You can too! What you do is record yourself speaking a normal sentence, such as “I speak backwardsese”. Then, using an audio-edit program, reverse the sound, and make a phonetic transliteration of the result. Listen to that a few times while saying it with the recording to match pronunciation and tone. Then, record yourself saying the phonetic equivalent of the backwards sound. What you get is a surprisingly intelligible recording of what sounds like Microsoft Sam saying the phrase in a funny accent. It’s not as hard as you think!
Give it a shot and post your best and most fun transliterations here. I’ll kick it off with a couple of my own.
“This is a test” = sh’z e’esh d’zit sid
“Turn the tables, we’ll burn the fables” (a TFF lyric) = sol bied fud nur blib zul be’esh ded nurft
“Hello, Mr. Ben” (a greeting to my friend) = meh br seh mull weh
Give it a go!
I have a sneaking suspicion that not a single person will find this as amusing as I do and this thread will sink like a stone. Nonetheless, I’m posting it anyway. Harrumph.
When I was younger I spent a lot of time trying to come up with “hidden backwards messages” that were coherant when played in both directions. To this end I had a nice big chart which listed all the english phonemes and their reversals.
The best I was ever able to come up with is “I’m scary Nevada,” which reverses to “I have an earache, smell.” You have to talk a little bit like you have down’s syndrome for it to work properly, though.
Heh. Thanks for the info, but…well, let me just put it this way: this is my guitar. Want to know the lyrics of a Radiohead b-side from a 1998 Europe-only unreleased vinyl single of which only twenty copies were ever made? I’m your man. I know as much about Thom & crew as I do about TFF.
Sure. Your email doesn’t seem to be in your profile, so shoot me a message at RolandOrzabal “at” gmail.com, or IM me, handle RolandOrzbal (note the spelling). We’ll talk.
