Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Paul Burke
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:02 AM

Beware in Ireland, public toilets are labelled "Mna"- but that's the ladies. Gents is "Fir". And in Italy, the tap labelled "caldo" is hot.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,PL
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:15 AM

On another forum, 'Chiff & Fipple' an American lady recently remarked about a teacher at horse riding classes who used to remark that not relaxing 'while riding will give you a sore fanny'. She got somewhat huffy when I remarked she'd try say that wit ha straight face in Ireland.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:16 AM

When touring the good old USA, world famous Black Dyke Mills Band were asked to change their name in case people though they were a negro lesbian band.

eric

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:24 AM

From: Nerd - PM
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 12:57 AM

"[...]
Many of these, however, are sort of urban legends that grow up when people try to show how much cleverer they are than people who do marketing for a living. For example, the no va story is completely false, and is spread largely through marketing textbooks. In fact, the Nova did fine in both of its Spanish-speaking markets, Mexico and Venezuela. The mistake between "nova" and "no va" is one no Spanish speaker would make, for many reasons: [...]"

Killjoy!

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:34 AM

From: Genie - PM
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 12:57 AM

'And "vomit" has entirely different meanings in German and English.'

There is no word "vomit" in German. "Womit" means "with which" and is pronounced "Voh mit" with a long "o" as in "woe".

However, English-speaking students of German are often amused that the word for "trip" or "journey" is "Fahrt" (with a long "ah" sound, however) and especially by the expression "gute Fahrt" for "bon voyage".

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:37 AM

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Joe_F - PM
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 09:21 PM

"The divergences between British & American English can also sometimes cause embarrassment: Look up "table (a motion)", "knock up", "screwed" (slang), & "post" (verb)."

And British people often find it terribly amusing when Americans use the terms "toss off", "tossed off", etc., which don't have the same connotation in the US.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:46 AM

Stop it always gets a laugh in Sweden.
Sounds very similar to their "Stora Pitt" (sp) which means Big Penis...apparently!!

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Artful Codger
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 04:13 AM

Mozart (to make this thread more musically relevant) was well-known for making bilingual puns and scatalogical jokes. A famous example of combining the two is his canon "Difficile lectu mihi Mars" (Latin: the study of history is difficult); in German, "lecht Du mich im Arsch" means "lick my ass".

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Paul Burke
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 05:18 AM

Ah, scratcher arses!

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: bubblyrat
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:13 PM

I remember that Cliff Richard had a hit with "Travelling Light".....when it went on sale in Spain,they took it literally and renamed it "The Light That Travels "...really !
A French friend of mine assures me that "Zizzi", as in the pizza restaurant chain, means,when spoken anyway, "pussy " ( as in pussy),and I remember her children always having fits of laughter when seeing the English motorway sign "Soft Verges",as Verges would be an Old French word meaning "Cock" (as in dick).My local pub in Bournemouth had a wine bottle displayed behind the bar,proudly sporting the label "Quita Penas".....
"You can" in Dutch is " U Kunt"....although the word itself is "Kont ".....maybe I'll just stop now...

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,PL
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 03:20 PM

"You can" in Dutch is " U Kunt"....although the word itself is "Kont ".....maybe I'll just stop now..

Actually 'Kont' refers to your arse.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Tootler
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 07:18 PM

When I was working in the UK patent office many years ago, I came across an application from Japan in which a piece of equipment was referred to as a "water sheep". What they actually meant was "hydraulic ram"!

In IKEA, in the UK at least, you can buy marshmallow sweets called "Skum". A Swedish friend told me that "Skum" simply means "foam" in Swedish and the word does not have the connotations it does in English.

(For those across the pond, IKEA is a Swedish store that has shops in many European countries and mainly sells furniture.)

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Joe_F
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 08:23 PM

Tootler: IKEAs are all over the US as well.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Genie
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 01:47 AM

Back in the '60s, my mom and dad had a VW that was made in Germany. All the labels (this was before the days of digitized icons) were "auf Deutsch," of course.   The windshield wipers were "der Drizzleflippen," the ignition was "der Puttersparken," ( I hope I didn't spell those wrong), but my favorite was the starter.

It simply said "Fahrt." (Pronounced just as we Americans would expect.)

We kids got lots of laughs over that!

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 05:46 AM

One of the funniest things on last night's Have I got news for you was a question involving US politician Randy Bumgardner. They didn't make any jokes about the name - they didn't need to. By the time they'd said it four or five times I was in stitches, and the panellists were struggling to keep a straight face themselves. It helped that the host for that week was an American (Jerry Springer, in fact) and could read the name loud and clear without cracking up - I don't think a British host would have been able to.

(Rough translation into USEng: Horny Assgardner.)

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:00 AM

The most worrying faux amis I have experienced (I am sure there are worse like fanny - English/American)

is
Eventually.

