Monday, 20 December 2010

Say that again?

A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, typically a standardized phrase such as a line in a poem or a lyric in a song, due to near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. 

It derives its name from Sylvia Wright's mishearing of the last stanza to the ballad "The Bonney Earl O'Moray:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl O' Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green". 

No comments:

Post a Comment