Give me your tired, your poor, your linguistically disabled (no spam)

[fable]

This really has to be seen, for the full flavor of the written argument included with it to be made. Can anyone point to similar mistakes of pronunciation involving their own native tongue, that have produced amusing results?

[Xandax]

Danish has a lot of double meaning words depending on pronunciation, or pronounciations which are almost identicial despite having totally different letters in the word.
Don't know if they are humors for anybody though (as the danish language really is unfunny ). Danish is a messed up language for sure.

[LeoStarDragon1]

Wow! Funny & Enlightening!

:laugh:

#00: Is "Vader" really Dutch for "father"? If so that explains what the documentarian meant in the one about "Darth Vader"!

#01: Heh! I was reminded of that James Stewart movie where he said it was a nice day for some sun on the beach, but his housekeeper thought that he made the Anti-Christ reference, "Son of a Bitch"! It doen't help people trying to learn American-English or another form of English, when punsters deliberately take advantage of such confusion! Like with the title of that lifeguard parody series that was on cablevision, that I've not seen, but have heard or read about.

#02: Jay Leno needs to read that article! Because of his "Headlines!" segment. He gets a lot of Chinese-to-English translation errors on products.

#03: It also doesn't help, when Rednecks use "s**t" to refer to everything. A Redneck may actually be saying, I'm washing my _____, ironing my _____, and then getting my ______ together." Thus making the problem worse. On "My Name is Earl" for example, they substitute with "snap" and "crap" as it is on regular broadcast television. But on "Deadwood", of course they said what they meant to say.

#04: My paternal grandparents put an "r" in "wash", "washcloth", and "Wa****a River". Dad still does. I stopped when it was pointed out to me by some friends, in my 20's. Dad can't stop himself to save his life, as he is unable to tell the difference, with his bad hearing. I.e., "warsh", etc.

#05: How I speak and how I write, are different. I speak words without having to know how to spell them, just as long as I pronounce them correctly. I'd have to look them up to spell them here, so you'd know which words. Mostly non-English words used often in speaking. Like the French word for party snacks. I can say it but not spell it without looking it up, as the spelling looks nothing like how it should, in American-English, for it is French after all.

#06: I could've been at least bilingual if Mom had been allowed to teach us Korean, rather than be forced to speak American-English only.

[fable]

#01: Heh! I was reminded of that James Stewart movie where he said it was a nice day for some sun on the beach, but his housekeeper thought that he made the Anti-Christ reference, "Son of a Bitch"! It doen't help people trying to learn American-English or another form of English, when punsters deliberately take advantage of such confusion!

As with Xan's Danish, English (which is a relatively close cousin) has many different words that share meanings, and many words with different meanings that are sound- or lookalikes. Grammar can also wreck havoc, since the rules are pretty loose (despite the best efforts of that super-nanny, dictionaryist Noah Webster). But I recall a revealing passage in the classic film Casablanca, where a vaguely middle European, elderly couple encounter Rick, and assure him they've learned English by reciting a bit of conversation:

"What watch?"

"Eight watch."

"Such much!"

...which says it all. (The crew must have gotten a huge kick out of that, since most of them--and a fair number of the actors--were immigrants. The director, for instance, was Hungarian.)

#03: It also doesn't help, when Rednecks use "s**t" to refer to everything. A Redneck may actually be saying, I'm washing my _____, ironing my _____, and then getting my ______ together."

Reminds me of a George Carlin routine worked around the many meanings of **** in conversation. Very funny, and very Anglo-Saxon.

#06: I could've been at least bilingual if Mom had been allowed to teach us Korean, rather than be forced to speak American-English only.

Don't you hate when people do that? They want to help their kids "fit in better." Whereas there's no lack of force behind fitting in, and very little behind understanding and appreciating other cultures. My mother, who was Jewish (and whose parents in turn came from the Ukraine), spoke "Jewish" frequently around us when we were growing up because she assumed we'd never understand what she was saying. But when I learned German in high school and quickly took to it, she stopped after she realized I understood it well. She'd figured Jewish was a language, which it wasn't; it was a dialect (not to be confused with the religion). And as with any dialect, if it's spoken without being rushed, people who understand the mother tongue can usually catch much of it, too.

Amazing the words she'd use that she told us were inappropriate anywhere.

[SupaCat]

#00: Is "Vader" really Dutch for "father"? If so that explains what the documentarian meant in the one about "Darth Vader"!

Yeah, 'vader' is father. It explains why in my youth I found it really stupid that people were supprised that 'Darth Vader' was Luke Skywalkers father.

