About languages

Created by Don Juan on 03 Dec 2018 | Last edited by Don Juan on 05 Apr 2023
About languages

Let us have a collection of songs that talk about languages and all things related - after all, we are in a translation website :)

If you're going to suggest something to be added, it'd be good if you also provided some context on the song - for instance, how does it deal with languages.

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1. P. O. Box - Papo de Jacaré Portuguese 

This funny song talks about a man who fell in love with an English teacher and his struggle to understand how she speaks. 'Papo de jacaré' can mean 'Gibberish', a nonsensical conversation, or, as we Brazilians call, 'embromation'.

Translations:  English

2. Basia - Copernicus English 

The song seems to be about a traveler or someone who moved to a new country, facing difficulties with a foreign language found back there.

3. Wise Guys - Denglisch German 

Translations:  English #1

4. Wise Guys - Latein German 

Translations:  English, French

Translations:  English #1
+21 more
, #2, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, French #1, #2, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Persian, Portuguese #1, #2, Romanian, Russian #1, #2, Turkish #1, #2

9. Alfred Denis Godley - Motor Bus English, Latin, Pseudo-Latin 

A memorization poem on Latin inflection.

A satirical lamentation of language change.

Translations:  Italian

Translations:  English

Exhibits affection for the culture and language--English, but a regional style--of those living "on the banks of the Mississippi".

An ironic French song with plenty of pathetic pseudo-Russian wordplays

A poem on how Brazilian people use pronouns.

A song to win the heart of your nerdy, linguistics-passionate soulmate.

Translations:  IPA

Slang can be so weird in its double meanings. The song explores some funny ones.

Translations:  Italian

This is not so much about proper grammar as it is about proper public spirit.

Translations:  English, Polish

Minority languages risk going extinct together with their native speaker communities growing older and older. This is true also for many "dialects" of Italy, and unfortunately they are disregarded even by their own speakers.

Translations:  English

Languages open your mind. That's why some young people try and keep them alive, even in case of minority languages like the Catalan dialect which is spoken in the single town of Alghero, Sardinia.

Songs should have something to say, rather than being just a negligible time-filler or a way to make money. This song makes fun of that kind of music that has absolutely nothing to say.

Translations:  English

30. Dellino Farmer - FES Lombard 

Italian dialects are often ignored or despised, but they are part of the culture and history of their land, and they unite people.

Translations:  English

Words are important for growing as a person, to express feelings and ideas, and to relate to other people. They should be taught focusing on that, not focusing on rote learning and boring lists.

Translations:  English, Croatian

A rap song claiming street cred by means of being good at grammar.

Translations:  German, Italian

33. Luciano Ravasio - Pòta Lombard 

A playful explanation of Bergamo’s most iconic exclamation word: pòta.

Translations:  English

Translating idioms literally can result in funnily weird sentences.

Translations:  English, Spanish

35. Tom Lehrer - Silent E English 

Funny song about English spelling and how a simple letter can turn a whole word upside-down.

Translations:  Czech, Italian

36. Tom Lehrer - L-Y English 

Educational song about adverb formation using -ly.

Translations:  Italian, Turkish

Educational song playing around the OU digram in English.

Translations:  Italian

Educational song about English words beginning with SN.

Translations:  Italian

Many Italian dialects are declining. They are perceived as "languages for educated people", but they are the true language of many people, of their everyday life and their emotions. These people try to keep them alive, though their future is very uncertain.

A homage to the beauty of the Italian language and culture.

A song about what really matters in life, leveraging the different character of germanic and latinate words in English.

Translations:  Arabic #1
+29 more
, #2, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French #1, #2, German, Greek #1, #2, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian #1, #2, Persian, Polish #1, #2, #3, Portuguese #1, #2, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish #1, #2, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian

A spur to learn your language better - in this case spelling - because it's a treasure that you should keep alive and kicking.

Translations:  English

A whole song about nothing but wordplay, in Italian.

Translations:  English

Wordplay to promote peace in the world.

Translations:  English

45. Caparezza - China Town Italian 

Wordplay to promote peace in the world.

Translations:  English #1

Speech is the most powerful tool everyone has.

Translations:  English

By knowing your own local culture, you can better understand other cultures and be open and tolerant. And your language is a fundamental part of your culture.

Translations:  English #1

Educational wordplay in Italian. Words, but also public spirit.

Translations:  English

A rant against the (mis)use of the word "like" in English.

Translations:  Italian

A German poem about how to "properly" inflect werewolf.

