24 ms·

An Italian Song That Sounds Like English But Is Nonsense

• NiklasMort 9y ago
  Aren't they saying in the beginning "I am freezing cold and my shoes'r off"? I hear lot of phrases and words, must be my brain tricking me.
  • piefayth 9y ago
    Interesting you should "mishear" that part; that entire phrase is actually the name of the song: "Prisencolinensinainciusol."
    • NiklasMort 9y ago
      I wonder what text to speech would "hear" there. Should be similar interpretation as mine.
  • b6 9y ago
    I like to study languages and this happens to me embarrassingly often. I call it hyperhearing. Overhearing a fragment of speech, I'll mentally force it to be some language I'm studying, only to find out upon hearing more that it's definitely a language I don't know a word of.
    • Retra 9y ago
      My girlfriend likes to listen to French music, and I don't speak French, so I'll sometimes sing along with the words that sound almost like English. She naturally can't do it because all she can hear is the actual French meanings, not the craziness I come up with. I've also heard that one of the biggest 'tells' of (American?) English is how the 'r' is pronounced with the tongue unnaturally forced into the back of the throat, so when movies try to create invented languages, they tend to avoid that sound, and it makes it sound more foreign or alien. It's also one of the harder sounds for children to learn.
      • mbanzi 9y ago
        In italy there is "Canzoni Travisate" (Misheard songs) where somebody subtitles parts of english language songs that could sound like an italian. It's hilarious (to italians..) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtFhej8TvAI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtFhej8TvAI
        • bonzini 9y ago
          I was expecting "l'8 di gennaio"...
      • baobrien 9y ago
        I think that's called a 'rohtic' pronunciation (never studied linguistic) and carried over into the American dialect from an older English dialect. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English
      • rimliu 9y ago
        Some take it to the next level: https://youtu.be/yqVVv97pKGk https://youtu.be/yqVVv97pKGk
      • burfog 9y ago
        Here you go then, French with fake subtitles in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_a256A5RFQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_a256A5RFQ This is an unknown Indian language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3wTY00564Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3wTY00564Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz9pXe4PbRQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz9pXe4PbRQ Dutch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucB84k0G3EU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucB84k0G3EU Korean, at least mostly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ZfW1XzAgA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ZfW1XzAgA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvASlcUuCZI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvASlcUuCZI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN_E6HCuE5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN_E6HCuE5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHf1bKw_ftI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHf1bKw_ftI Possibly Chinese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK2gdO31pYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK2gdO31pYs Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwrqzGBNvGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwrqzGBNvGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt6RuccJdAo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt6RuccJdAo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcdYbEangV4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcdYbEangV4 Seems like a Germanic or Slavic language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRIn_60Ei6I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRIn_60Ei6I
    • kabes 9y ago
      The official term is mondegreen
      • derriz 9y ago
        There's a classic Peter Kay clip on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ukn2YT5jeM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ukn2YT5jeM - which exploits how succeptible we are to suggestion when it comes to mondegreens. Warning: Kay has a strong Northern English accent and heavily uses local idioms so I hope the humor isn't lost on an international audience.
        • icebraining 9y ago
          Definitively not lost, thanks for the hilarity!
        • walshemj 9y ago
          Actually Peter Kays accent is not that strong like wise Jasper Carrots Birmingham accent is not the full Yam Yam "black country" dialect. BTW black country refers to the mines in the rural areas near Birmingham and not to race. And I wont mention the accents in peaky blinders :-)
  • sumedh 9y ago
    That happens to me when I hear people talking in Dutch for some reason my brain tells me they are speaking a weird version English.
  • dtech 9y ago
    It's called a Mondegreen [1] in English, where a foreign language (or nonsense language in this case) is interpreted by your brain to be some meaningful sentence in your (usually) native language. In Dutch the phenomenon is known nowadays as a "Mamma Appelsapje" (a "Mommy Apple Juice"), because the Michael Jackson song "Wanna be starting something" contains > mama say mama sa mama coosa Which sounds to Dutch speakers like > mama say mama sa mamma appelsap Another one is Chumbawamba - Tubthumping, where > You're never gonna keep me down Sounds like > Jullie hebben nog niet betaald Which means "You haven't paid yet" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen
• foota 9y ago
  This is brilliant. It's like one of those visual machine learning tricks where they put slight patterns in something to fool the recognizer.
