Comments on: Back from holiday with some Spanglish

By: ACACIA

ACACIA — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:46:02 +0000

Hello!
This is my first visit to your blog.
Very interesting and the photos are excellent! Congratulations!
Being a native, I can tell you that the phrase in Spanish is : “SE HABLA ESPAÑOL” In this case,we are dealing with a reflexive passive or impersonal construction.
I agree with you: It is an order! They want you to speak English!

By: Rod

Rod — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:04:13 +0000

You seem to have overlooked the obvious: they announce that speak (not write) those languages. Now seriously, the perpetrator of this notice has surely tried to repeat verbatim the standard touristic sign appeared like mushrooms on the 50’s at every place where a tourist could reach, were or not people at hand with those polyglot abilities.

Touristic-related mistranslations are an endless source of fun in Spain. Even now, with widespread English teaching and Internet you can still be offered “Moorish thorns” instead of “meat brochettes”. But my favorite one is “Rape sailor style” instead of “Anglerfish sailor style” (Anglerfish is the ugly, fascinating and delicious fish Lophius piscatorius). I giggle thinking in the faces of English matrons pondering if the assault of a tough guy with earring and bandana would be fun. Other kinds of rapes are also available in Spanish restaurants: roasted rape, american rape, catalan rape, rape with leek… the list is endless.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:31:07 +0000

>>The European French as opposed to French Canadians would argue it should be ‘nous parlons français’ (’we speak French’) as opposed to the impersonal ‘on’ (’one speaks French’)<<
Would they..?

“On parle français” is surely the normal European-French formulation (so that I don’t really see what Québec has to do with it..!). The impersonal “on” for “nous” is very firmly entrenched in French French — except for the use of the n-word in such formulations as “nous, on est d’accord” etc.

The English-language “set phrase” BTW (as seen for generations along the southern coast of La Manche) is “English spoken”.

By: Ludolph

Ludolph — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:34:08 +0000

‘ici nous parlons Francais’ doet vreemd aan. Ook in Frankrijk is het ‘on parle’ in mijn ervaring.

By: Louis Bryan

Louis Bryan — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:40:46 +0000

Actually, “On parle français” sounds familiar to me, too, because that’s the phrasing routinely used in the United States.

By: Mr. M

Mr. M — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:16:19 +0000

I have another theory; they just want to say they speak all of those languages, but they really just want you to speak English

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:10:21 +0000

Fracas with the Franks of Spain. One would almost forget Barcelona was founded as Faventia by Romans who refused to go home. Domi ite, was it? Or Domus eunt est? I forget…