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Mondegreen
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A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, typically a standardized phrase such as a line in a poem or a lyric in a song, due to near homophony, in a way that yields a new meaning to the phrase. It should not be confused with Soramimis, which are songs that produce different meanings than those originally intended, when interpreted in another language.
American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term mondegreen in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," which was published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954.
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Encyclopedia
A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, typically a standardized phrase such as a line in a poem or a lyric in a song, due to near homophony, in a way that yields a new meaning to the phrase. It should not be confused with Soramimis, which are songs that produce different meanings than those originally intended, when interpreted in another language.
Etymology
The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term mondegreen in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," which was published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954. In the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the final line of the first stanza from the 17th century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O' Murray." She wrote:
- When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl Amurray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green." As Wright explained the need for a new term, "The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original."
Other examples Wright suggested are:
- Surely Good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life ("Surely goodness and mercy
" from Psalm 23)
- The wild, strange battle cry "Haffely, Gaffely, Gaffely, Gonward." ("Half a league, half a league,/ Half a league onward," from "The Charge of the Light Brigade")
In 2008, the word was added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Role in culture
Examples in song lyrics
- The "top 3" mondegreens submitted regularly to mondegreen expert Jon Carroll are:
- Gladly the cross-eyed bear (from the line in the hymn "Keep Thou My Way" by Fanny Crosby, "Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I'll bear") Carroll and many others quote it as "Gladly the cross I'd bear". Ed McBain used the mondegreen as the title of a novel. Also, this mondegreen is paraphrased by the band They Might Be Giants in their song "Hide Away Folk Family" (Sadly the cross-eyed bear's been put to sleep behind the stairs, and his shoes are laced with irony.)
- There's a bathroom on the right (the line at the end of each verse of "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival: "There's a bad moon on the rise")
- Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song "Purple Haze", by Jimi Hendrix: "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky").
- Both Creedence's John Fogerty and Hendrix eventually capitalized on these mishearings and deliberately sang the "mondegreen" versions of their songs in concert.
- "A wean in a manger," using the Scottish word for a baby, instead of "Away in a Manger." Gervase Phinn used "A Wayne in a Manger" as the title of a book about a children's nativity play.
- "Tell the Huns it's time for me" (from the song "Beneath the Lights of Home (In a Little Sleepy Town)" sung by Deanna Durbin in Nice Girl? (1941): "Turn the hands of time for me") on the BBC radio programme Quote Unquote in 2002.
- Mairzy Doats, a 1943 novelty song by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, works the other way around. The lyrics are already a mondegreen, and it's up to the listener to figure out what they mean. The refrain of the song repeats nonsensical sounding lines:
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe (or, if you prefer, "wouldn't chew").
- The only clue to the actual meaning of the words is contained in the bridge:
If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey,
Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy."
- From this point, the ear can figure out that the last line of the refrain is "A kid'll eat ivy too; wouldn't you?", but this last line is sung in the song only as a mondegreen.
- The Joni Mitchell cover of the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross song "Twisted" includes a mondegreen: the original lyric They all laughed at A. Graham Bell was misheard and subsequently recorded by Mitchell as They all laugh at angry young men.
Examples in television
- "Mondegreens" is the name of a segment on the Australian music quiz show Spicks and Specks (ABC TV).
Other examples
- A controversial example is found in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where Donald Duck in a scene chastises Daffy Duck, exclaiming "Doggone stubborn little..." Donald's quacks have frequently been misheard as "God damn stupid nigger", resulting in a hard-to-put-down urban legend.
- The problems with computer voice recognition are often mocked with the mondegreen "wreck a nice beach," which is a legitimate misinterpretation of the phrase "recognize speech."
See also
Further reading
- Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy Gavin Edwards, 1995. ISBN 0-671-50128-3
- When a Man Loves a Walnut Gavin Edwards, 1997. ISBN 0-684-84567-9
- He's Got the Whole World in His Pants Gavin Edwards, 1996. ISBN 0-684-82509-0
- Deck The Halls With Buddy Holly Gavin Edwards, 1998. ISBN 0-060-95293-8
- Chocolate Moose for Dinner Fred Gwynne, 1988. ISBN 0-671-66741-6
External links
- (from Snopes.com)
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- lists numerous Hindi mondegreens, mainly from Bollywood movie songs
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