• wldcordeiro 9y ago
  Well this was practically a meme like nearly ten years ago. Interesting to get a story behind it.
  • orbitur 9y ago
    I knew exactly what the song was the moment I read the title. It's nice that there's a ton of additional context in this article that we didn't get when it popped up on reddit 8 years ago. Although I wonder if we'll get longform articles about eating Tide Pods in 2026.
• whoisjuan 9y ago
  For anyone who doesn't want to read here is the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8
  • notatoad 9y ago
    it's also included in the article.
  • xixixao 9y ago
    Don't miss the modern cover (with a cameo from the original author/performer). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn_OLnMriRg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn_OLnMriRg
• dennisvennink 9y ago
  There’s an entire genre from the 80s called Italo Disco that contains unintelligible English lyrics. It’s very charming in a way (and is excellent music to listen to while programming).
  • skrebbel 9y ago
    Ehh that's true, but it's not the definition of Italo Disco. Most Italo can be understood just fine.
  • kabes 9y ago
    Italo disco is currently having a small revival in some techno acts like Bicep.
  • confounded 9y ago
    Strongly agree. A personal favorite: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zDV_dBYp4h0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zDV_dBYp4h0 “Oh! What you’re gonna be!?”
    • n3t 9y ago
      Thanks for sharing! Have you got more of these? I'd appreciate recommendation of artists/songs to check out.
      • dennisvennink 9y ago
        The first advice I always give people that are trying to get into Italo is to check out Flemming Dalum's mixes: https://soundcloud.com/flemming/sets/flemming-dalum-mixes https://soundcloud.com/flemming/sets/flemming-dalum-mixes
        • thbanh 9y ago
          I'm discovering this. That's excellent ! Do you have other suggestions ?
    • dennisvennink 9y ago
• emmelaich 9y ago
  (off topic ..) Can someone help me find this? There is a black and white music video of an Italian girl singing an American folk/pop song -- I think it is "If I had a hammer". Maybe from the 1960s or 50s. It's bit faster than the usual version plus the girl looks pretty threatening - like she's carrying a knife and not afraid to use it.
  • J_cst 9y ago
    That's her, (name) Rita, (surname) Pavone. (Song name) Datemi un martello (Give me a hammer). She's holding an actual hammer. https://youtu.be/lGIXrziSLCQ https://youtu.be/lGIXrziSLCQ She's been quite popular, perhaps as much as Adriano Celentano (the one mentioned in this article link) who's been and still is very popular in Italy both as an artist and as a (political) thinker.
    • bonzini 9y ago
      It's a pity that Celentano is nowhere near to his 60s hits, for either style or innovation... it's more run of the mill adult pop.
      • toyg 9y ago
        Man, Celentano is literally 80. Do you really want to see him dance?
        • bonzini 9y ago
          No, retire. :-)
    • paganel 9y ago
      For those interested in listening to Italian music I’d add Mina to the list, of course, Ornella Vanoni, Mia Martini (whom I’ve discovered only recently, this song where she sings along with Vanoni is pure musical joy: https://youtu.be/TjMUPdnNjsw https://youtu.be/TjMUPdnNjsw) and last but especially not least Luigi Tenco (if you google his name you’ll find quite an interesting life-story, and his lyrics for “Ciao amore” resonate to an almost middle-aged guy like me even today, 50+ years after they’ve been written, as for the first time in my life I’m seriously thinking about immigrating). There was a time (from the ‘60s up to the early ‘90s) when Italian music was ruling over much of Europe (just go to an Adriano Celentano YT video and you can see fan comments written in Russian, German, Spanish etc), it was glorious.
• vesinisa 9y ago
  There's actually a similar rock song from Finland recorded in 1974: https://youtu.be/yGCviZAdxeY https://youtu.be/yGCviZAdxeY In this case, the lyrics are actual English words, but the verses they form are just total gibberish: https://genius.com/Hurriganes-get-on-lyrics https://genius.com/Hurriganes-get-on-lyrics It's a pretty sweet rock piece and really famous in Finland. The recording was supposed to be a 'demo' and the gibberish lyrics replaced later with actual lyrics by someone who could English (the drummer/singer here, Remu Aaltonen, could not). But the band thought the demo good enough and decided to release it anyway on their next album. The rest is Finnish rock history.
