Bilingual pun

A bilingual pun is a pun in which a word in one language is similar to a word in another language; this is often done by mixing languages, and is a form of macaronic language. Typically, use of bilingual puns results in in-jokes, since there is often a small overlap between speakers of the two languages.

A general technique in bilingual punning is homophonic translation, which consists of translating a passage in a source language into a homophonic (but likely nonsensical) passage in a target language. This requires the listener or reader to understand both the surface, nonsensical translated text, as well as the source text – the surface text then sounds like source text spoken in a foreign accent. An example, Luis van Rooten's English-French Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames (1967), translates "Humpty Dumpty" beginning:

Un petit d'un petit / S'étonne aux Halles

The original reads:

Humpty Dumpty / Sat on a wall.

while the translation literally means:

One little [one] from [another] little [one] / was astonished at Les Halles.

Examples

French/English

From the motion picture Clue: the Movie:

Mrs. Peacock: Is there a "little girl's room" in the hall?

Yvette: Oui, oui, madame.

Mrs. Peacock: No, I just need to powder my nose.

English speakers may respond jokingly to the French expressions "C'est moi", "C'est la vie" and "C'est la guerre" ("It's me", "That's life" and "It's war", respectively) with "Moi", "La vie" or "La guerre." (The last example was used in the 1952 film Road to Bali.) C'est, French for "it is", resembles the English word say, hence allowing for a phrase to be interpreted as a request to speak the words after "c'est".

In the film Sherlock Holmes (2009 film), directed by Guy Ritchie, a returning character asks "Avez-vous me manquer?", with subtitles "Did you miss me?" after being nearly killed by a gunshot.

German/English

A Wayne and Shuster routine depicts a young Mozart appearing before an Emperor who offers him items from a plate of food and asks how many he would like:

• Nein, sir.
• Very well then, give him nine… musicians are like actors - they eat like pigs!

It's nice to be a Preiss but it's higher to be a Bayer.

• This is a bilingual pun because Preiss (pronounced price) is Bavarian slang for Prussian and Bayer (pronounced buyer) means Bavarian.

German/Chinese

At the beginning of his short story "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," science fiction author Cordwainer Smith wrote,

• Go back to An-fang, the Peace Square at An-fang, the Beginning Place at An-fang, where all things start. Bright it was. Red Square, dead square, clear square, under a yellow sun.

One of the Chinese readings of An-fang is "Peace Square" and Anfang is the German word for "beginning."

Japanese/English

The theme song to the anime series His and Her Circumstances contains the following pun;

You may dream, masshiro na…

(You may dream, pure white…)

"You may" sounds like yume (夢), the Japanese word for "dream".

The song Hey Ya! by Outkast sounds like the word heya (部屋) which means "room."

The pun can be taken further by adding "watashi no" in front of "hey ya" to make it sound like "my room" in Japanese.

The letter "e" when called by its name sounds like the Japanese ii (いい) which means "good." So anything beginning with a long "e" sound can be called "good x." For example e-mail - ii-mail - good mail.

Japanese/Portuguese

In the film Gaijin, a Brazilian Odyssey written by Jorge Durán and Tizuka Yamasaki and directed by Tizuka Yamasaki, newly immigrant Japanese agricultural laborers are struggling to accommodate to Brazilian culture. At mealtime, the Brazilian cook serves up a stew of feijoada to a nonplussed Japanese.

• [the Japanese] Kome!
• [the cook] Come!
• [the Japanese] Kome!
• [the cook] Come!

Neither one speaks the language of the other — but each thinks he is being understood. Kome (米), pronounced KO-MAY, is Japanese for "rice," while Come, with the same pronunciation, is Portuguese for "Eat" (imperative). This humorous contretemps roughly translates as: "But I want rice"; "That's right, go ahead, eat this"; "No, I want rice"; "Yes, yes eat it".

Latin

Following General Sir Charles James Napier's 1843 conquest of Sindh in India, the satirical magazine Punch published a cartoon in which the despatch to his commanders was "Peccavi", meaning, in Latin "I have sinned" (I have Sindh). (The joke was the pun; but the cartoon was about the sin: the slaughter of some 26,000 Indians for no particular purpose, and even against direct orders not to take Sindh.)

