…really lost in translation…
I love it when I get home and my kids start singing to me. To understand what they are singing is a challenge that I welcome. Sometimes I can recognize the song because they stay surprisingly close to the tune, other times I am tipped off by the words. I have to admit I was stumped the other day though when my son arrived home singing,
“…my boney lies over the ocean, my boney lies over the sea…”
At first I thought maybe I had just heard wrong, however he insisted on repeating the song with those exact words. The fact that he was calling my bonnie, “boney” was a little more than I could take, so I corrected him. He insisted that since Teacher Alex taught him the song, that was the proper pronunciation. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary bonnie is defined as:
chiefly British : ATTRACTIVE, FAIR; also : FINE, EXCELLENT
Okay. Now try telling that to a four year old. Lu kept on insisting that I sing the song with him and so I homoured him, however I sang the correct version, something like this:
But, he preferred his version. I just can’t bring myself to sing “boney” in mixed company. It reminds me of this
and that just brings back crazy 80’s inspired cringe-tastic memories. Call me an old fuddie duddie but I just can’t sing it like Billy!