  • lnx01 9y ago
    "Well, old Alabama, just a sweet Carolina Just a-rockin' and rollin' may leave town Got to be a scoogie, lay on my boogie Let me hear you say you got my hole around" LOL
    • fny 9y ago
      This reminds me of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
      • doodpants 9y ago
        Especially if you replaced Alabama and Carolina with California.
    • 0x0 9y ago
      Haha nice Markov Chain going there
    • kibwen 9y ago
      To be fair, this appears to make about as much sense as your average rock song. :P Even something as venerable as Stairway To Heaven has lyrics that are, at best, allegorical poetry, or, at worst, sweet-sounding gibberish.
  • elmar 9y ago
    Nothing beats the Spanish dictator Franco speaking English https://youtu.be/EBS_n2lgYUI https://youtu.be/EBS_n2lgYUI
• b1daly 9y ago
  On a related subject, this one of my favorite presentations about audio perception. It’s about the perception of words in backwards music. It blew my miiind... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FcI8z-HoKPY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FcI8z-HoKPY
  • hansjorg 9y ago
    Locked at 666 views?
    • hateduser2 9y ago
      Nope, 700+ now
• seer 9y ago
  Hah several years back in my country (Bulgaria) there was a woman in our “Music Idol” tv show that tried to perform Mariah Carey’s “Without You”, but didn’t know a word of english [1]. And not knowing english is something bulgarians like to laugh at - she became a country wide sensation, shown in probably every comedy show and even the news, as well as earned herself multiple covers on youtube. At some point there was even a talk show in france that had Mariah as a guest, and they showed her that video hoping for a reaction [2] :-D But I agree with Mariah’s answer - you have to be reaaly brave to go on stage before the whole country and sing by trying to come up with words in a language you don’t understand. Weirdly enough, when researching this I realized that “singing Without You with nonsence english” Is a thing in many different countries. I’d like to think we started it all! [1]https://youtu.be/yqVVv97pKGk https://youtu.be/yqVVv97pKGk [2]https://youtu.be/xbcp8wZZyII https://youtu.be/xbcp8wZZyII
  • 2sk21 9y ago
    Considering the rich tradition of Bulgarian vocal music, this is hilarious. I've been fan of Bulgarian choral music since I heard the state choir 25 years ago. In contrast, listen to this version of your famous song Devoyko Mari by an American group called Kitka https://youtu.be/M1eSMDmYzDQ https://youtu.be/M1eSMDmYzDQ
    • seer 9y ago
      Wow amazing! A point of pride for bulgarians is that one of our folk songs ended up on the gold record onboard Voyager 1 [1]. I knew about japanese groups singing bulgarian folk songs but this amarican one is new to me, thanks for the link. A fun inter-cultural song is from the italian band Elio el e Storie Tese that recorded one with the choir of bulgarian national radio - “Pippero” [2]. Its sad that there aren’t many modern collaborations like that as it sounds very magical and beautiful to me. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valya_Balkanska https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valya_Balkanska [2]https://youtu.be/l3hlxHhuyaE https://youtu.be/l3hlxHhuyaE
      • foobarian 9y ago
        Speaking of Delyo Haydutin, and I'm not Bulgarian, but I can't get enough of the Bulgarian Idol version by Nevena Tzoneva. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuaE8i-aFJU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuaE8i-aFJU
• pcrh 9y ago
  In the same vein there is the famous cover of Mariah Carey's "Without You" by Valentin Hasan, known as "Ken Lee": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI
  • josteink 9y ago
    You also have the famous Haddaway-cover “Don Herby”: https://youtu.be/VNmbpivtRoQ https://youtu.be/VNmbpivtRoQ
    • dasboth 9y ago
      I think the guy's doing that one on purpose to be honest. He's cashing in on the popularity of his (unintentionally) hilarious rendition of Big in Japan (or "bikicsunáj"): https://youtu.be/E2GFjXmXEsw https://youtu.be/E2GFjXmXEsw
  • ghostDancer 9y ago
    In the ghetto by "El prícipe gitano" https://youtu.be/QrTfYItDDwA https://youtu.be/QrTfYItDDwA
• nhebb 9y ago
  To my ears, Elton John has made an entire career out of doing this.
