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What does English sound like to foreign ears?
We’ve all heard examples of fake Chinese or German from speakers who lack familiarity with either language. While typically cringe-worthy, these examples do raise interesting questions regarding our own language. What does English sound like to non-English speakers? After more than 40 years, Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol” remains one of the most illuminating examples.
The entire song is nonsense verse, neither English nor Italian, but the sounds are meant to resemble English. Linguist Mark Liberman wrote an interesting post about this sort of thing over at Language Log discussing yaourter, the French word for an attempt to speak or sing in a foreign language that one doesn’t know all that well. This often involves trying to sing a foreign song with nonsense or random words filling in the blanks. Liberman shares this wonderful quote from a random Internet user:
Just for the story, in France, when we don’t speak English and we want to imitate the sound, we call it “yaourter”(to yoghourt), the imitation sounds like a very nasal language, kind of like a baby crying. It mostly imitates the “cowboy” accent.
Interesting and entertaining
I love this video. (If this pops up on my dash again, it will get reblogged again. And again. And again. Idk why this entertains me so much; it just does.)
Reblogging to watch later.
Yes! I love this forever too. The dancing!
This is awesome.
Will always reblog. My sister & I jam out to this song.
One, this is catchy. Two, … this is exactly how basically all songs I ever listen to sound like. I almost never listen to lyrics. Ever. It’s incredibly rare if I actually know all the words to something.
This is one of my favorite songs.
The Problem with Popplers
Free Waterfall Jr.: Psch! You can’t own property, man!
Professor Farnsworth: I can, but that’s because I’m not a penniless hippie!
10 notes
#tywin lannister does not approve of your commie shennanigans
#game of thrones
Rape culture is 1 in 6 women being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is not even talking about the reality that many women are sexually assaulted multiple times in their lives. Rape culture is the way in which the constant threat of sexual assault affects women’s daily movements. Rape culture is telling girls and women to be careful about what you wear, how you wear it, how you carry yourself, where you walk, when you walk there, with whom you walk, whom you trust, what you do, where you do it, with whom you do it, what you drink, how much you drink, whether you make eye contact, if you’re alone, if you’re with a stranger, if you’re in a group, if you’re in a group of strangers, if it’s dark, if the area is unfamiliar, if you’re carrying something, how you carry it, what kind of shoes you’re wearing in case you have to run, what kind of purse you carry, what jewelry you wear, what time it is, what street it is, what environment it is, how many people you sleep with, what kind of people you sleep with, who your friends are, to whom you give your number, who’s around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment where you can see who’s at the door before they can see you, to check before you open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-making machine, to get a roommate, to take self-defense, to always be alert always pay attention always watch your back always be aware of your surroundings and never let your guard down for a moment lest you be sexually assaulted and if you are and didn’t follow all the rules it’s your fault.
Shakesville: Rape Culture 101 (via loveyourchaos)
It’s never the guys fault for being an animal.
(via talkplaylove)
(via bettysdryer)
3,405 notes
#this be an evil feminist political blog y'all
Emmy. 20. Language student.
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