Translations:  French, Polish

An poem on the Portuguese language.

Translations:  English, Russian

This poem is in so far about language as it contains several neologisms/made-up-words per line and still makes kinda sense somehow and thereby shows something about how English, or language in general, works.

Translations:  Czech
+23 more
, Esperanto #1, #2, French #1, #2, Italian, Kashubian, Polish #1, #2, #3, Romanian, Russian #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13

It's a monologue about languages.

55. Renaud - It Is Not Because You Are English, French 

Translations:  English, French

Translations:  German

About learning Polish and how poetic this language can be.

Translations:  English #1

This song has a whole stanza on how in love the narrator feels when his loved one speaks in Zapotec, a Mexican language family.

61. Explicit wordplay songs Collection

In this collection, you'll find songs revolving around wordplay, jokes, puns, double entendres, and any other funny way to use language. (Taken from description)

Songs revolving around wordplay, jokes, puns, double entendres, and any other funny way to use language, provided they have any explicit (or even "implicit") content, either in the meaning or in the words used.
~~~
See here for non-explicit wordplay songs.

19 items

This is about how an old dialect is disappearing.

Languages:  Venetan → Italian

Created by annabellanna on Friday, August 9, 2019

It ridicules self-important corporate speak. A hype song about language hype.

Translations:  Italian #1, #2

66. Martinho da Vila - Lusofonia Portuguese 

Martinho da Vila is a known advocate of Portuguese language and culture. He dedicated a whole album (2001's Lusofonia) to songs about Portuguese speaking countries and societies, from Brazil to East Timor. The album's title track mentions how language is a common characteristic of places which are so different, even mentioning native languages spoken in them.

Translations:  English

The Moldovan anthem, differently from other countries, talks about their language.

68. Féloche - Silbo French 

This one is about Silbo Gomera. On Gomera island, people used to speak Spanish by whistling to each other across hills.

Translations:  English, Portuguese

71. Brings - Kölsche Jung German (Kölsch) 

This song describes the difficulties children have in school, when they grew up speaking a dialect, and then have to learn the "official" language. But on the same time he is proud of his dialect.

Translations:  English, German

73. Tato Laviera - Spanglish English, Spanish 

Song shows the richness and the varieties of Brazilian Portuguese - letters are named different in the Northeastern if in comparison to other regions of Brazil.

Comments
BreezyDayBreezyDay    Tue, 04/12/2018 - 04:25

Basia's 'Copernicus' says 'i only know few simple words of your language' and 'the only words we need to communicate'. Context sounds like a traveler or someone who moved to new country.

BreezyDayBreezyDay    Wed, 05/12/2018 - 00:20

I'm so tired of people learning Spanish with ease. Finally, someone who understands!!!!

AnerneqAnerneq
   Wed, 05/12/2018 - 12:06

Do songs about grammar fit in here? Because this one would prove very useful to foreigners and ignorant natives.

BreezyDayBreezyDay    Thu, 06/12/2018 - 16:10

Thank you. I wish Spanish would stay Spanish. It's so special the the way it is. There's no such thing as troque for truck. It's camioneta, friends. Right?

AnerneqAnerneq
   Thu, 06/12/2018 - 16:30

Anglicisms are a problem for all languages nowadays. Some languages are more prone to borrowing than others, but even in the languages with a lot of loanwords (like Italian or Polish), English loanwords are taking the lead and getting more and more popular. I heard many Italians even adapting their grammar as if they were speaking English, but using Italian words. The new generations in particular butcher their own language quite often.

AnerneqAnerneq
   Thu, 06/12/2018 - 17:05

I know a similar video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDUJpoLi5mI

It's a comedy channel, so the goal is to make people aware of the problem with a good laugh. At one point the two women say exactly the same thing, except the first uses only Italian words.
I don't know how much you can understand though considering it's full of colloquialisms.

Stefano8Stefano8    Mon, 24/12/2018 - 14:44

Suzanne Collins - Linguistics love song
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/christine-collins-%CE%BB%E2%99%A5love-lin...
A song to win the heart of your nerdy, linguistics-passionate soulmate.

Eric Bogle - Silly slang song
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/eric-bogle-silly-slang-song-lyrics.html
Slang can be so weird in its double meanings.
The song explores some funny ones.

Antonio Virgilio Savona - L'accento sull'A
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/antonio-virgilio-savona-l%E2%80%99accento...
This is not so much about proper grammar as it is about proper public spirit.

Luciano Ravasio - Samba de Presèss
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/luciano-ravasio-samba-de-pres%C3%A8ss-lyr...
Minority languages risk going extinct together with their native speaker communities growing older and older.