After the capture of Lucknow in 1857 Lord Clyde (or one of his officers) is supposed to have telegraphed home, "Nunc fortunatus sum" I am in luck now.

In both of these examples, the double meaning is generated by comparison of the English translation to the Indian place name (the Latin word or phrase is not actually part of the pun).

Latin/Māori

"Et tu, Brutus?"

"Why are you speaking Māori?"

(From the film Sione's Wedding. "E tu" is Māori for "Stand up".)

Norwegian/English

Det er ikke farten som dreper, det er smellet. means "It's not the speed that kills, it's the bang.". By using the Norwegian words for "speed" (fart) and "bang" (smell) one gets the phrase "It's not the fart that kills, it's the smell.".

A Norwegian tourist visited London and wanted to take a taxi. He opened the door to what he thought was the passenger side, and was surprised to find the driver sitting there. He said: "I'm sorry, but in my country the rat is on the other side.". The Norwegian word for "steering wheel" is ratt.

Another Norwegian tourist took a taxi. When he reached his destination, he realized that he didn't have any money. He said to the taxi driver: "I'm sorry, I cannot pay because I'm black." (In Norwegian, blakk means "broke"). The taxi driver turned and the Norwegian realized that the taxi driver was, in fact, black. He apologized and said: "I'm so sorry, but in my country we call all poor people black.".

Romanian/German

Volkswagen izbit în zid. In Romanian it means Volkswagen slammed into a wall, literally. Sounds like Volkswagen, ich bitte Sie (Volkswagen, please! in German).

Russian/English

A common Russian joke about an Irishman in a Russian airport.

"I need two tickets to Dublin."

"Куда, блин?" (Kuda, blin?)

"To Dublin."

The second phrase is a question with an exclamation, meaning: "Where, damn it?" The last one sounds like an annoyed reply in Russian: "Туда, блин!" (Tuda, blin!), which means "There, damn it!".

Spanish/English

This story is told in Spanish (ignoring inconsistencies about which animals live in which continents). A European zoo contracted with a man who was given a long list of animals the zoo needed. The contractor and his staff went to Africa with the list and caught all the animals on the list.

As they were returning to Europe on a train with all the animals the jaguar (Spanish: jaguar) died and the contractor was distressed about the complication and cost of having to go back with all the animals just to catch one jaguar. Someone in his staff suggested they could take a fox (Spanish: zorro), of which they had one extra, and paint it to look like a jaguar thereby saving the need to go back. So this they did and continued on to Europe where they delivered all the animals to the zoo, including the "jaguar".

The zoo promptly put the newly arrived "jaguar" in the same enclosure with other jaguars but they would not mix. The new one cowered in a corner while the old ones looked at it distrustingly. This went on for some time until finally one of the resident jaguars slowly walked up to the new arrival and asked "Jaguar you?" (Pun: How are you?), to which the new arrival responded "I am zorry" (Pun: I am a fox).

Spanish/French

The story is best told in English, as the pun is not immediately obvious, but anyone with a sufficient knowledge of Spanish and French will understand it regardless. A Spaniard and a Frenchman are waiting on a train platform for their respective true loves. The train arrives, and the Spanish lady descends gracefully into the arms of the Spaniard. The Frenchman's love follows her, but catches her foot on the step and trips, causing her skirts to fly up and embarrassing her greatly. The Frenchman says to her, "Do not worry, my dear, c'est la vie!" The Spaniard replies, "¡Yo también!"

The pun is that "c'est la vie," French for "that's life" (a common saying to brush off minor misfortunes), sounds exactly like like "se la vi" in Spanish, which roughly translates to "I saw it." "¡Yo también!" is Spanish for "Me too!", showing that the Spaniard misunderstood what the Frenchman was saying.

Indian languages: Tamil and Punjabi

A Tamilian (speaker of Tamil) says "Tamil teri ma?", to which a Punjabi man answers, "Punjabi tera baap, oye!"

The first is a question, which in Tamil means "Do you understand Tamil?" but in Punjabi sounds like "Tamil is your mother" (a sort of slur or slight on the person or his ethnicity, similar to "yo momma!"). To this, the Punjabi man, offended, responds explosively with "Punjabi (the language) is your daddy!" (offensive; you and your language are inferior to Punjabi).

See also

• Homophonic translation
• Loanword
• Macaronic language
• Phono-semantic matching
• Code mixing