What is a contrepèterie?
Take an innocent sentence.
Switch two sounds of two words (both sounds are in the same position: start, middle or end of words).
You get a sentence which is either naughty, or political, or topical.
The closer the connection or clash between the two sentences, the better.
There are strict rules as regards:
- pronunciation (sounds must remain unchanged by swap)
- meaning (both sentences must be meaningful)
You can find a list of valid examples here: http://contrepeter.ie/index.php/valid-examples/
Is a contrepéterie not simply a form of spoonerism
If you define spoonerism as the switching of the sounds of two words, on purpose or accidentally, with a humorous outcome, you may say that the contrepet is a form of spoonerism.
Just as much as you could say that it is a form of humor, or a form of writing.
Spoonerisms have no strict rules. The sentence does not need to make sense to "sound funny".
Contrepéteries have a strict set of rules: all spoonerism (far from that) do not qualify as a contrepet. And the quality of the contrepet increases with the congruence in the meaning of both sentences, the words, used, the context.
How flexible are the rules about pronunciation?
Not very flexible.
They are probably harder in English than in French, as the long and short vowels need to be respected.
Not working: I spat on your tweet.
Working: I spat on your twit.
Exceptions exists in case a regional pronunciation or dialect can be argued, but it usually has to be related to the meaning of one of the sentences. And it must apply to the whole sentence.
What is the difference between a contrepèterie and a contrepet?
They are essentially the same thing: the former is grammatically a feminine word, the latter a masculine, in French.
You could argue that the contrepet is the switch, and that the contrepèterie is the sentence (both the innocent starting point, and the secret less decent reveal).
My contrepet was rejected because it had 2 phrases but only one swap. Why?
Because it is like a good joke: it should not have to be explained and it should just have the amount of words it needs.
If you have two phrases, you need two switches.
And the sentences should stand on their own, otherwise you end up with the lower form of the common spoonerism.
Do I need to log in to comment?
No, you can comment with your name and email only.
But if you want to customize the avatar used in the comments, you will need to log in.
When you comment, even if you do not login, you agree with the T&C's.
Who owns the material I submit for approval?
By submitting any material to publication, you grant total ownership and relinquish all copyrights of the material to the site for future use.
But we will always credit you as the original author.
So if your submission is rejected, but someone creates an approved contrepéterie based on improvements to your idea, you get credit for that.
By submitting User Content to contrepeter.ie you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, perform, or publicly display your User Content in any medium and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so.
The site header says "beta". What does it mean?
It means it is in testing phase with live users.
So any feature can change, be added or dropped, and may not work: feedback from end-users will improve the site before the launch on 12/08/2012.
It also means any counters etc, may be reset by accident or played around with for testing... without warning or damage claim 😛
I customized my avatar, but my old comments still show the old avatar.
The new avatar will only show in the new comments, and only for comments posted while you are logged in.
Comments posted with only your user name and email will never show the new avatar.
I customized my avatar, but when I comment it is not showing correctly.
Check that you are logged in.
If you comment with your username and email only, the system cannot be sure you are really who you represent yourself to be, so it is using the default avatar of that account.
One more reason to protect your avatar.
