Re: META: "Chinese whispers"

I've only known it as the "Telegraaf" (Which I'm not translating,
since it's a near homophone of the English term, and should be obvious
to this linguistically gifted list.), likely similar in origin to
Telephone.

2009/3/1 Paul Kershaw <ptkershaw@...>:
> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Peter Collier <petecollier@...>
>> No,- it's a children's game - they all sit in a circle and the first child
>> whispers something to the next, and it gets passed on around the circle. When it
>> gets back to the beginining it's compared to the original.
>>
>> I'm surprised you've not heard of it! Maybe its just a British thing, or perhaps
>> we're different ages?
>>
>> P.
>
> I believe it's a British term. I only guessed its meaning because The Cure had
> an album called "Japanese Whispers" back in the day, an apparent reference to
> the same game.
>
> In the US, I've only ever heard it called "Telephone," although unlike Matthew,
> I'd been told the name came from the way in which a message gets messed up
> through iterations of telephone conversations (I call my brother, who calls
> his friend, who calls his mother, who... and down the line, until the final
> message is completely different).
>
> Wikipedia says other names include "Le téléphone arabe" and "Russian scandal," so
> the reference appears to be to people passing on a message in a language they
> don't understand (and thus mucking it up), although I could see how someone
> could take that reference to be culturally insensitive (cf. the etymology of
> "barbarian").
>
> I haven't been participating regardless, but I for one am all for changing it
> to the utterly non-controversial "Telephone." :) Or "Stille Post," which
> Wikipedia also offers, in the interest of not siding with either the UK or
> the US. ;)
>
> -- Paul
>

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