Zompist Bboard Again

I was wondering: are they a thing in languages other than English, and is their occurrence correlated in any way with native stress patterns?

alice wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 3:09 pm I was wondering: are they a thing in languages other than English, and is their occurrence correlated in any way with native stress patterns?

To the first question, not only yes, but they were first identified in French.

Man in Space wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 6:34 pm To the first question, not only yes, but they were first identified in French.

And they're still at it! By chance I picked up a Tintin book tonight, and Hergé has the Dupondt utter a few spoonerisms. E.g.:

"Et nous aussi, nous parlons pour Mitan... euh, nous martons pour Pilan... Bref, au plaisir de vous revoir, capitaine!"

[Us too, we're meaving for Lilan, um, we're lealing for Mivan... in short, till we meet again, captain!]

"Pour nous, l'acclaire est faire, n'est-ce pas Dupont?"
"Je dirais même plus: l'afflaire est caire. C'est mon opinion, et je le partage."

[As for us, the clatter is mere, isn't it, Dupont? / I'd go even further: the catter is flear. That's my opinion and I agree with it.]

There's also the whole tradition of contrepèteries: see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contrep%C3%A8teriefor a few examples.
They're traditionally very lewd.

It's also traditional that they should be difficult to figure out, and theoretically never explained -- they're for the listener to figure out, or not.

The satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné has a contrepèterie section, called l'Album de la Comtesse -- which really sounds like it should be a contrepèterie itself but as far as I know isn't. Cruel, isn't it?

A funny WWII story, possibly apocryphal. The French résistance used Radio Londres (that is, the BBC) to send coded messages. They apparently often used contrepeteries; the British announcer was of course completely unaware of the obscene double meaning.

In German, we have Schüttelreime, e.g. Ich würgte Fräulein Klapperschlang' bis ihre Klapper schlapper klang.

a good French spoonerism pairs a neutral sentence with a bawdy meaning...
you can even slip in spoonerism into your conversation with third parties
that only those close to us can detect, at the risk of causing laughter...

for "l'album de la contesse" , some saw "le con de l'altesse, boum!" (the Highness's cunt, boom!)

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 4:45 am In German, we have Schüttelreime, e.g. Ich würgte Fräulein Klapperschlang' bis ihre Klapper schlapper klang.

Yes, but I have the impression that those are generally supposed to be intentional rather than accidental.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Sep 05, 2025 5:21 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 4:45 am In German, we have Schüttelreime, e.g. Ich würgte Fräulein Klapperschlang' bis ihre Klapper schlapper klang.

Yes, but I have the impression that those are generally supposed to be intentional rather than accidental.

Yes, they are. There was an entire skit series, Kentucky schreit Ficken, based on such Schüttelreime in the RTL Samstag Nacht comedy show. Accidental spoonerisms seem to be less common in German, though I once said die Preche zellen instead of die Zeche prellen (but neither Preche nor zellen are common German words), and one opposition politician once said Wir pfeifen nicht nach Ihrer Tanze! instead of Wir tanzen nicht nach Ihrer Pfeife! in a parliament session.