Alanis Morissette is illiterate

[KvHagedorn]

Just saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on DVD, and while listening to Morissette's song over the end credits, I noticed that she repeatedly mispronounces wunderkind (as plunder rind) throughout the song. Not that she doesn't pronounce things oddly at times, but this just bugged me no end.. as though it was purposefully ignorant. I suppose in some circles illiteracy is a virtue.

http://www.narniafans.com/movies/st/mov_st_am.php

[Jessterw]

Sorry, but I'd say that she's far from illiterate, nevermind that by owning the DVD and the soundtrack CD I can quite clearly hear her saying, "wunderkind". Maybe you should invest in some better audio equipment or a good ear cleaning

[schmosef]

Yeah KvH, I'm sure you can find some decent stereo equipment that meets your budget down at your local Walmart!


:roflmao!:

[KvHagedorn]

Knew you'd be the first to sneer at me Jesse, but wunderkind is not pronounced the way she does it. She gives a totally anglicized "wuh" w-sound and a long i sound.

I'm sure if it had been anything but a German word, she would have gone out of her way to pronounce it correctly. I have seen people of German descent mispronounce their own surnames and go to extremes to pronounce Spanish surnames correctly. But that is because Germans are still the hated du jour in America.

[Jessterw]

I wasn't first by choice, but hey, who am I to argue. She may not pronounce it in any proper sort of way, but she surely did not pronounce it in any way that should make one think she was saying, "plunder rind".

I do, however, get your point, but "plunder rind" wasn't the best way to attempt a sounds-like description. And aren't we being a bit too critical about the pronunciation of a word in a song? Singers often alter the way they pronounce certain words to aid in the music melodic flow.

For anyone that might be confused...
wunderkind |ˈwoŏndərˌkind| is a person who achieves great success while relatively young. Comes from the German wunder (wonder) + kind (child).


You're looking for something where it isn't as I highly doubt she purposely mispronounced the word because it was German in origin. A difference in pronunciation certainly has no bearing on her level of literacy either.

[VJ]

A far bigger mistake is in the song "Sorry" by Madonna. It starts like this:

Je suis désolée
Lo siento
Ik ben droevig
Sono spiacente
Perdóname

The Dutch phrase "Ik ben droevig" does not mean "I'm sorry" (unlike the French phrase - dunno about the other ones), but it means "I'm sad".

Who wrote those lyrics?

Apparently, BabelFish makes the same mistakes. Don't tell me they just use BabelFish to translate these sentences..


Jörg

[dZeus]

on webster.com there's an audio preview for pronounciation, which sounds ok

[Damien]

I find it very hard to believe that she would pronounce a word wrong when she was the one who wrote the song.

Damien.

[Jessterw]

Well she does pronounce it wrong if you're going by its origins, but come on, I think we can all agree that there are few words that maintain their original pronunciation once they've crossed into use within another language or culture.

[az]

Yep (although I must say we use many words and at least try to pronounce them like they are pronounced where they come from, but this is a) futile for much of the populace, and b) a german phenomenon, IMHO).

KvH: keep cool. See, we Germans do (although we might find it amusing. Anybody know "Das Schutzenfest" by Faith No More? Hilarious!)

[KvHagedorn]

How about Mozart's "A Little Naked Music?"

[Umfriend]

How about Mozart's "A Little Naked Music?"

ROFL

[az]

How about Mozart's "A Little Naked Music?"

If somebody really meant that, it would only be funny, and at his expense

[Gurm]

Of course we're completely overlooking the fact that Ms. Morisette has no idea what the word "ironic" means...

Isn't it coincidental... don't you think?
A little too... coincidental... yeah I really do think!

taken without permission from Alanis' new album entitled 'everything off Jagged Little Pill was pretty messed up, I'm trying to compensate for it now'.

[Sasq]

Of course we're completely overlooking the fact that Ms. Morisette has no idea what the word "ironic" means...

or the ironic part was the song wasn't about irony.

Which if you researched...