Re: soundalike phrases

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> When you just hear the words, it's totally incomprehensible to non-arabophone
> me, but when seeing the lyrics simultaneously it's close to impossible
> not "hearing" it as the same words.
A friend of mine once played me a tape he had made of himself singing
"Born To Be Wild".  At the time, I had never heard the song, and I had
every reason to think it was a song he had written himself, like the
others on the tape.  Since I could not understand a single word, I
assumed he was singing in a conlang of his own construction.  When we
found out our mutual confusions, we grokked in fullness the meaning of
"ROTFLMAO".

What is odd is that once I had heard (or seen, I forget) the true
lyrics, I was totally unable to hear the "conlang" on the tape any more --
it was just obvious that he was singing in English, and I understood
everything.

Quine describes a somewhat similar effect, of listening to a lecture in
Argentinian Spanish and not quite understanding it (he learned
Mexican Spanish), and then consulting an English translation of the
text of the lecture, and then having the Spanish words come through
with utter clarity.

--
John Cowan   jcowan@reutershealth.com   http://www.reutershealth.com
    "Mr. Lane, if you ever wish anything that I can do, all you will have
        to do will be to send me a telegram asking and it will be done."
    "Mr. Hearst, if you ever get a telegram from me asking you to do
        anything, you can put the telegram down as a forgery."

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