Spoonerism or Slip of the Tongue

A spoonerism (pronounced SPOON-er-izm) is a transposition of sounds (often the initial consonants) in two or more words, such as " shoving leopard" in place of "loving shepherd." Also known as slip of the tongue, exchange, metaphasis, and marrowsky.

A spoonerism is usually accidental and may have a comic effect. In the words of British comedian Tim Vine, "If I ever find out what a Spoonerism is, I'll heat my cat."

The term spoonerism is derived from the name of William A. Spooner (1844–1930), who had a reputation for making these slips of the tongue. Spoonerisms are fairly common in everyday speech and were well known, of course, even before Reverend Spooner lent his name to the phenomenon.

Examples and Observations of Spoonerism

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What Is a Slip of the Tongue?

By Richard Nordquist

• Peter Farb
  Spooner . . . once said to a stranger who was occupying his personal pew in the college chapel: 'Excuse me, but I think you are occupewing my pie.' He began a speech to an audience of farmers: 'I have never before addressed so may tons of soil.'
• Margaret Visser
  Spooner became the stuff of legend, which grew and multiplied with the help of his colleagues and students. He probably never did ask a Roman Catholic for a prescription of the dope, address a crowd of framers as noble tons of soil, compliment his hostess on her nosy little cook, or offer to sew a woman to her sheet. On one occasion, toasting Queen Victoria at a College function, he is said to have raised his glass to the queer old Dean.

Metaphasis

• Michael Erard
  Spoonerisms all work the same way: the reversed sounds come from the beginnings of the words, rarely at the ends, and very often from the syllable that carries the stress. . . .
  The scientific name for a spoonerism is an exchange, or in the Greek, metaphasis. Just as the word 'Kleenex' now refers to all paper tissues, 'spoonerism' serves as the blanket term for all exchanges of sounds. In general, consonants are more often transposed than vowels. As the psychologist Donald MacKay has observed, the sounds reverse across a distance no greater than a phrase, evidence that a person planning what to say next does so at about a phrase's span in advance.

Spoonerisms and Psycholinguistics

• Paul Georg
  What we can learn from slips of the tongue with regard to psycholinguistics is that: The latter is also shown by the fact that speech errors in general preserve, for the most part, the word class of the target.

Monty Python's Spoonerisms

• Michael Palin and Eric Idle
  Presenter: And what is your next project?
  Hamrag Yatlerot: Ring Kichard the Thrid.
  Presenter: I'm sorry?
  Hamrag Yatlerot: A shroe! A shroe! My dingkome for a shroe!
  Presenter: Ah, King Richard, yes. But surely that's not an anagram, that's a spoonerism.

• Jober as a Sudge
  This is a spoonerism for 'Sober as a Judge' and an excuse for hauling out this old exchange: Defendant: I was drunk as a judge when I committed the offense.
  Judge: The expression is 'sober as a judge.' Don't you mean 'drunk as a lord'?
  Defendant: Yes, my lord.
• Rod Hull
  Ronald Derds (or was it Donald Rerds)?
  Was a boy who always wixed up his merds.
  If anyone asked him,. 'What's the time?'
  He'd look at his watch, and say, 'Norter past quine.'