# S O C K S- Spanish translation question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2001, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185 "2001-08-20T17:16:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/21 "2019-06-09T21:30:29Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > I know Henri Duchamps put a mustache on a print of the Mona Lisa, and wrote “L H O O Q”, which transliterates in French to (again something like) “elle hache ooh ooh qu” which you can then read as “elle 'ha chaud au cul” – she has a hot ass. Don’t forget Rrose Sélavy (though in that case not each letter is spelled out). Rrose Sélavy connaît bien le marchand du sel… ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/22 "2019-06-09T21:37:01Z")
> **[Mairzy Doats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairzy_Doats)** > > “Mairzy Doats” is a novelty song written and composed in 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston. It contains lyrics that make no sense as written, but are near homophones of meaningful phrases. The song's title, for example, is a homophone of "Mares eat oats". > The song was first played on radio station WOR, New York, by Al Trace and his Silly Symphonists. It made the pop charts several times, with a version by the Merry Macs reaching No. 1 in March 1944. The song was also a numbe... > [@](#): > > Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey > A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?[2] > However, the lyrics of the bridge provide a clue: > > If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey, > Sing “Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.”[2] > This hint allows the ear to translate the final line as “a kid’ll eat ivy, too; wouldn’t you?” ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/23 "2019-06-09T21:45:44Z")
O sibili, si ergo, fortibus es in ero ? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/24 "2019-06-09T23:00:51Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > O sibili, si ergo, fortibus es in ero ? Dem is no buses; dem is trucks! ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/25 "2019-06-09T23:16:21Z")
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey A kiddley divey too, **wouldn’t you**? I always thought that the bolded was “wooden shoe”, which seems much more clever. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/26 "2019-06-09T23:23:11Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey > A kiddley divey too, **wouldn’t you**? > > I always thought that the bolded was “wooden shoe”, which seems much more clever. Yes, someone versed in Classical languages gave me an example of such a pun. I believe it was a spelling of a Latin word that ended up _sounding_ like the song’s lyrics. Which is even more funny because the song’s lyrics are deliberately a punning rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/27 "2019-06-10T00:31:48Z")
You want to see the masterpiece of the genre, look for _Mot d’heures: Gosses, Rhames_ by Luis d’Antin van Rooten. It’s a series of what seems like poetry in French but when you read it aloud, you’ll realize – well, it’s exactly what the title says. For example: Un petit d’un petit S’étonne aux Halles Un petit d’un petit Ah! degrés te fallent Indolent qui ne sort cesse Indolent qui ne se mène Qu’importe un petit d’un petit Tout Gai de Reguennes. Then there’s: Lit-elle messe, moffette Satan ne te fête, Et digne somme coeurs et nouez. À longue qu’aime est-ce pailles d’Eure. Et ne Satan bise ailleurs Et ne fredonne messe. Moffette, ah, ouais! He manages about 50 of these. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/28 "2019-06-10T03:18:33Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > I’m glad I found this ancient thread, because posting my question would have been difficult. I’m glad you did because I kind of suck at Spanish, but I knew what the answer to the joke was just as soon as I sounded it out. I wonder if it’d work equally well in all dialects of Spanish though. I had a Mexican co-worker act as a translator with a Chilean customer, partly because I couldn’t understand a word the customer said. Even when I was listening to them talk, I’d hear completely comprehensible Spanish, and the reply would sound _nothing_ like Spanish to me, much less being able to figure out what words were being said. My co-worker felt largely the same way, “this guy’s accent is killing me” was said privately to me several times. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/29 "2019-06-10T03:44:09Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > I’m glad you did because I kind of suck at Spanish, but I knew what the answer to the joke was just as soon as I sounded it out. > > I wonder if it’d work equally well in all dialects of Spanish though. Yes it would. In _seseo_ (the dialects with most speakers, where most /θ/ turn into /s/ if between vowels or disappear if at the end of a word), _ejeo_ (turns /s/ before plosive into /x/, aka “the throat-clearing sound”) and standard Spanish (the dialects on which our spelling rules are based) the English pronunciation and the Spanish pronunciation are very close (_ejeo_ would turn one of the /s/ into /x/, _exto sí ke es_); some English dialects would have vowels which are a bit different from the Spanish ones, and one family of Spanish dialects would pronounce some of the /s/ as /θ/ (_ceceo_), but in no case would the difference be so large as to make the pun not work. It would stil be groan-worthy, but well, it’s groan-worthy regardless of accent 🙂 In Spanish we just call those _bromas bilingües_ (bilingual puns); the never-linked enough video [Trump Mamón](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q__bSi5rBlw) contains trilingual jokes (commentary [here](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=813066)). ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/30 "2019-06-11T00:22:35Z")
Thanks, **Nava**! I’ll need to read up on phonetics before I understand much more than “Yes it would”, but it’s nice to know the one Spanish joke I know will work in a universally poor way. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/31 "2019-06-11T04:32:05Z")
/s/ is usually represented both in Spanish and in English by the letter “s”: Spain, sound /x/ is represented in Spanish by “j” (followed by a, o, u) or “g” (followed by e, i): Jaime, Genaro, Gil, José, Juan; English only has it in words acquired from other languages such as Scottish _loch_ or Hebrew _Chaim_ (see wedding scene in Fiddler in the Roof), or the aforementioned Spanish names when their original pronunciation is respected /θ/ is represented in Spanish by “z” (followed by any vowels) or “c” (followed by “e” or “i”), but in _seseo_ it becomes /s/ and most speakers in your location are _seseo_ speakers; in English it’s confusing because it’s one of multiple sounds represented by the digraph “th”, and when is that digraph pronounced which way varies by dialect. But, aha! Saragossa’s City hall to the rescue! Or, as we write in Spanish, Zaragoza. The very first word in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2vGqGQQcA4) contains that sound twice 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185/32 "2019-06-12T02:52:30Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > But, aha! Saragossa’s City hall to the rescue! Or, as we write in Spanish, Zaragoza. The very first word in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2vGqGQQcA4) contains that sound twice 🙂 Hehehee, thanks, and thanks for the free Spanish pronunciation lesson! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-o-c-k-s-spanish-translation-question/77185.md?page=1)