Re: soundalike phrases

michael poxon scripsit:

> Just been listening to some Magma, which stirred a thought - when I
> first heard some of their lyrics, part of one song sounded exactly like
> the English phrase "Oh we don't get on" which prompts this question:
> can you think of any words or phrases in your own langs that sound like
> a word or phrase in your L1? (or indeed in any other realang)
There is quite a bit of Latin like this (disregarding exact phonetic
details, of course):  "O Sybilli, si ergo / Fortibus es in ero".

A friend and I, on first hearing Philip Glass's _Einstein on the Beach_,
interpreted the lyrics as "Winnipeg Monday".

Also google for "mondegreen".

Real, genuine ambiguities in spoken language are actually rather
rare, never mind across languages: beauties like "British left waffles
on Falklands" usually occur only in writing.  There was, however, the
gentleman in (the) hospital whose prescription was "an air-ring", a
inflatable rubber doughnut used to prevent bedsores.  Instead, he
got put in a wheelchair for a trip around the grounds!

--
And through this revolting graveyard of the universe the muffled, maddening
beating of drums, and thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from
inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time; the detestable pounding
and piping whereunto dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic
tenebrous ultimate gods --  the blind, voiceless, mindless gargoyles whose soul
is Nyarlathotep. (Lovecraft) John Cowan|jcowan@reutershealth.com|ccil.org/~cowan