English as She Is Spoke: Being a Comprehensive Phrasebook of the English Language, Written by Men to Whom English was Entirely Unknown (Collins Library) |  | Authors: Jose da Fonseca, Pedro Carolino
Creator: Paul Collins
Publisher: McSweeney's
Category: Book
List Price: $9.00
Buy Used: $2.83
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Seller: goodwill-industries-northern-mi
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 367,611
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Trade Paper Edition
Pages: 151
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1932416110
Dewey Decimal Number: 814
EAN: 9781932416114
ASIN: 1932416110
Publication Date: June 20, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In 1855, when Jose da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino wrote an English phrasebook for Portuguese students, they faced just one problem: they didn't know any English. Even worse, they didn't own an English-to-Portuguese dictionary. What they did have, though, was a Portuguese-to-French dictionary, and a French-to-English dictionary. The linguistic train wreck that ensued is a classic of unintentional humor, now revived in the first newly selected edition in a century. Armed with Fonseca and Carolino's guide, a Portuguese traveler can insult a barber ("What news tell me? All hairs dresser are newsmonger"), complain about the orchestra ("It is a noise which to cleve the head"), go hunting ("let aim it! let make fire him"), and consult a handy selection of truly mystifying "Idiotisms and Proverbs."
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 The funniest book you will ever own November 3, 2005
Jeremy M
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I know that it is not politically correct to make fun of foreigners who can't read or write English (unless they're from Texas), nor should we laugh at their resultant manglings.
But what about foreigners who deliberately set out to write an English guidebook for Portugese-speakers and get it all kinds of wrong. After all, they kind of ask for it, right?
Especially if those translators spoke NO English...
And did not have an English-Portugese dictionary...
Well, I think that's probably OK to laugh at. And laugh at it you will. The entries are so mangled they're almost poetry. I also enjoyed the fact that, since it is a 19th century book, it deals with those extremely odd arcane things, like bedwarmers and used horses.
Pardoning Fonseca March 4, 2007
S. Wilson (Palisade, CO United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
There is a short article in the March-April 2007 issue of Mental Floss magazine which expands a bit on "Original Cowgirls" explanation. According to the article, Fonseca was a legitimate scholar whose language guides weren't "lost in translation". Nineteen years after the publication of Fonseca's Portugese-French guide, Carolino did a poor translation and included Fonseca's name in the title
Comedy at its peak January 13, 2010
Ricardo A. T. Carvalh (São Paulo, Brasil)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First, let me say that I am a native Portuguese speaker and that I understand English very well (though my writing skills are not that good, I ask you to comment this review if you see any grammatical error), this book is a classic, it's so funny that people in the metro thought that I was mad because of the loud laughs, that said, I recommend someone to have a passable reading ability in some romance language to fully enjoy this book, if portuguese is a problem for you could try to learn to read in some other language, specially spanish that is closer to portuguese, catalan, italian or french will do if you're good with languages and have a portuguese dictionary.
Ongoing entertainment April 6, 2010
K. Hatfield (Houston, TX, USA)
I'd heard about this book years ago, but just bought it recently. It doesn't disappoint! It's the sort of thing that could never be created these days - more's the pity - and every page contains some strange gem. We've had it on the coffee table since it arrived, and just dip in at random from time to time, reading aloud the best of what we find. You wouldn't want to sit and read it straight through from cover to cover, but it's none the worse for that.
For fans of language and lovers of the unusual and the absurd!
Abe Lincoln Laughed Heartily At This Book January 25, 2006
Arthur Benson (abenson@BensonLaw.com) (Kansas City, MO)
11 out of 19 found this review helpful
In January 1864, Fred Seward, the son of Lincoln's Secretary of State, wrote of Lincoln and his young secretary, John Hay, walking over to the elder Seward's house one evening to share English As She Is Spoke. Once there, "As John Hay read aloud its queer inverted sentences, Lincoln and Seward laughed heartily, their minds finding a brief but welcome relief from care."
There is a certain satisfaction as now we laugh heartily at those same inverted sentences, knowing that we are sharing something special with one of the greatest men to have ever lived. If only, in the midst of our own war, we had a president with Lincoln's genuine and humble sense of humor.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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