Dutch has so many words that are written the same but have different meanings, but it has a pretty easy grammar (in comparison with French for example).

[LeoStarDragon1]

Hello, SupaCat!

Yeah, 'vader' is father. It explains why in my youth I found it really stupid that people were surprised that 'Darth Vader' was Luke Skywalker's father.

Dutch has so many words that are written the same but have different meanings, but it has a pretty easy grammar (in comparison with French for example).

I recall George Lucas saying that there was a clue in the name all along, but not too many people were going to go all the way to a public library to look up that word in a Danish-to-English Dictionary. I'd forgotten about it until, at another site, I saw someone's signature with the line, "Vader is Dutch for father!" or something like that.

In "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back", Baron Lando Calrisian's crewmate speaks to him in his "alien language", and we read subtitles telling us what he said, translated to American-English. Meanwhile, somewhere in Africa, they burst into laughter when the alien asks for a bolagna or baloney sandwich! :laugh:

I have an e-friend, Steffanie, who is Dutch, and I usually ask her for translations. Odd, how "Darth Vader" never came up in all this time!

(Unless my memory is failing me of course.)

Yes, we have homonyms too. For example, my friend Ron was driving one day, and a blonde cut him off in traffic and he yelled at her, "F**ker!"

I looked real quick to see what he was upset about and who he shouted at, and I saw that it was a pretty enough blonde, so I replied to him, "Yes, I would!" as if he'd asked me a question. However my pun merely served to confuse him a lot! (By the way, there's an example of something I see frequently mispelled as "a lot" is two seperate words with a space between them, but way too many people write "alot" as if it were always one word. It never has been, and hopefully never will become a compound word. I just came here from another forum where someone was boasting that he had corrected spelling errors in his mod, while also using "alot" rather than "a lot" to explain how! Very ironic!)

[LeoStarDragon1]

Howdy, Fable!

As with Xan's Danish, English (which is a relatively close cousin) has many different words that share meanings, and many words with different meanings that are sound- or lookalikes. Grammar can also wreck havoc, since the rules are pretty loose (despite the best efforts of that super-nanny, dictionaryist Noah Webster). But I recall a revealing passage in the classic film Casablanca, where a vaguely middle European, elderly couple encounter Rick, and assure him they've learned English by reciting a bit of conversation:

"What watch?"

"Eight watch."

"Such much!"

...which says it all. (The crew must have gotten a huge kick out of that, since most of them--and a fair number of the actors--were immigrants. The director, for instance, was Hungarian.)



Reminds me of a George Carlin routine worked around the many meanings of **** in conversation. Very funny, and very Anglo-Saxon.



Don't you hate when people do that? They want to help their kids "fit in better." Whereas there's no lack of force behind fitting in, and very little behind understanding and appreciating other cultures. My mother, who was Jewish (and whose parents in turn came from the Ukraine), spoke "Jewish" frequently around us when we were growing up because she assumed we'd never understand what she was saying. But when I learned German in high school and quickly took to it, she stopped after she realized I understood it well. She'd figured Jewish was a language, which it wasn't; it was a dialect (not to be confused with the religion). And as with any dialect, if it's spoken without being rushed, people who understand the mother tongue can usually catch much of it, too.

Amazing the words she'd use that she told us were inappropriate anywhere.

:laugh: Hey, Fable! You reminded me too of Abbot & Costello's "Who's On First" routine! Anyway, I think the people that have the most problems with puns, are those that have the least grasp of the language to begin with. Especially those that use "Slanguage" (a book title by the way), as if they were speaking proper American-English to begin with. (Karen Berry! This means you! If you watched TV, I'd say that she talks like "Joy" in "My Name is Earl". )

My cousin Calvin was dating a mutual co-worker, Christine, and they went to see "Toy Story". He laughed out loud when he read the sign "Virtual Realty". She frowned and had to have the pun explained to her. Rather than adapting, she began to complain that she hates movies that make you think like that! She wants to relax and have fun, not think! (Yes, she's a blonde!)

Anyway, yes I do! I get stares when I angrily mimic Mom's supposed profanity sometimes. I don't know what I'm saying, but sometimes the words I remember her saying, come out when I get frustrated. Sometimes people think I'm using a form of broken Spanish or maybe Klingon or Chickasaw!

I haven't been in Taekwondo class since I was 29, but they used to teach us the moves and forms, using the Korean terms for them. It helps in tournaments and such, when one person is a Spanish speaker and the other isn't, but they share a little Korean, to understand the referee or judge.