This is true also for many "dialects" of Italy, and unfortunately they are disregarded even by their own speakers.

Francesc Ballone - Parla-me en alguerés
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/federica-zugno-andrea-caria-parla-me-en-a...
Languages open your mind. That's why some young people try and keep them alive, even in case of minority languages like the Catalan dialect which is spoken in the single town of Alghero, Sardinia.

Frankie Hi-NRG MC feat. Paola Cortellesi - L'inutile
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/frankie-hi-nrg-mc-l%E2%80%99inutile-lyric...
Songs should have something to say, rather than being just a negligible time-filler or a way to make money.
This song makes fun of that kind of music that has absolutely nothing to say.

Dellino Farmer & Piergiorgio Cinelli - FES
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/dellino-farmer-piergiorgio-cinelli-fes-ly...
Italian dialects are often ignored or despised, but they are part of the culture and history of their land, and they unite people.

Sergio Endrigo - Le parole
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/sergio-endrigo-le-parole-lyrics.html
Words are important for growing as a person, to express feelings and ideas, and to relate to other people.
They should be taught focusing on that, not focusing on rote learning and boring lists.

Lonely Island feat. Solange & Maya Rudolph - Semicolon
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/lonely-island-semicolon-lyrics.html
A rap song claiming street cred by means of being good at grammar.

Luciano Ravasio - Pòta
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/luciano-ravasio-p%C3%B2ta-lyrics.html
A playful explanation of Bergamo’s most iconic exclamation word: pòta.

La trinca - Coses de l'idioma
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-trinca-coses-de-lidioma-lyrics.html
Translating idioms literally can result in funnily weird sentences.

Tom Lehrer - Silent E
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/tom-lehrer-silent-e-lyrics.html
Funny song about English spelling and how a simple letter can turn a whole word upside-down.

Tom Lehrer - L-Y
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/tom-lehrer-l-y-lyrics.html
Educational song about adverb formation using -ly.

Tom Lehrer - O-U (The Hound Song)
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/tom-lehrer-o-u-hound-song-lyrics.html
Educational song playing around the OU digram in English.

Tom Lehrer - S-N (Snore, Sniff, and Sneeze)
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/tom-lehrer-s-n-snore-sniff-and-sneeze-lyr...
Educational song about English words beginning with SN.

Luciano Ravasio - Dialèt
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/luciano-ravasio-dial%C3%A8t-lyrics.html
Many Italian dialects are declining. They are perceived as "languages for educated people", but they are the true language of many people, of their everyday life and their emotions. These people try to keep them alive, though their future is very uncertain.

Riccardo Cocciante - La nostra lingua italiana
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/riccardo-cocciante-la-nostra-lingua-itali...
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/riccardo-cocciante-la-nostra-lingua-itali...
A homage to the beauty of the Italian language and culture.

Supertramp - The logical song
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/Supertramp-Logical-Song-lyrics.html
A song about what really matters in life, leveraging the different character of germanic and latinate words in English.

Dellino Farmer - La Ö la Ü
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/dellino-farmer-la-%C3%B6-la-%C3%BC-lyrics...
A spur to learn your language better - in this case spelling - because it's a treasure that you should keep alive and kicking.

Pomi Duri - Novelchiusìn
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/pomi-duri-novelchius%C3%ACn-lyrics.html
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/pomi-duri-novelchius%C3%ACn-lyrics.html
A whole song about nothing but wordplay, in Italian.

Caparezza - Follie preferenziali
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/caparezza-follie-preferenziali-lyrics.html
Wordplay to promote peace in the world.

Caparezza - China Town
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/caparezza-china-town-lyrics.html
A love song for writing (writing songs, stories, whatever), which is symbolized by ink on paper.

Franki Hi-NRG MC - Potere alla parola
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/frankie-hi-nrg-mc-potere-alla-parola-lyri...
Speech is the most powerful tool everyone has.

Sud Sound System - Le radici ca tieni
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/Sud-Sound-System-La-Radici-Ca-Tieni-lyric...
By knowing your own local culture, you can better understand other cultures and be open and tolerant.
And your language is a fundamental part of your culture.

Antonio Virgilio Savona - Le burle
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/antonio-virgilio-savona-le-burle-lyrics.html
Educational wordplay in Italian. Words, but also public spirit.

AnerneqAnerneq
   Thu, 28/03/2019 - 15:20

This is about learning Polish and how poetic this language can be.