Spoonerism

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An example of spoonerism on a protest placard in London, England: "Buck Frexit" instead of "Fuck Brexit". People's Vote March 2018-10-20 - BUCK FREXIT I LOVEU.jpg
An example of spoonerism on a protest placard in London, England: "Buck Frexit" instead of "Fuck Brexit".

A spoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase. [1] [lower-alpha 1] These are named after the Oxford don and ordained minister William Archibald Spooner, who reputedly did this.

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An example is saying "blushing crow" instead of "crushing blow", or "runny babbit" instead of "bunny rabbit". While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words.

The first known Spoonerisms were published by the 16th century by the author François Rabelais and termed contrepèteries . [2] In his novel Pantagruel , he wrote "femme folle à la messe et femme molle à la fesse" ("insane woman at mass, woman with flabby buttocks"). [3]

Etymology

Spooner as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, April 1898. William Archibald Spooner Vanity Fair 1898-04-21.jpg
Spooner as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, April 1898.

Spoonerisms are named for the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden from 1903 to 1924 of New College, Oxford, who was allegedly susceptible to this mistake. [4] [5] [6] The Oxford English Dictionary records the word spoonerism as early as 1900. [7] The term was well established by 1921. An article in The Times from that year reports that:

The boys of Aldro School, Eastbourne, ... have been set the following task for the holidays: Discover and write down something about: The Old Lady of Threadneedle-street, a Spoonerism, a Busman's Holiday... [8]

An article in the Daily Herald in 1928 reported spoonerisms to be a "legend". In that piece Robert Seton, once a student of Spooner's, admitted that Spooner:

...made, to my knowledge, only one "Spoonerism" in his life, in 1879, when he stood in the pulpit and announced the hymn: 'Kinkering Kongs their Titles Take' ["Conquering Kings their Titles Take"]...Later, a friend and myself brought out a book of "spoonerisms"' [9]

In 1937, The Times quoted a detective describing a man as "a bricklabourer's layer" and used "Police Court Spoonerism" as the headline. [10]

A spoonerism is also known as a marrowsky or morowski, purportedly after an 18th-century Polish count who suffered from the same impediment. [11] [7]

Examples

Caricature of Charles H. Workman. The accompanying biography reads, "The only part of him which gets tired is his tongue, and occasionally the oft-repeated lines have got muddled. 'Self-constricted ruddles', 'his striggles were terruffic', and 'deloberately rib me' are a few of the spoonerisms he has perpetrated." Charles Workman Vanity Fair 31 March 1910.jpg
Caricature of Charles H. Workman. The accompanying biography reads, "The only part of him which gets tired is his tongue, and occasionally the oft-repeated lines have got muddled. 'Self-constricted ruddles', 'his striggles were terruffic', and 'deloberately rib me' are a few of the spoonerisms he has perpetrated."

Most of the quotations attributed to Spooner are apocryphal; The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd edition, 1979) lists only one substantiated spoonerism: "The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer" (instead of "rate of wages"). Spooner himself claimed [4] that "The Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take" (in reference to a hymn) [12] was his sole spoonerism. Most spoonerisms were probably never uttered by William Spooner himself but rather invented by colleagues and students as a pastime. [13] Richard Lederer, calling "Kinkering Kongs their Titles Take" (with an alternative spelling) one of the "few" authenticated Spoonerisms, dates it to 1879, and he gives nine examples "attributed to Spooner, most of them spuriously". [14] They are as follows:

In modern terms, spoonerism generally refers to any changing of sounds in this manner.

Comedy

Writing in tribute for the inaugural Ronnie Barker Talk, Ben Elton wrote,

What an honour. I grew up loving Ronnie Barker and can only hope the news that I am to give a talk in his name doesn’t leave him spitting spiritedly splenetic spoonerisms in comedy heaven. [15]

Literature

He once proclaimed, "Hey, belly jeans"
When he found a stash of jelly beans.
But when he says he pepped in stew
We'll tell him he should wipe his shoe.

— Cleary, Brian P. Rainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda, 2004.

Music

Radio

On the 3 December 1950 episode of The Jack Benny Program, Jack mentions that he ran into his butler Rochester while in his car that was on a grease rack. Mary Livingston was supposed to say "How could you run into him on a grease rack?" but flubbed her line with "How could you run into him on a grass reek?" The audience laughed so much that Jack was unable to reply as the show ran out of time. [32]

False etymology

Spoonerisms are used sometimes in false etymologies. For example, according to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, some wrongly believe that the English word butterfly derives from 'flutter by'. [33] : p.78 

Kniferisms and forkerisms

As complements to spoonerism, Douglas Hofstadter used the nonce words kniferism and forkerism to refer to changing, respectively, the vowels or the final consonants of two syllables, giving them a new meaning. [34] Examples of so-called kniferisms include a British television newsreader once referring to the police at a crime scene removing a 'hypodeemic nerdle'; a television announcer once saying that "All the world was thrilled by the marriage of the Duck and Doochess of Windsor"; [35] and during a live radio broadcast in 1931, radio presenter Harry von Zell accidentally mispronouncing US President Herbert Hoover's name as "Hoobert Heever". [35] [36]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The definition of Spoonerism in the 1924 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is: "An accidental transposition of the initial sounds, or other parts, of two or more words."

