A bilingual pun is a

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

created by a word or phrase in one language sounding similar to a different word or phrase in another language. The result of a bilingual pun can be a joke that makes sense in more than one language (a joke that can be translated) or a joke which requires understanding of both languages (a joke specifically for those that are bilingual). A bilingual pun can be made with a word from another language that has the same meaning, or an opposite meaning.

Description

A bilingual pun involves a word from one language which has the same or similar meaning in another language's word. The word is often homophonic whether on purpose or by accident. Another feature of the bilingual pun is that the person does not always need to have the ability to speak both languages in order to understand the pun. The bilingual pun can also demonstrate common ground with a person who speaks another language.

Examples

Biblical

There are what appear to be Biblical bilingual puns. In Exodus 10:10,

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

is warned by the Egyptian Pharaoh that evil awaits him. In

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

the word "ra" () means evil, but in Egyptian " Ra" is the sun god. So when Moses was warned the word "ra" can mean the sun god stands in the way, or evil stands in the way.

Literature

Unintentional bilingual puns occur in translations of one of

Shakespeare's plays Shakespeare's plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. The exact number of plays as well as their classifications as Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy, Shakespearean histor ...

: ''Henry V''. The line spoken by Katherine, "I cannot speak your England" becomes political in French.

Mathematics

The famous paper “Fun with F₁” is a French-English pun as 1 is un in French.

Gaming

Wario is a character in Nintendo's Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise that was designed as an Archenemy, archnemesis to Mario. Wario first appeared as the main antagonist and final Boss (video games), boss in the 1992 Game Boy game ''Super Mar ...

's name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the name Mario and the Japanese word ''warui'' ( 悪い), meaning "bad", reflecting how he is a bad version of

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

. But in English, "Wario" can be seen as either a portmanteau of the name Mario and "war", or as a flip of the M in "Mario".

References

Bibliography

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External links

7 Puns That Make Sense in More Than One Language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bilingual pun

Category Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * Category ( ...

Puns Macaronic language Homophonic translation Sociolinguistics Semantics Pidgins and creoles Linguistic morphology Word coinage Linguistic typology Linguistic purism