  • lgas 9y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMAeNv-Lpj4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMAeNv-Lpj4
  • hudibras 9y ago
    And to go one level deeper, there's the famous Biz Markie cover of "Bennie and the Jets." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_l_runP4-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_l_runP4-Q
  • twic 9y ago
    The comedy panel show Shooting Stars had a round where the presenter Vic Reeves would sing pop songs "in the club style", and contestants had to recognize them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prE-DUyESY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prE-DUyESY There's never been anyone quite like Reeves and Mortimer.
    • wink 9y ago
      Wow, thank you! Clicking that link and following a few clicks on YouTube made me find a song I've been searching for around 20 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8dqCQ2MHfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8dqCQ2MHfQ via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q538wfyJurM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q538wfyJurM
• danidiaz 9y ago
  Reminds me of the "dream of the mayor" sequence in the classic Spanish film "Welcome Mr. Marshall", during which the aforementioned character imagines himself as the hero of a western: https://youtu.be/0reKaJTs4k8?t=30 https://youtu.be/0reKaJTs4k8?t=30
• PakG1 9y ago
  Russell Peters is fantastic at this in his comedy routines. He'll make a joke about some culture and pretend to speak their language, but it'll actually all be gibberish. My friend's family has a Hong Kong background. Friend was watching a Russell Peters show one day and the guy was making jokes about what he experienced in Hong Kong. Friend's mother walked by as Peters said something in his made-up Cantonese. She looked at the TV confused because it sounded like Cantonese, but she didn't understand any of it. Then she laughed. :)
• otempomores 9y ago
  Closely related - europes renomee for anything goes sexially comes in part from a lot if dirty songs on the radio an alot of listeners not underethe lyrics and the impression this has on native speakers
• fellellor 9y ago
  I think something vaguely similar is happening in the Benny lava song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g). Though the song is coherent in Tamil, the bad audio makes the whole thing hilarious for someone who can't understand the language.
  • sundarurfriend 9y ago
    The so called "buffalax effect" (from the username of the guy who made the first such video). There are a few such videos, in different Indian languages. I'm a Tamil guy, and interestingly enough I can see the effect when it's a Hindi song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpROhIg9eA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpROhIg9eA, possibly nsfw wording), and understand how they hear it as those English words. But when it's a Tamil song like the one you linked, I can't hear the English words at all, however much I try to shut down the Tamil-hearing part of my brain.
    • namanyayg 9y ago
      Wow, I'm a Hindi speaker and the effect completely fails for me on the first track. However, Buffalax' Rajinikanth does sound completely true. I'm amazed how the two of us are completely perceiving opposite things in the same songs.
    • smcl 9y ago
      An early-00s example of this was a flash video called "Irrational Exuberance" where a guy animated an interpretation of the lyrics to a Japanese song called "Yatta" by Happatai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ljsPqIfPD0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ljsPqIfPD0 I remember watching this in my teens and completely losing it at "Who dong hide", and "You look up to eating one calorie!?"
• praptak 9y ago
  Vaguely related, a text that is both Polish and English. Does not make much sense in either language but is grammatically correct. The author is Stanisław Barańczak, who specialized in similar texts. "Ten pies... i owe forty... a lot much? To handle Buddy! Stale pies, but i brew, stale... Ale, no – stare my windy, fury win... One – to ten sam stale pies! Wanna? Piece? A top ten list, pal go! I won!"
  • peteretep 9y ago
    cf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mots_d%27Heures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mots_d%27Heures
  • djhworld 9y ago
    Do the words have the same meaning?
    • kornakiewicz 9y ago
      Of course they do not.
  • kosma 9y ago
    I am Polish, and my brain is actively resisting reading it in Polish. Had a good laugh. Thanks!
    • gbacon 9y ago
      Potrzebie was a long-running gag word in MAD magazine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrzebie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrzebie
      • jloughry 9y ago
        And Don Knuth's first publication [1]. [1] The Potrzebie system of weights and measures. MAD Magazine 1(33), pp. 36–37, June, 1957.
