Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript (Mother Goose's Rhymes), published in 1967 by Luis d'Antin van Rooten is purportedly a collection of poems written in archaic French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 with learned glosses. In fact, they are English-language nursery rhymes written homophonically

Homophone

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...

 as a nonsensical French text, that is an English-to-French homophonic translation

Homophonic translation

Homophonic translation renders a text in one language into a near-homophonic text in another language, usually with no attempt to preserve the original meaning of the text. In one homophonic translation, for example, English "sat on a wall" is rendered as French "s'étonne aux Halles" 'is...

.

Here is van Rooten's version of Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English language nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an egg and has appeared or been referred to in a large number of works of literature and popular culture...

:

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty Had a great fall. And all the king's horses And all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty Together again.

Un petit d'un petit S'étonne aux Halles Un petit d'un petit Ah! degrés te fallent Indolent qui ne sort cesse Indolent qui ne se mène Qu'importe un petit d'un petit Tout Gai de Reguennes.

Secondary Use

Some of the Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames have been set to music by Lawrence Whiffin.

Similar works

An earlier example of homophonic translation (in this case French-to-English) is "Frayer Jerker" (Frère Jacques

Frère Jacques

"Frère Jacques" , in English sometimes called "Brother John" or "Brother Peter", is a French nursery melody. The song is traditionally sung in a round. When the first singer reaches the end of the first line the next person starts at the beginning...

) in Anguish Languish

Anguish Languish

Anguish Languish is an ersatz language constructed from English language words by Howard L. Chace in the book Anguish Languish. It is not really a language but rather a homophonic transformation created as a work of humor...

(1956).

A later book in the English-to-French genre is N'Heures Souris Rames

N'Heures Souris Rames

Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript , published in 1967 by Luis d'Antin van Rooten is purportedly a collection of poems written in archaic French with learned glosses...

(Nursery Rhymes), published in 1980 by Ormonde de Kay. It contains some forty nursery rhymes, among which are Coucou doux de Ledoux (Cock-A-Doodle-Doo), Signe, garçon. Neuf Sikhs se pansent (Sing a Song of Sixpence) and Hâte, carrosse bonzes (Hot Cross Buns).

Publication history

• 1967, USA, Viking Adult, ISBN 0-67049064-4, hardcover, 40 pp.
• 1967, UK, Grossman, ISBN 1-29926218-X, 43 pp.
• 1968, UK, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-20794991-3, May 1968, hardcover, 80 pp.
• 1977, UK, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-20795799-1, De Luxe Ed edition, November 17, 1977, 40 pp.
• 1980, US, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14005730-0, November 20, 1980, paperback, 80 pp.
• 2009, UK, Blue Door, ISBN 978-0-00732469-9, 29 Oct 2009, hardcover, 48 pp.