English As She Is Spoke

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Book title

English as She Is Spoke is the common name of a 19th century Portuguese-English phrasebook by Pedro Carolino,incorrectly attributed to José da Fonseca and published in 1853. Because of its large number of incorrect translations, it is considered a classic example of involuntary humor. Carolino listed Fonseca as a co-author without informing him and presumably translated his earlier, quite successful French - Portuguese manual into crude English.

Presumably, Carolino himself could not speak English, but used an existing French-English lexicon to translate O Novo guia da conversação em francês e português by José da Fonseca.

Comments

Mark Twain wrote the foreword to the American edition, which was published for amusement in 1883. He said to English as She Is Spoke

"Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect. "

"Nobody can increase the absurdity of this book, nobody can successfully imitate it, nobody can hope to write an equivalent one, it is perfect."

- Mark Twain : in English as she is taught: Being genuine answers to examination questions in our public schools

Stephen Pile mentioned the book in his compilation The Book of Heroic Failures and praised it for its crude pictures: "Is there anything in conventional English which could equal the vividness of 'to craunch a marmoset ' ?" (In this comment Pile changed the original "To craunch the marmoset" something.) The English word craunch is a synonym for crunch ("nibble"), and marmoset means " marmosette ", whereby British speakers think of the British slang expression for masturbation the monkey and North American speakers of crispy fried dishes Monkeys. It is a mistranslation of the French expression croquer le marmot .

Examples

Some statements, such as "It is better to be single as a bad company.", That is, "As a bad company, it is better to be alone." Instead of the actually meant "It is better to be alone than in bad company" What it would mean ... than in bad company makes a whole new sense in and of itself.

Sentence in Portuguese Idiomatic translation Given translation Wrong translation (German) Idiomatic translation (German)
As paredes têm ouvidos. The walls have ears. The walls have hearsay. The walls have hearsay. Walls have ears.
Anda de gatinhas. He crawls on all fours. He go to four feet. He go to four feet. He crawls on all fours.
A estrada é segura? Is the road safe? Is sure the road? Is the road certain? Is the road safe?
Sabe montar a cavalo. He can ride a horse. He know ride horse. He know ride horse. He can ride.
Quem cala consente. He who is silent is taken to agree. That not says a word, consent. What does not say a word, agree. Whoever is silent agrees.
Que faz ele? What is he doing? What do him? What are he doing? What does he do?
Tenho vontade de vomitar. I feel like vomiting. I have mind to vomit. I feel like throwing up. I feel sick.
Este lago parece-me bem piscoso. Vamos pescar para nos divertirmos. That lake seems to be full of fish. Let us enjoy some fishing. That pond it seems me many multiplied of fishes. Let us amuse rather to the fishing. This lake seems to me to be multiplied by fish. Rather, let's have fun on the fishing. The lake seems to be full of fish, let's have some fun fishing.
O criado arou a terra real. The servant plowed the royal land. The created plow the land real. The created really plow the land. The servant plowed the royal land.
Bem sei o que devo fazer ou me compete. I know who I am and what I have to do. I know well who I have to make. I know well who to do. I know who I am and what to do.

Edition history

Related titles

The title inspired other book titles, so

  • English as she is wrote (1883)
  • English as she is taught (1887), with an introduction by Mark Twain
  • Britain as she is visit , a parody of a travel guide by Paul Jennings , British Life (M. Joseph, 1976)

A 1970 sketch by Monty Python used a similar misunderstanding, in the case of the failure of a Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook ("dirty Hungarian phrasebook "). Any attempt by a Hungarian to buy a few cigarettes from a tobacco shop using the idioms from this book ends in a fight and a lawsuit.

The sentence My postillion has been struck by lightning ("My coachman was struck by lightning ") is a prime example of meaningless idioms in phrasebooks in the English-speaking world and has become a running gag in Punch magazine and in textbooks for English as a foreign language.

Around 1915, a very flawed New Pocket Dictionary German-French and French-German appeared at the Paris branch of the Thomas Nelson publishing house , the author of which was given as K. Ashe . Kurt Tucholsky published in the Vossische Zeitung in 1929 under his pseudonym Peter Panter the article "Jonathan's Dictionary" with an invented history of the origin of the dictionary.

"What in the world is a 'chicken-worthier'? Everyone who has been one knows what a "corpse" is; but why «Gänze» not only means «tout», but also «gîte non exploité», an unused location ... that must have been a good, old whiskey, an old, good ... "

- Kurt Tucholsky : Jonathan's Dictionary

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Collins Library: The Mystery of Pedro Carolino . Archived from the original on April 15, 2002. Retrieved January 15, 2009.
  2. ↑ The Origins of English as She is Spoke . Archived from the original on February 2, 2003. Retrieved January 15, 2009.
  3. ↑ The Evolution of “English as She is Spoke” . Archived from the original on December 7, 2002. Retrieved January 15, 2009.
  4. ^ Mark Twain, 1887 in English as she is taught: Being genuine answers to examination questions in our public schools
  5. ↑ (Is there anything in common English that equates to the liveliness of “to craunch a marmoset”?) Scan of 1883 printed version; p.60 . Retrieved June 14, 2009.
  6. ↑ English as she is taught
  7. ^ Hungarian Phrase Book - Monty Python (YouTube) . Retrieved October 20, 2019.
  8. ↑ Geoffrey Broughton, Christopher Brumfit, Roger Flavell, Roger D. Wilde, Anita Pincas: Teaching English as a Foreign Language , 2nd. Edition, Routledge, London / New York 1988, ISBN 0415058821 , p. 41.
  9. ^ K. Ashe: Nouveau dictionnaire de poche francais-allemand et allemand-francais = New pocket dictionary German-French and French-German . T. Nelson, Paris (n.d. [1915], catalog entry in the French union catalog SUDOC).
  10. ↑ Kurt Tucholsky: Collected Works . tape 7 . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-499-29012-X , p. 148–152 (157th – 181st thousand).
  11. ^ Richard Wolf: Tucholsky, Kurt (1890–1935) . In: Dictionaries in Literature . Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  12. ↑ Kurt Tucholsky: Collected Works . tape 7 . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-499-29012-X , p. 151 (157th – 181st thousand).