Postby Iversen » Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:58 pm
This reference to the topic of speoonerisms reminded of a book I have had on my shelf for a long time, but not reread recently: the utterly dirty and very funny slang dictionary by Kaj Bom (another, more traditional and more sober, but also much less funny one has later been published by the same Danish publishing house, the eternal spelling error Politiken). Unfortunately for most of you it is in Danish, but I'll give a few examples from the literary section who also qualify as spoonerisms.
An old religious book for use at home, "Jesper Brochmanns Huspostil", becomes "Jesper Husmands Brokpistol" (literally "Jesper Smallholder's hernia pistol")
A venerated historical book "Dagligt liv i Norden" ("Daily life in the North (Scandinavia)) becomes "Dagligt niv i lorten" ("Daily pinch in the turd")
Ingemann's historical novel "Valdemar Sejr" (name of the Danish king 1202-1241) becomes "Sadelmager Meyer" ("saddler Meyer")
and from the domain of music:
"Lad tonerne fortælle" (let the tones tell) becomes "Lad tænderne fortolde" ("put duty on the teeth")
"Mesternyren i Zangenberg" ("The Master Kidney in Zangenberg") is of course "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" by Wagner, which in Danish is "Mestersangerne i Nürnberg"
.. but bad translations ('undersættelser' (instead of 'oversættelser') are much more common:
"Lucia di Lammermoor" by Donizetti becomes "Lus i lammelåret" ("Lice in the thigh of the lamb")
"Festpolonaise" by the Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen's becomes "Fest-pil-i-næse" ("Festival pick-your-nose")
"Tosken" ("the fool", from "torsk" = cod) is Puccini's "Tosca"
"Indianeren laver i kålen" ("The native American defecates in the cabbage") refers to the once popular "Indian love call" (from an old musical names "Rosemary")
and
"De skønne myldrer ind" ("the beauties are swarming in") is of course "Die Schöne Müllerin" by Schubert ("the pretty female miller or miller's wife")
Outside names of books, music etc. spoonerisms in slang are rare - after all you need several words in a fixed expression or very long compound words to get the chance to recombine the elements.
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