    • 1123581321 9y ago
• ggm 9y ago
  I have my family copy of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mots_d%27Heures https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mots_d%27Heures
• HipstaJules 9y ago
  Entering HN and seeing Celentano in homepage. What a time to be alive.
  • pietrovismara 9y ago
    HN is rock, everything else is slow
  • johnydepp 9y ago
    I was going to comment a similar statement.. But I was wandering nobody else is concerned about it? I don't think this should be on HN. But may be I don't understand the purpose.
    • coldtea 9y ago
      First, of all, the parent means his comment as a positive thing. Not as a concern. That said, HN is for posting things that strike our intellectual curiosity, and this has tons of interest regarding language, linguistics, culture, writing, etc. HN is not just about computers and startups, and it says explicitly so in its guidelines.
      • johnydepp 9y ago
        > the parent means his comment as a positive thing. I don't see a sign if that! > HN is for posting things that strike our intellectual curiosity Even cat's videos strike intellectual curiosity to some that doesn't mean it should be on HN.
• Stratoscope 9y ago
  The first time I saw this song on YouTube, it was a very different version. Same music, but different video, in black and white and more of a large scale dance number, not like the schoolroom theme from the video in this article. Here is a mix that starts with the color schoolroom version, and then at 3:30 cuts to the older version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G96luhHhxnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G96luhHhxnI I wonder if anyone has a link to that old black and white version? I don't seem to find it any more and would be curious to see it again. Thanks!
  • sumedh 9y ago
    I remember watching the video which you are talking about, a quick search did not return any results, I guess it has disappeared for some reason. I am sure there might be a torrent somewhere.
  • drtse4 9y ago
    Low-fi and with some added lens flare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g6YxkSqL20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g6YxkSqL20 I guess this was used as an intro for a tv show.
• fauigerzigerk 9y ago
  I wonder if it's improvised or scripted. At least the choir part must be scripted, but the rest of the song seems like an awfully long sequence of arbitrary nonsense to memorise. It's not impossible though. When I was 5 years old, I used to listen to one particular record by Victor Jara about three times a day. I didn't know a word of Spanish, but I could recite something resembling those lyrics from start to finish. After learning a bit of Spanish decades later, I listened to that record again. Imagine my utter confusion when the words I thought I had remembered turned out to be not words but arbitrary sequences of sounds unrelated to word boundaries :)
• dkersten 9y ago
  This made me think about how text generated from a hidden markov model can look like real sentences but is usually just gibberish.
• zawerf 9y ago
  Along the same vein, there's a skit done entirely using fake english: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY
  • kirillkh 9y ago
    Soderbergh's Schizopolis has a lot of scenes with fake or, better yet, subtext language. One of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eOLEdTG7Gc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eOLEdTG7Gc
• have_faith 9y ago
  Without reading the comments, guess the original song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjxmR6mXBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjxmR6mXBY edit: for context, the whole album is a mashup of 'perceived' Asian motifs mashed together to create a recognisable but fake aesthetic.
• nearmuse 9y ago
  Is this reddit now?
  • tomcooks 9y ago
    Up next: 10 little known tricks you wouldn't believe help your EC2 Instance network bandwith be #woke AF!!
  • drtse4 9y ago
    That has been true for a few years, sadly.
• Hvaara 9y ago
  Reminds me of the Dutch hip hop song Watskeburt?! by De Jeugd van Tegenwoordi. Someone made Norwegian subtitles for this as if the song was in Norwegian, and it actually makes sense (sort of). Watskeburt means what's up, while vaske bur can be translated to cleaning cages. [NSFW] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YiVhFgN7I_M https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YiVhFgN7I_M
• carc1n0gen 9y ago
  I've always had this problem where I can't quite hear the words in even the clearest and most known songs. Other people tell me how obvious the words were. So this song was a nightmare to hear for the first time. At least this time it's not my fault.
  • wincy 9y ago
    As someone who prides himself at figuring out song lyrics, I feel more and more unnerved when I listen to it, it’s like I’m straining to understand and eventually start to get anxious when I listen! Once I stop caring and just listen, I like it a lot though.
