A “mondegreen” is a mishearing of a term or phrase that results in a new term or phrase out of that mistake. It can be within the same language, but it seems more prevalent between different languages due to differences in understanding and how languages sound. Although usually accidental, mondegreens sometimes can result in some rather humorous results. Examples:
-
The first line in the US national anthem is “O say can you see,” but can easily be misheard as “José, can’t you see?” with the Spanish name replacing the first two words. Some Spanish speakers have joked that the US national anthem is actually a song about a Spanish person.
-
Chinese Sinicizes almost all pronunciations, which means any language is at the mercy of being misheard and reinterpreted into a new meaning. This has resulted in some ridiculously hilarious mondegreens, such as the Japanese phrase 愛してる (aishiteru)—meaning “love”—becoming 阿姨洗铁路 (ā yí xǐ tiě lù)—meaning “aunt washes railroads.”
What are some mondegreens in your languages that you know of?
[link] [comments]
from Language Learning https://ift.tt/ap1Idt0
via Learn Online English Speaking
Comments
Post a Comment