Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tairy Fales


Tairy Fales

My mom has frequently told me about the tale of Rindercella, but until this week, I had never heard or seen the full story.  Both of my parents quite enjoyed wordplay.  Common words in our house included: flutterby (butterfly), Rindercella (Cinderella), lellyphant (elephant), and pasghetti (spaghetti).  Don't worry, I didn't show up in kindergarten and insist that the pretty winged insect was called a "flutterby."  I knew the proper words, but it was more fun to twist the words around at home.  When I went to art school we were told that we needed to learn the "rules" of proper technique so that we could turn around and break them.  I think the same applies to some extent to the English language.  We used to make a game out of retelling or mixing up stories when I was a kid.  This is something that drives my niece and nephew absolutely crazy when I try it with them.  I'll read a story starting with the last page, or start reading a story and reverse some names or details and they laughingly plead with me to "read it properly Neen!"  Amazingly enough, when mom tries it, they just play along.



Archie Campbell of Hee Haw was famous for his spoonerisms.  Wikipedia defines a spoonerism as "an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis).  It is named after the Reverent William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency."  One of Campbell's most famous spoonerisms was his retelling of the story of Cinderella: Rindercella.


Bit sack and joyen the tairy fales!


Rindercella:
I've found several other tairy fales too.


The Pee Little Thrigs:
The Christ Before Nightmas:
Beeping Sleauty:
You can find a number of spoonerism stories here: http://www.fun-with-words.com/spoonerisms.html


and here: Goonerisms Spalore!

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