• sumedh 9y ago
  Better quality video from the original artist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5VpczwrSCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5VpczwrSCc
• jpatokal 9y ago
  Internet personality Saara turned speaking fake languages into a career with this amazing little clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcvlxivscw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcvlxivscw And her pitch-perfect imitation of 14 different musical genres is equally amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcvlxivscw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcvlxivscw
  • JetSpiegel 9y ago
    That Portuguese looks like russian and Spanish is Italian.
    • ianleighton 9y ago
      IMO Portuguese (in Portugal, not Brazil) actually sounds a lot like Russian or Polish at first listen, the accent is very different than other western European romance languages
  • StavrosK 9y ago
    Heads up, both your links are the same, but your second link should be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLkJJpAIcU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLkJJpAIcU.
• lordnacho 9y ago
  Icelandic Sigur Rós do songs with vocals that sound emotive but don't actually mean anything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAYb8ZyjzD0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAYb8ZyjzD0 Verified by an Icelandic friend.
• chatmasta 9y ago
  A cool data science project would be analyzing the dictionaries of all languages (at least those sharing an alphabet) and finding networks of cognates or shared words, i.e. building a connected graph where all vertices are words and edges represent a cognate between a word in two languages. I think the relevant keywords here would be "computational historical linguistics."
  • walshemj 9y ago
    Maybe analyse all the Eurovision lyrics and write a suitable entry for your country. Could you do same for the music?
• favadi 9y ago
  There is a Thailand song that became famous in Vietnam because the lyric somehow sounds 90% like Vietnamese and with very funny meaning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0n4T0SQt70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0n4T0SQt70.
• IgorPartola 9y ago
  There is a song by a Russian band released in 1992 where it was long speculated that the lyrics were supposed to be an imitation of American English. Apparently they were not, but give it a listen: https://youtu.be/xutpxia3Qkc https://youtu.be/xutpxia3Qkc For something even less serious, check out how to speak any language in three steps: https://youtu.be/s5qlu4vnCXE https://youtu.be/s5qlu4vnCXE
  • blattimwind 9y ago
    Original link for the second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx4ABAKyo-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx4ABAKyo-A
• tyingq 9y ago
  There's a persistent rumor that "Scorpions", a German heavy metal band from the 80's[1] didn't really know English, but managed several top 10 US hit songs just by learning it phoenetically. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpions_(band) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpions_(band)
  • joezydeco 9y ago
    Agnetha and Anni-Frid from ABBA didn't know English when their first hit songs were out. They learned the songs phonetically and then learned the language later.
  • thatfunkymunki 9y ago
    Funnily enough, my dad grew up in the USSR and said he learned a lot of English listening to Scorpions records and reading the lyrics + translations. They were some of the few records he could get his hands on. He said it was a huge help when we all immigrated to the US later.
    • tyingq 9y ago
      Heh. Blind leading the blind if true. That's funny...now I hope the rumors were real.
• D_Guidi 9y ago
  Adriano Celentano, truly an Italian legendary artist. Actor, singer, performer.
• asymmetric 9y ago
  Another classic from around the same time is Gigi Proietti's sketch[1] where he pretends to speak American English. It's hilarious. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO4EkyRNWww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO4EkyRNWww
• ilamont 9y ago
  Going the other way, Bill Hader's "Vinny Vedecci" character, which is a mixture of real and made-up Italian: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/vinny-talks-to-john-malkovich/n12386?snl=1 http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/vinny-talks-to-...
• inflagranti 9y ago
  Here's a classic German one where a group of comedians pretend to be the 'most disgusting' Finish band, singing Finish gibberish mixed in with mostly proper English and some random German words like 'Müntefering' (a German politician) to round it all up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWYHfjMIY8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWYHfjMIY8w The brilliance is they record a whole music video just for an elaborate prank on the poor presenter by playing this supposedly Finish superstars acting extremly obnoxiously and drinking beer in the studio...
• amag 9y ago
  It reminds of when I as a Swede hear a Dutch person speak. My brain tells me that I should understand but I don't.
• anonu 9y ago
  I was in cab in Napoli once and noticed that the driver was drumming his fingers to the beat of one of the latest American pop songs playing over the radio. However, he couldn't speak a word of English. I thought this a bit curious. However, the article frames it in context for me. It seems like Italian music has tried to pick up on the beats and sounds of American music, so even if the language itself was foreign the music was not.
