How Do I Normal?

“There’s a map inside your head, Clary. You are the key to our survival.” -Magnus Bane

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.

you guys don’t have red skins or bubble o’bills or minties?

and tim tams or tiny teddies or milo?

and fairy bread or caramello koalas or crunchies or cherry ripes or WIZZ FIZZES?

HOW DO YOU LIVE OHMYGOD.

ALSO FREDDO FROGS

AND SHAPES

C’mon Merlin/Merthur fans! We’re now only 200 votes behind (last I checked we were 600 back). Let’s make this happen!

Poll ends today around 12PM EST. It’s 1 vote per IP address

www.hypable.com/2012/11/18/hypables-battleships-merlin-vs-glee/