You may very well have heard English, but they did not speak English. This is actually a very well know psychological phenomena (you'll forgive me but I can't remember the name of it off-hand). It's the same thing that lets us 'see' shapes in clouds or faces in burned toast. Our brains always look for patterns, and sometimes see them where there are none. You catch bits and pieces that match the known pattern in your memory and your brain conects-the-dots, as it were.
Yesterday I created an American Alsatian dog and gave it to one of my Sims. I can swear that the first words that she said to the dog were, "ahhh Wolfie". Which would be rather appropriate, since American Alsatians are bred to look like a Dire Wolf. Sometimes it is as if Sims take on a mind of their own and do unexpected things. Sims do repeat the same phrases a lot, so I will listen to see if she ever says that again.
My sims talk english sometimes. Words here and there. When someone dies the man always says I'm sad. Well he says I'm sod. LOL And I have heard them say "for me" when they get a gift. And I do think it sounds like my man sims says the F word when he is weeding the garden. There are other things I have heard just can't think of them now.
I think it helps understand the things they say for some of the words to sound familiar.
Cheryl
Oh my gosh! I hear those things too. I forgot about the ef word while gardening.
I also hear the male say something like "you dork" when he's playing a sport game with his wife like tossing the ball around and she drops it. I know they aren't actual words, but they are close and when I hear them I'm not surprised, it just makes me laugh. Every time this happens I start to think that I've been hearing them so long and that's the reason why I can understand what their saying.
I remember a few weeks back, i heard my sim say 'thanks'. It was pretty awesome. It probably wasn't intended to be that word, it just came out as that. Its still pretty nice to hear a word that isn't simlish though! enjoy
I have had a male sim weeding and it sounds like he drops and f-bomb about the weeds. It is a little off but even my daughter rushed to the computer to observe it because it sounds so close.
Even though Sims don't speak a human language.
There is syntax used in the structure of Simlish & how Sims communicate.
They don't just spew random sounds..... much.
There are similar patterns with many languages, including Simlish.
It's pretty easy for listeners to assign meaning to what they hear.
It's part of how our brains are wired for language.
LOL, I have heard Sims swear in Ukrainian, well it SOUNDED like Ukrainian! In one of the country songs, it sounds like French, well, Quebecoise! It was funny!
I swear I heard a female name being "announced" as I was listening to my Sims' graduation at City Hall. It was like, "Amber Gomez" or something like that! I was all: O_O Haha!
I was having all kinds of trouble with a certain Sim of mine. (It's been so long I can't quite recall what it was that was giving me such fits.) I finally got him to go to bed, and as he did so, he said, "Good night." In English!
I know that Simlish is a combination of several world's languages and finding a phrase or words that sounds like our own language can happen. But this was surprising, nonetheless. It's either that or I need to stand away from my game for awhile. LOL :P
I'm quite sure that the race game Sims play on a computer/laptop has a male voice over that says [i]"Look at him go, look at him go! Oooooouch!"[/i] in a kinda stressed/excited voice followed by loud crowd cheer.
I've heard sims in ts2 say something similar to "mm thats good" while eating.
And I know they give them specific simlish lyrics when they record the songs, but anytime I hear Katy Perry's Hot N Cold i sing the simlish lyrics in my head because I've heard it in simlish more than English. And the part where it's like "we fight we break up we kiss we make up" - I always hear the simlish as "we **** we we obb we kibb we we dobb" so it sounds like instead of fight it's the F word but I doubt that's really it
I remember in the Sims 2, I was playing and two sims were woohooing and the male said "Honk honk" while under the covers. I was very interested in what they were doing...........
My Sims often say words that sound almost English but not quite. The only phrase I recall though sounds very like 'in the way' whenever they have something blocking the path. I have a mod to stop them foot stomping and they automatically find an alternative route if one is possible so that may have something to do with it.
Weirdly enough, I always hear english words, even though english isn´t my first language. Perhaps that´s because the people who did the recording are native english speakers, so there´s a kind of english pronunciation to everything.
