donnaanna:

andymagnuseth:

dutchbag:

whoosp:

zombiehunterdg:

protectorateandcircuit:

tipsy-arachnid:

emryssa:

bombulum:

What does English sound like to foreign ears?

We’ve all heard examples of fake Chinese or German from speakers who lack familiarity with either language. While typically cringe-worthy, these examples do raise interesting questions regarding our own language. What does English sound like to non-English speakers? After more than 40 years, Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol” remains one of the most illuminating examples. 

The entire song is nonsense verse, neither English nor Italian, but the sounds are meant to resemble English. Linguist Mark Liberman wrote an interesting post about this sort of thing over at Language Log discussing yaourter, the French word for an attempt to speak or sing in a foreign language that one doesn’t know all that well. This often involves trying to sing a foreign song with nonsense or random words filling in the blanks. Liberman shares this wonderful quote from a random Internet user:

Just for the story, in France, when we don’t speak English and we want to imitate the sound, we call it “yaourter”(to yoghourt), the imitation sounds like a very nasal language, kind of like a baby crying. It mostly imitates the “cowboy” accent.

This is fascinating *A*

I love when they mimic Americans speaking English in anime and it’s all “Shit!” and “OH MY GOD” and “pera pera pera” or something like that XD

I HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED

This is amazing.

It sounds like it should be American English but it’s just…not, and as somebody whose mother tongue is American English that’s really fascinating. And frustrating. It’s almost hard to listen to.

Is no one gonna mention how rad this song is tho?

AHHH ITS ENGLISH BUT NOT

I found this a long time ago and it confused my brain so much because it felt like I should be able to understand it but I couldn’t!

good god, this is really soothing.

WOW… I suddenly feel like I’m 7 again and can’t understand what’s being sung XD This must be pretty much how it must have sounded like when I tried to sing songs by the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, CCR, Dire Straits, you name it, without actually being familiar with the language XD I STILL sometimes bump into old songs I haven’t heard in a while and my brain goes into the pre-english speaking mode, refusing to hear what is actually being said.

It’s not so bad these days, but when I was 13 and already spoke fluently, read books in English and considered myself pretty good at it, I put on Led Zeppelin’s A Whole Lotta Love after like… 6 or 7 years? When I was a kid I used to run around the room, singing 

AHOLAHOLAHO!! AHOLAHOLAHO!

XDDD Aaaaand I was like “okay now I’m gonna hear what it actually says!”

Yeah no

All I could hear was “aholaholaho”. I actually had to go online to check the lyrics (and that was back in the good old days of 128kbps ISDN internet… good gods IT TOOK A WHILE - and we had a FAST connection, most people still had 14.4 or 28.8 XD).

</ramble>

This is me listening to songs in English since forever until one day I finally started to understand and catch random words and sentences. 

And this is also how we non native English speakers sing songs when we don’t know the actual lyrics : D

(Source: blogs.howstuffworks.com)

doctordonna10:

ohgorman:

samandriel:

zuviosgemini:

seekerheels:

GUYS LOOK AT FILI

BILBO JUST TOLD TROLLS TO SKIN THE DWARVES

AND FILI IS SO ANGRY 

HE TRIES TO BITE HIS ANKLES

oMG

Oh my fucking god. I can’t breathe. Does anyone else see Thorin’s scream of rage and then his useless flailing?

Balin in the back is like WHAT DID YOU SAY BOY

#DWARVES #HOW ARE YOU EVEN ALLOWED OUTSIDE WITHOUT SUPERVISION

I FEEL SO BAD FOR BOMBUR HE JUST HAS TO LAY THERE

(Source: mcavoiding)

thundercamp:

Street performer Bryson Andres uses an electric violin and a loop pedal to play Secrets by One Republic. Pretty damn impressive.

 #anna you are a perfect human being #stephen and alex’s reactions

(Source: askarsswedishmeatballs)

zellerific:

bradford-socks:

ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, I give you

Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, with the vocal part replaced with a single pitch shifted sample of a duck quacking

this is all i have ever wanted.

(Source: bradfordsox)

tumblchorraden:

mooses-meese:

craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazycaaaaaaaaaas:

teaandtags:

popcorn-colonel:

giantginger:

id-never-admit-that-i:

I think fandom just made this depressing post really, really inspirational.

which is the opposite of what usually happens

unruined hipster post

And this one too. Forever reblog because of Doctor Who’s awesomeness

Actually improved hipster post. 

(Source: eightysixpence)

disneyismyescape:

fallinlove-withdisney:

awesomeosaurusrex:

holyrobins:

elixiroverdose:

beejabbers:

DISNEY FANS STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WATCH THIS. THE COLOURS, THE LIGHTS, AND THE SOUNDS OH MY GOD.

#reblogged in the first thirty seconds

mygod, amazing things like this makes me want to just set up tent in front of a lightdisc

My day has ended well

nghh <333333333333333333333333333

EVERY TIME I WATCH THIS VIDEO

I don’t care what anyone says, Disney is fucking beautiful.

I’ve been reduced to tears. Absolutely gorgeous.

and reblogged before I even got to cinderella. 

Reblogging every time. 

(Source: charles-dances)

that-is-2spooky:

throughthelookingglassxx:

loki-s-army-at-221b:

hotterhatter2211:

touchitdean:

microxcuts:

‘

PLEASE! I LOVE MEN THAT ARE OLDER!

Will always be my favorite post. 

(Source: plugoutbaby)

I Once Dated A Writer and

senturysam:

Writers are forgetful,

but they remember everything.
They forget appointments and anniversaries,
but remember what you wore,
how you smelled,
on your first date…
They remember every story you’ve ever told them -
like ever,
but forget what you’ve just said.
They don’t remember to water the plants
or take out the trash,
but they don’t forget how
to make you laugh.

Writers are forgetful
because
they’re busy
remembering
the important things.