in Chinese Pidgin are very funny, too. I can only recommend them very strongly.

Subject: ADD: Ballad (Hans Breitmann)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 01:59 PM

Of course, the phrase is more English than German - it's just meant to sound like German. If you find the Fliegel Flugel confusing, try this:

^^ Ballad

Der noble Ritter Hugo
Von Schwillensaufenstein,
Rode out mit shpeer and helmet,
Und he coom to de panks of de Rhine.

Und oop dere rose a meermaid,
Vot hadn't got nodings on,
Und she say, "Oh, Ritter Hugo,
Vhere you goes mit yourself alone?"

And he says, "I rides in de creenwood,
Mit helmet und mit shpeer,
Till I cooms into ein Gasthaus,
Und dere I trinks some beer."

Und den outshpoke de maiden
Vot hadn't got nodings on:
"I ton't dink mooch of beoplesh
Dat goes mit demselfs alone.

"You'd petter coom down in de wasser,
Vhere dere 's heaps of dings to see,
Und hafe a shplendid tinner
Und drafel along mit me.

"Dere you sees de fisch a-schwimmin',
Und you catches dem efery von" : —
So sang dis wasser maiden
Vot had n't got nodings on.

"Dere ish drunks all full mit money
In ships dat vent down of old;
Und you helpsh yourself, by dunder!
To shimmerin' crowns of gold.

"Shoost look at dese shpoons und vatches!
Shoost see dese diamant rings!
Coom down and fill your bockets,
Und I'll giss you like eferydings.

"Vot you vantsh mit your schnapps und lager?
Coom down into der Rhine!
Der ish pottles der Kaiser Charlemagne
Vonce filled mit gold-red wine!"

Dat fetched him—he shtood all shpellpound;
She pooled his coat-tails down,
She drawed him oonder der wasser,
De maiden mit nodings on.

from Hans Breitmann's Ballads, by Charles Godfrey Leland, 1888 & 1914

---

ingeb.org thinks it may have all the Breitmann Ballads-

Click here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Flash Company
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 10:51 AM

This reminds me of the story of the (torn) posters outside an Opera House advertising 'Madam Die Flederfly'.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Barrie Mortimer
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 07:01 AM

Thanks for your attempts to help me. I think it has now succeeded in driving me completely round the bend! I don't speak German, so tried an alta vista translation of variations on spelling and came up with "a small flies flight on gewechene bends to nose gel erge schplitte loud more boomer" as the English meaning of "eine kleine fliege flug auf gewechene biege buggel erge schplitte laute boomer".
Can someone now give me advice on how to get away from the men in white coats?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 01:19 AM

Joe, I think you may be right. I remember that line and it seems to conjure up a picture of (I think) Danny Kaye dressed in leiderhausen (don't if that's spelt right) so I'm guessing it must have been in a film I saw way back then.

Sorry, thats all I remember. Senility setting in *bg*


whb

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 12:48 AM

We can't let this bird fly away...
refresh.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Flugel Bird
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 03:22 PM

Hi, Barrie - the song is running through my head as "Eine Kleine Fliegel Flugel Bird," but I can't recall anything more of it.
My Google search brought up only the Steve Parkes post. Somebody please help - this fragment may well drive me crazy!!
Oh, this page speaks of "the kleine kleine fliegel flugel aufgeweckene biegel bugel ergeschplitten lauteboomer bird." Sounds like Danny Kaye to me.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Req: Eine Kleine Fliegel Fluge Bird
From: GUEST,Barrie Mortimer
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 02:52 PM

I've had the tune and the few words in the thread title going around in my head for months and no amount of searching has brought up anything except a posting here by Steve Parkes on 28 July 2004. I couldn't find any response to his query though. Can anyone please put me out of my misery?
Thanks.