We Anglophones know what it means don't we?

well in Eurospeak it means "depending on events".

imagine the lawyers revenue when that gets put in a contract.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Newport Boy
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:25 AM

We had one night in a scruffy Spanish resort called Peniscola. I was OK - I never drink cola without a large measure of rum.

Phil

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Genie
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 08:08 AM

From: Paul Burke "Beware in Ireland, public toilets are labelled "Mna"- but that's the ladies. Gents is "Fir". And in Italy, the tap labelled "caldo" is hot.

Thanks for the ol' memory jog, Paul. Ah, yes, I remember well my time in Italy, noticing that one - among other - "soramimis."

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,Semiramide
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 10:48 AM

Another musical one is the tune "Cock up your beaver", which in rather antiquated English means simply "tilt up your hat, rakishly" but of course in American is rather more explicitly physical. And I read of someone working for (or, at least, paid by) the British Council who was surprised when his every hesitation during a speech in Ankara gave rise to not-quite suppressed giggles in the Turkish audience. Like many English politicians, commentators, etc, he had a habit of filling these pauses with the sound "um".   That, locally, is the indelicate word for female genitalia.




I'd love to hear a politician get up to speak, and begin with, "as I was saying to the honourable member... cunt ... only yesterday I spoke to the... cunt ... Secretary of State for.. cunt..."

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 08:44 AM

One that always appeals to me, an example purely for the eye, while watching the French Open tennis with French screen captions: the French for Women's Singles is Simple Dames.

Names can be difficult, with such different connotations. That Russian footballer can't help having a name so unfortunate to our ears: Zhirkov.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: frogprince
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 09:08 AM

Anyone for a nice serving of spotted dick?

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 09:36 AM

Turkish for "cunt" is "am", not "um". It's pronounced the same as "arm" in non-rhotic English. Me and my girlfriend were once in north-east Turkey, staying with a family whose little girl was keen to learn some words of English. Marion tried to show her the words for parts of the body. She wanted "arm" repeated over and over again.

I saw a shop window in Prague about 20 years ago (a pharmacy, I think) which had dozens of posters stuck randomly all over the window, black lettering several inches high on a yellow background, just advertising the one-word name for a product:

WANK WANK   WANK WANK   WANK

   WANK WANK WANK WANK WANK

WANK WANK   WANK WANK   WANK

WANK   WANK WANK   WANK   WANK

WANK WANK    WANK    WANK   WANK

I never did find out what it was. (Nowadays with the British stag party industry, it would be advertising exactly what it said in English).

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: harmonic miner
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 09:58 AM

Must be difficult for the very small number of countries where English is spoken with rhotic accent.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 10:03 AM

Another "false friend" is Italian 'abusivo', which = illegal or unauthorised ~~ so you get multilingual notices in Autostrada services car-parks warning patrons not to deal with unauthorised salesmen, in which the English element says

"Avoid abusive retailers"

~~ something I certainly ever endeavour to do!

~M~

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 03:58 PM

When I was in Scotland in 1958, there was a brand of dates (that's the fruit of the palm tree) called Eat Me.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: treewind
Date: 30 Mar 11 - 06:43 AM

Nice to see this thread back after all these years.
"Black Dyke Mills Band were asked to change their name in case people though they were a negro lesbian band."

In similar vein, when Pig Dyke Molly went to New York a few years ago they had to keep explaining that they WEREN'T a gay policewomen's dance group.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Folkiedave
Date: 30 Mar 11 - 07:14 PM

When I was in Scotland in 1958, there was a brand of dates (that's the fruit of the palm tree) called Eat Me.

Still exists.

Dozens of false cognates in Spanish.

Try "constipado"

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,silver
Date: 05 Nov 13 - 06:24 AM

Micca:

"Gift" means "poison" in Swedish, too. The same word, curiously enough, also means "married".

I remember strolling through Stanley Park in Vancouver in 1971, happening upon the word "restroom", which, literally translated into Swedish, would mean "vilorum" which implies "final resting-place".

In Iceland, the word for toilet is "Snyrtingar". Might be useful to know.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,PHJim
Date: 05 Nov 13 - 05:52 PM

I haven't read the whole thread so someone may have already posted that the mention of "fanny packs" and even the tune "Fanny Power" seem to elicit giggles and/or blushes from my British friends. It seems that the word "fanny" has a different meaning in Britain than in Canada.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 04:16 AM

We just refer to it as the Women's Liberation Planxty.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,ripov
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 07:49 PM

and did you hear about the fellow whose wife sent him out to get Cif from the lady in the corner-shop

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 08:42 PM

A rather more elaborate one I heard in a radio interview with the composer Fela Sowande: British missionaries tried translating the hymn "O Come All Ye Faithful" into a tonal West African language (Yoruba, I think). Their translation was fine, if you just read the text. If you sang it to the standard "Adeste Fideles" melody, the pitch pattern of the tune threw all the tones off and changed the meaning of the opening line to "go out and dig for groundnuts, you who are fond of pissing".

