Summary Details
| Query: |
French Song Lyrics
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| Author: | BenWoyth BenWoyth | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Not Applicable
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| Summary: |
Greetings! This letter is being sent to everyone who responded to my initial question regarding the lyrics of a song taught at my son's primary school in France, specifically the CE1 class of Monsieur Outin at Ecole Primaire Letot in Bayeux. The song was lifted from an album called "Chansons d'Ailleurs" ("Songs from elsewhere.") I received literally dozens of responses from around the world, and I'm very proud to announce that there are two possible responses. One was first sent by Madame Marie-Claude Schehade (with the help of Monsieur Michel Aufray) at the INALCO institute in Paris, right here in France! The other was sent by Brent Holl, Karen Ellis of Guavaberry Books, Theresa at UWM, and Lynn Schroeder of the Rock Springs Elementary School in Apopka Florida. Other helpful folks were Professor Andrew Pawley of the Autralian National University, Nikolai from St. Petersburg, Professor Jack Ward from the University of Hawaii, and Rina Kreitman (?) of the University of Pennsylvania. Margaret Luebs and Lynne Hewitt wrote to tell me that they had sung this song some thirty years ago as girlscouts in the United States; they'd been told it was an "Indian" (ie native American) song, but they'd thought it was just a bunch of nonsensical sounds strung together to seem to be native American. I doubt that they were in the same squad. Madame Schehade's response: The song as my son learned it: epo e tai tai e epo e tai tai e epo e tai tai epo e tuki tuki e Transcription according to Mme Schehade: e po i taitai e e po i tai tai e po i tokitoki Mme Schehade's French Translation: o nuit de haute mer c'est la nuit et la haute mer c'est le milieu de la nuit My translation of Mme Schehade's French: Oh night of the high tide It's night and high tide It's the middle of the night She said that the song is definitely "Polynesian in origin, but it is difficult to be precise about which language it is, because the text is too short. It very much resembles Paomotou (the Tuamotu islands) or Maori (New Zealand)" I'm translating directly from Mme Schehade's letter which is in French. The other response translates the song loosely as "There is a bull who is big and strong with horns" (Brent Holl) or "This man is a strong man; this man fights like a bull." (Lynn Schroeder) Mr. Holl and two other people said that the song was accompanied by hand movements -- exactly the way my son had learned it at school. These people said that it was a Hawaiian War chant or a Samoan Slap dance. Another person identified the song as being "in Music and You...in 1991 Silver Burdett." I don't know what that means. Ms Schroeder said that the song comes from the Maori tribes of New Zealand. Professor Jack Ward of the University of Hawaii said very definitively that the song was neither Hawaiian nor Samoan; thus, I'm prepared to go with Ms Schroeder. There we have it: Ms Schroeder's Maori theory vs Mme Schehade's Maori/Paomotou theory. "Strong man" vs "High tide" By the way, are bulls indigenous to New Zealand? Ms Schroeder sais that she has documentation. I'll write her back to ask for copies of this documentation, and I can forward it to those of you who are interested. Much ado was made about the problem of e-mail transmission of accents, in this case accent-egu, or "acute," (the left side of a little inverted "v" hat) and an umlaut (two dots) which got scrambled in numerous transmissions. In the song the "e"s all have accent-egu and the "i" in the word "tai" has an umlaut. In otherwords, the "e" sounds like the vowel sound in the word "may" and the word "tai" sounds like "Thai." By the way, Mme Schehade spells her name with accent-egus on the "e"s. I dare not use any accents here for fear of this message getting garbled. The powers that be should do something about uniform transmission of accents in e-mail transmissions if the Internet should ever become thoroughly international, multifarious, and a bit less dominated by the USA. As I am not a professional linguist, the goal of this research has been more or less achieved. I can report to my son's teacher two possible languages and two possible translations of the song. Further research could identify exactly to which language the song belongs, the purpose of the song (folk song, religious, war, etc), and, perhaps most interestingly, how and when this song arrived in France and the US and developed into a summer-camp nonsense song. Was the song brought back by returning WW2 soldiers or does it go even farther back? It either belongs to a culture which was close to nature, particularly the sea, probably relying on fishing for sustenance, or a war- like patriarchal culture. These would be inquiries for full-time linguists like most of the people who answered my original query. Doubtless there are many other subjects of interest pertaining to this song which a professional linguist could identify. In the end I wish to thank you all for your interest in this puzzle. Naturally, I'd be personally interested if anyone has further definitive information regarding this song. Sincerely, Ben Woythaler 11 rue Tardif 14400 Bayeux France benwoyth@aol.com |
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| LL Issue: | 9.928 | |
| Date Posted: | 22-Jun-1998 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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