• boomlinde 9y ago
  Plenty of old italo disco songs have absolutely nonsense word salad english lyrics
• wenc 9y ago
  There's a clip that went viral a while ago where a girl was essentially spouting gibberish in various languages, but it sounded like she was speaking those languages! What Languages Sound Like to Foreigners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcvlxivscw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcvlxivscw
• tomcooks 9y ago
  Italy's fascination for the USA is the result of years of cultural (and physical) imperialism. This song and a number of different cultural acts (such as the famous "Americano" song [0], the Paninari movement in Milan during the 80's [1] and obviously the whole Spaghetti Western movies genre) are the direct result of this. The root cause of this, in my opinion, is the huge amount of CIA money that has been poured into Italian government, to make sure they wouldn't join USSR during the cold war.[2] I suggest watching "An american in Rome" with Alberto Sordi to have a clear example of the discrepancies between wealthy American _visitors_ and the local poorer population. It describes the story of a local Roman man infatuated with the whole American dream (short sub-eng part here [3]) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZgUHJys2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZgUHJys2s [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paninaro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paninaro [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Italy [3] https://youtu.be/ikZgUHJys2s?t=86 https://youtu.be/ikZgUHJys2s?t=86
  • rospaya 9y ago
    A lot of people everywhere have a fascination with the US, I wouldn't attribute that to CIA money. Raggare in Sweden comes to mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raggare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raggare
    • tomcooks 9y ago
      I think that the History section of the article you posted proves my point. > Formation of the raggare culture was aided by Sweden staying neutral during World War II and untouched by the war, due to which, Sweden's infrastructure remained intact, the country was receiving aid from the Marshall Plan, and export economy boomed, which made it possible for the working-class Swedish youth to buy cars, in contrast to most of the rest of the Europe, which needed to be rebuilt.
• besselheim 9y ago
  To give another example, Amon Tobin's Verbal achieves a similar effect through piecing together fragments of vocal samples: https://youtu.be/HsdBgQqBfsM https://youtu.be/HsdBgQqBfsM
• edgarvm 9y ago
  Reminds me when I find out that should I stay or should I go is partially in spanish, I didn't know it until read the lyrics
• jdright 9y ago
  Interesting enough, for a non-english (e.g. I and my wife) speaker, my wife thought I was listening to Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall! At first I couldn't connect the two, but then I "changed" my mind to my native language and I can see a lot of similarities in the lyrics too. This was a really weird moment... :) https://youtu.be/YR5ApYxkU-U?list=RDYR5ApYxkU-U&t=237 https://youtu.be/YR5ApYxkU-U?list=RDYR5ApYxkU-U&t=237
• simonebrunozzi 9y ago
  This is a song by Adriano Celentano, a very well known celebrity in Italy. He's a multi-faceted artist (now in his 80s), and his work has spanned three generations of Italians. He's nicknamed "molleggiato" ("springy", or with good suspensions), and if you observe how he dances, you can immediately see why. I thought this little context could be helpful for non Italians.
• tomdre 9y ago
  I find even more hilarious the opposite phenomenon: English songs with fake Italian. My favorite example "zooma zooma baccala'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msbx4onTzFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msbx4onTzFU
  • switch007 9y ago
    I'm confused. Isn't that Neapolitan or Sicilian or some other dialect/language?
• adrianmonk 9y ago
  If you want to hear the opposite (English speakers making up Italian sounding nonsense), there's always the song "Sun King" by The Beatles. It actually might be non-specific Romance languages that it's a fake version of, but it sounds like fake Italian to me.
• GeorgeKangas 9y ago
  For me, most singing "Sounds Like English But Is Nonsense". So if I had watched this Italian guy's video, without being told it was nonsense... I wouldn't have made out a single word, but I wouldn't have known there actually wasn't a single word to make out. Some singing is enunciated enough, that I actually do hear all the words. Notably, the Beatles.
• punnerud 9y ago
  Sounds a lot like evolutionary algorithm? With the addition that you feed the new and improved «paths» from the exploration from back to the nevral network.