English As She Is Spoke
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| Author | Pedro Carolino |
|---|---|
| Original title | O novo guia da conversação em portuguez e inglez |
| Country | Portugal |
| Language | Portuguese and English |
| Genre | phrase book |
| Publisher | Appleton & Co. |
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Publication date
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1883 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 60 |
| Text | at |
English As She Is Spoke is the common name of a 19th-century book written by Pedro Carolino, and falsely additionally credited to José da Fonseca, which was intended as a Portuguese–English conversational guide or phrase book, but is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour, as the given English translations are generally completely incoherent.
The humour appears to be a result of dictionary-aided literal translation, which causes many idiomatic expressions to be translated wildly inappropriately. For example, the Portuguese phrase is translated as raining in jars, whereas an idiomatic English translation would be raining buckets.
It is widely believed that Carolino could not speak English, and that a French–English dictionary was used to translate an earlier Portuguese–French phrase book, O novo guia da conversação em francês e português, written by José da Fonseca. Carolino likely added Fonseca's name to the book without his permission in an attempt to give it some credibility. The Portuguese–French phrase book is apparently a competent work, without the defects that characterize English As She Is Spoke.
Mark Twain said of English As She Is Spoke that "Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect."
Stephen Pile mentions this work in The Book of Heroic Failures, and comments: "Is there anything in conventional English which could equal the vividness of 'to craunch a marmoset'?" The original has "to craunch the marmoset", an entry under the book's "Idiotisms and Proverbs." This is the author's attempt to translate the French slang idiomatic expression , used to indicate "waiting patiently for someone to open a door", with referring to the "knocking" or "rapping" sound and marmot, a term for the grotesque door knockers in vogue at the time. The term is presumably inspired by the marmot's large teeth, as many of the grotesque door knockers were figures holding the knocker clasped in their teeth.
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