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Bert
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 08:49 PM

French for roof is toit pronounced twot.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 14 - 09:44 PM

Red Dwarf cornered the term smeg, an abbreviation for smegma - and then the Italians started marketing white goods under the name...

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Haruo
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 12:59 AM

When I was a teenager in Japan (ca. 1968) the leading brand of coagulated coconut turds (what in the US we call Coffeemate™) was one called Creap.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 03:13 AM

French for roof is NOT pronounced "twot". The final "t" is not promounced at all. More like "twa".

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 03:36 AM

ANd the cheap white bread sold in Mexican supermarkets is branded "Bimbo".

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 05:30 AM

A Latin lesson at Hendon County School comes back to me from about 1946. We were learning how to tell the date in Latin from a dear old soul called Miss Weavers. This involved, I recall, use of the Accusative Plural of the name of the month, and dear Miss W for some reason pitched on May, which in Latin is Maia, and whose Accusative Plural is Maias -- whose pronunciation, in Standard English anyhow, is identical to "my arse". We all found it difficult to keep a straight face as she gave us several examples of dates in Latin, all involving her walking around the classroom, repeatedly exclaiming "my arse!"

~M~

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 08:13 PM

Hee hee, I grew up bilingual in French and English, and the line in Woody Guthrie's DoReMi I only just found out, like a few years ago, well, realized, goes

California is a garden of Eden, and a paradise to live in OR SEE

I had always heard it as "a paradise to live in AUSSI" which still made total sense...

In a mondegreen in French (needs a word, folks), in one song a sorrowful family at dinner went from accablee (burdened) to attablee (seated at the table) - and they all straightened up, sitting around the table in my mind's eye!

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 14 Feb 14 - 11:16 PM

I may be wrong (what's new?) but I was told the word for 'however' in Gaelic sounds like Ar fuck....is this correct?

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Feb 14 - 12:48 PM

Then there were us kids growing up in Ivory Coast with people named, to our ears, Cocoa and Coffee, so it was no surprise to hear a kid being called Haricot Vert (string bean)... who turned out to be Eric d'Auvergne.

And in the same time frame the guy I thought for years was named Homard (lobster) was actually named Omar. This realization hit at about the same time as the "aussi" from the Woody Guthrie song.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Bert
Date: 15 Feb 14 - 02:45 PM

Twot was how I heard it pronounced in France. Maybe GUEST's Frenchman was a Cockney.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 14 - 08:12 PM

Depends where the speaker was from. The African stereotype of thick-lipped muddy pronunciation has become almost racist, whereas a Belgian will also use a muddy "two". A Parisian or Tourangeau will use the sharper "twa" and from the far south they'll even hint at an n in it.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 07:46 PM

After the recent innundations in the UK, the Grauniad bloggers have started an informal debate as to which politician attempting to hold the water back by the force of his press image most deserves the title Cnut of the month. That being the correct spelling of King Canute, who seems to have tried the same with the tide around a thousand years ago.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Feb 14 - 01:28 AM

Though one must remember that Canute [or Cnut] was in fact demonstrating to his flattering courtiers, by making them all get their feet wet, that his powers were not, as they had obsequiously assured him, infinite, but that a king had no more power over the physical world than anyone else and so couldn't hold back the tide. Seems unfair on poor old Canute that he should be remembered as a personification of overweening pride, when the reality was the exact opposite. My late wife Valerie put it rather well IMO, in a novel of hers, Culture Shock (Duckworth 1988): "History has given Canute the wrong footnote".

~M~

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 18 Feb 14 - 10:14 AM

Yes, Guest Dave -in Irish, the word for however is áfach, pronounced ah-fuckh! ;-) D

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: BobL
Date: 08 Jan 17 - 04:31 AM

Seems like an opportunity to mention a company I used to work for, GEC Plessey Telecommunications, or GPT for short. Except in France where it would sound like "j'ai pêté" = I've farted.

And BTW, the Irish toponym Lough Head sounds in English too much like "loghead", hence the Americanized spelling - Lockheed.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 08 Jan 17 - 04:59 AM

I remember reading somewhere that the word "photo" can be confused for the Zulu "foto", a penis.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 09 Jan 17 - 04:44 AM

An English friend of mine went into a fast food place in Canada and said "Do you do Coke?" and was thrown out.

Subject: RE: Mondegreens' cousins: Soramimis
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Jan 17 - 05:31 AM

in OZ & NZ they refer to Barn Dances/Ceilidhs as Bush Dances.

Perpendicular expression?