Spoonerisms

I am particularly fond of Spoonerisms. I have been using them quite by accident long before I knew what they were. When Mr. Mike and I were dating, one of the things I used to like to drink was a Frozen Coke. It was sort of like a slurpy but made of Coke. Well maybe you can blame it on the cold mouth, more probably my habit of talking too fast, but more than once I've been know to ask for a cozen froke, or a show snovel. The other day, I said that no one wanted to go anything or do anywhere, and we all shake towers at my house.

So I guess by now you know what they are, huh. Well here's what Wikepedia has to say about it.

A spoonerism is a play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or syllables are switched named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.

While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue (sometimes spoonerised as tips of the slung), they are considered a form of pun when used purposely as a play on words.

Examples of Spoonerisms

Some of the more famous quotations attributed to Spooner include "The Lord is a shoving leopard," "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride," and "Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?." (Pardon me, madam, this pew is occupied. Can I show you to another seat?).

Other purported gaffes include his angry speech to a student, "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain" (intending to say "missed all my history lectures", "lighting a fire", "wasted two terms", and "down train", respectively). He supposedly remarked to one lady, during a college reception, "You'll soon be had, as a matter of course", when he meant to say "Mad as a Hatter, of course". Others include "Let us raise our glasses to the queer old Dean", "We'll have the hags flung out", "a half-warmed fish", "Is the bean dizzy?", "Go and shake a tower," and "a well-boiled icicle."

In modern terms, a spoonerism is any changing of sounds in this manner. While simple enough to do, a clever spoonerism is one that results in a funny phrase or sentence. "Flutterby" is an oft-cited example of a spoonerism that has not lost its original meaning.

When a digraph such as 'sh', 'ch', 'ph', etc... is used, both letters are moved to preserve the original verbal sound. For example, 'Cheer for Dennis' would be 'Deer for Chennis'.

Best described or illustrated to new English speakers would be the transposition of the first staccato or plosive in a word pair such as: Peer Dark.

Boy was that hard to read!!

If you really like these. Find some more examples here