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References

  1. ↑ Eric Donald Hirsch; Joseph F. Kett; James S. Trefil (2002). The New dictionary of cultural literacy. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 160–. ISBN   978-0-618-22647-4 . Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  2. ↑ https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59126/dalrev_vol46_iss4_pp457_465.pdf?sequence=1  : Rabelais gives perhaps the earliest literary example: "II n'y a point d'enchantement. Chascun de vous l'a veu. Je y suis maistre passé. A brum, a brum, je suis prestre Macé." Rabelais, instead of repeating "maître passé" (past master), wrote "prêtre Macé" (priest Mace), the name of the historian René Macé, a monk whose name was synonymous with simple or foolish.
  3. ↑ https://www.francealumni.fr/en/static/the-art-of-spoonerism-6968: "The first written proof dates back to the 16th century, with François Rabelais: in his famous novel "Pantagruel", the writer plays with the sound similarity between "femme folle à la messe" (insane woman at mass) and "femme molle à la fesse" (woman with flabby buttocks). At the time, this joke was not only funny; it was a way to upset proper etiquette. Under a supposedly serious sentence, a salacious innuendo is hiding."
  4. 1 2 "Names make news". Time . 29 October 1928. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
  5. ↑ "Spoonerism Message Lost in Translation". Toledo Blade. 3 November 1980.
  6. ↑ Compare: "Obituary: Dr WA Spooner". The Manchester Gurdian. Guardian News & Media Limited. 1 September 2010 [1 September 1930]. Retrieved 23 May 2022– via The Guardian archive. In 1879 it was a favourite Oxford anecdote that Spooner from the pulpit gave out the first line of a well-known hymn as 'Kinkering Kongs their titles take.' [...] The anecdote is well enough authenticated, but according to most people who knew Spooner well that was the only "Spoonerism" he ever made – the essence of a "Spoonerism" being, of course, lack of intent, – though later when, thanks to indefatigable undergraduate and alas! graduates and dignified Fellows of colleges, the legends had become legion, he often used deliberately to 'indulge in metathesis,' to live up to his reputation.
  7. 1 2 "spoonerism" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  8. ↑ "Every Schoolboy Knows", The Times, Dec 8, 1921, pg. 7.
  9. ↑ '"Spoonerisms" a Legend' in Daily Herald 28/9/1928.
  10. ↑ The Times, 29 October 1937, pg. 9.
  11. ↑ Chambers Dictionary 1993 ISBN   0-550-10255-8
  12. ↑ Bartlett, John (1992) [1855]. Justin Kaplan (ed.). Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (16th ed.). Little, Brown and Company. pp.  533. ISBN   0-316-08277-5.
  13. ↑ Quinion, Michael (28 July 2007). "Spoonerism". World Wide Words . Retrieved 19 September 2008.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Lederer, Richard (1988). Get Thee to a Punnery. Charleston, South Carolina: Wyrick & Co. pp. 137–148.
  15. ↑ "Ben Elton to give inaugural BBC comedy lecture The Ronnie Barker Talk". BBC . 21 April 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ↑ "The Capitol Steps – We put the MOCK in Democracy". capsteps.com.
  17. ↑ "Capitol Steps – Lirty Dies !". capsteps.com.
  18. ↑ Sterling, Christopher H., ed. (2003). Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set. Routledge. p. 1696. ISBN   1-57958-249-4 . Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  19. ↑ "Stoopnagle's Tale is Twisted, by Ken James". Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  20. ↑ Rogak, Lisa (2007), A Boy Named Shel , Thomas Dunne Books, ISBN   978-0-312-35359-9
  21. ↑ Tindall, William (1939). D.H. Lawrence & Susan his Cow. Columbia University Press. p. 196. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  22. ↑ Bush, Douglas (1953). "Life, Letters, and Education". In Smithberger, Andrew T. (ed.). Essays British and American. Houghton-Mifflin. p. 465. Retrieved 25 June 2023. originally given as a lecture at Smith College (Nov 13 1941) and Wellesley College (Dec 2 1941), Massachusetts.
  23. ↑ Christopulos, J., and Smart, P.: Van der Graaf Generator – The Book, page 128. Phil and Jim publishers, 2005.
  24. ↑ Smyth, David (26 November 2020). "Virtually Famous: Ritt Momney". Evening Standard . Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  25. ↑ "Music – Review of Com Truise – Galactic Melt". BBC. 5 July 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  26. ↑ "Mord Fustang – About" . Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  27. ↑ "Loyle Carner: Why the South London rapper's album may have you in tears". NME . 18 January 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  28. ↑ Bassil, Ryan (20 May 2016). "ADHD Isn't My Disorder, It's More Like My Superpower". Noisey . Vice . Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  29. ↑ Hind, John (17 November 2018). "Loyle Carner: 'I grew up with ADHD, and for me cooking is close to meditation'". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  30. ↑ "Interview: Carson Pace of 2022 Mathcore Sensation The Callous Daoboys". 28 February 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  31. ↑ "San Holo is Ready For the Next Episode". Hypebeast. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  32. ↑ "Jack Benny's "Grass Reek" Punch Line Discovered After 65 Years". cleanslatefilms.com. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  33. ↑ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9781403917232 / ISBN   9781403938695
  34. ↑ Hofstadter, Douglas (1995). Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Human Thought . NY: Basic. p.  117.
  35. 1 2 Simonini, R. C. (December 1956). "Phonemic and Analogic Lapses in Radio and Television Speech". American Speech. 31 (4). Duke University Press: 252–263. doi:10.2307/453412. JSTOR   453412.
  36. ↑ "snopes.com: Harry von Zell and Hoobert Heever" . Retrieved 2 February 2009.
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