Saturday, June 23, 2007

This is the Stuff That Gets Stuck in My Head

I do plan to post something soon on writing and my questions relating to same, but Friday afternoon I was planting some flowers and I couldn't get that old children's song, Frère Jacques out of my head.

Frère Jacques

Frère Jacques

Dormez-vous?

Dormez-vous?

Sonnez les matines!

Sonnez les matines!

Din, dan, don

Din, dan, don

After all these years I just noticed that this is a song I am supposedly singing to my brother and I’m using the formal form of you, vous instead of the familiar, tu. Am I the only person this bugs? Do French speaking people even sing this song?

8 comments:

Larramie said...

Although I can't comment on the French, Lisa, the Spanish-speaking populace are highly insulted when addressed by usted and not tu.

Is it time for a trip to Paris and on-site research to answer your question? ;o)

Lisa said...

You're darn right it is! I say it was just easier to rhyme. I mean what kind of song would it have been if you had to sing "dorms tu" or whatever the familiar form of "are you sleeping" is? And poor little non-French speaking kids like me were just singing away, feeling all smug and sophisticated at our bilingual singing and all the while, it didn't even make any sense! It's a travesty :)

Shauna Roberts said...

Perhaps the "brother" is not a literal brother but a friar? Who has slept late and the schoolchildren are taunting him from outside his window because he hasn't shown up at the schoolroom to give them their lessons?

I suppose one could Google it and find out the true story, but I like my version.

Shauna Roberts said...

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frère_Jacques) gives quite a long and interesting history of the song and supports the idea that it does indeed refer to a friar—probably someone of historical importance—rather than a biological brother.

Lisa said...

Shauna,

Thanks for straightening me out on that. Now I could have checked Wiki I suppose, but then I wouldn't have gotten that annoying song stuck in your heads! I feel much better now that I know it's a brother as in Friar.

debra said...

What the others have said about le Francais makes sense. And now, thank you :-), Frere Jacques is stuck in my head too.bluedoggy

debra said...

oops--don't know where the bluedoggy came from--perhaps it shall return from whence it cometh :-)

Therese said...

Ha! Reading this post and the more recent one reminds me that I'm such a word geek, too...

Shauna essentially said what I was going to say, that Frere Jacques was likely a monk or priest or friar.

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