Re: Singing in foreign langs. was Re: Greetings

En réponse à Sally Caves <scaves@...>:

> it first, though.  I memorized "Dominique-nique-nique" long before I
> knew
> what the words meant; also "Allouette, gentil Allouette.  Allouette, je
> te
> plumerai."  I had no idea how cruel the words were!
LOL :)

  (Forgive me,
> Christophe, if I don't spell that correctly!)
Actually, you did pretty well, except that since an alouette is feminine,
it's "gentille" :))) (as for the fact that "Alouette" is written with a
single "l", I made the same mistake as you until I tried to look for the
English translation of the word :)) ).

>
> Where does the "Dominique" song come from?  I seem to associate it
> with
> something called "The Singing Nun."
Her stage name was "Soeur Sourire" and she was a Belgian nun. AFAIK she wrote
the song herself. The rest of her story is not that nice unfortunately :(( .
She ceased being a nun, became an alcoholist and a drug-addict, and finally
commited suicide :(( ...

  Also, "Allouette"?  From some
> musical?
> From a folktune?
Indeed. The author of this song is unknown, and it was already sung by children
centuries ago.

 Who is this unhappy bird?

"Alouette" is just the French name for "lark". Admit the word sounds much
better in French :))) .

  I always assumed it was
> getting
> plucked alive.
>
Well, it's not explained in the song but since in the song the child is
basically talking to the bird, it must be so (but since during this song you
get to pluck even its beak - a difficult thing I suppose ;))) -, I doubt that
it's to be taken literally :)) ). But it's not such a cruel song, as it's all
in the future tense, meaning that the child is only threatening, rather than
actually plucking the bird ;)))) .

>
> LOL!  When I was little, I didn't understand songs in English.
I still have difficulties with many ;)))) .

>
> As for distortion, it always seemed to me that singers of songs in
> Spanish
> were far more willing to put the emphasis on the "wrong" syllable than
> singers of English songs, or to end measures in the middle of a word.
Ever heard the song "Comment te dire adieu" written by Serge Gainsbourg and
sung by Françoise Hardy? It's a wonder of poetry based on rhymes in [Eks]
(quite rare in French) which more often than not happen in the middle of a
word!!! So words get to be cut between verses :)) . Normally French doesn't
allow that, but Gainsbourg wasn't a poet for nothing :)) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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