The only thing I recall right now is "you dork", which comes up in a casual conversation.
Weirdly enough, I always hear english words, even though english isn´t my first language. Perhaps that´s because the people who did the recording are native english speakers, so there´s a kind of english pronunciation to everything.
The only thing I recall right now is "you dork", which comes up in a casual conversation.
If you listen very carefully, I think you will find that they are really saying something like "hugh donk," but in the same tone that we would use to say "you dork" (affectionately). There's a lot of Simlish expressions like this where our ears/brains interpret them to be real words that we are more accustomed to hearing, especially when used in the same context and with the same intonation.
All the way back in TS1, whenever sims got stuck in a room and started yelling up at the player I would often hear something like "Californiyayy!" being yelled at me. That makes no sense of course, why would anyone yell "California!" if stuck in a room unless they really wanted to be in California instead, but my brain doesn't know any other words with that many syllables that begin with "Califor" so it was probably filling in the rest for me.
I can't say I've heard real English phrases in my game, aside from "Look at him go" on the sports channel. I've heard a few phrases that are close, though. My Sims with male voice 1 will say, "ohhh, vens unch?" when they're hungry, and it sounds like "when's lunch?".
Weirdly enough, I always hear english words, even though english isn´t my first language. Perhaps that´s because the people who did the recording are native english speakers, so there´s a kind of english pronunciation to everything.
The only thing I recall right now is "you dork", which comes up in a casual conversation.
If you listen very carefully, I think you will find that they are really saying something like "hugh donk," but in the same tone that we would use to say "you dork" (affectionately). There's a lot of Simlish expressions like this where our ears/brains interpret them to be real words that we are more accustomed to hearing, especially when used in the same context and with the same intonation.
All the way back in TS1, whenever sims got stuck in a room and started yelling up at the player I would often hear something like "Californiyayy!" being yelled at me. That makes no sense of course, why would anyone yell "California!" if stuck in a room unless they really wanted to be in California instead, but my brain doesn't know any other words with that many syllables that begin with "Califor" so it was probably filling in the rest for me.
Our brains are pretty awesome (and cheating little liars, always making up stuff about our environment. For our own good, of course).
I actually prefer to not understand my sims. It makes them a bit too real.
I think they've thrown in a lot of different languages and blended them until they're quite unrecognizable. One of my favorites is the sound jabladou you hear in CAS - which could be an insult in Swedish!
The sims language, Simlish, is technically gibberish, but sometimes words/phrases are used that sound similar to English (& possibly other RL languages, but I only really speak English), but are not really English.
For examples:
There is one of the romantic interactions, I think one of the kissing ones, the sims can say "mmm...zexy..." --> "mmm...sexy...".
That bit of Simlish is pretty much just a small tweak of a real [English] word fitting the sim's reaction.
And when a sim invites their sweetie to cuddle on the bed, they'll say "doowahtoo duttle?".
That's "doowahtoo" --> "you want to" & "duttle" --> "cuddle".
I hear it that way because of the obvious context of the phrase as well as the similarity of the phonetics & intonations of the words.
A non-English speaker would hear those phrases as just gibberish, since the Simlish words would probably not resemble their language for those particular phrases, but they might hear resemblances to their language in other Simlish phrases that an English speaker would hear as just gibberish.
Basically, the brain does a bit of interpreting of its own when it processes the words we hear; especially unfamiliar words or phrases, especially especially when the unfamiliar words or phrases bear some similarity to familiar ones.
Alternate examples:
The other day my mom asked me to fix a hotdog for her. What did she want on it?
Mom: (shouting from other room) "Mustard & lots of relish"
What my ears heard was "ustrd n otsareli"
My brain went: "Custard & mozzarella? if you say so..."
Well, that's what it sounded like she said, even tho I could figure out what she actually wanted.
"I do pick up number two" :facepalm:
No, actually it's "I do pick a number, too." As in: he likes this girl & she works as a check-out clerk, so he gets in her line just to see her & he picks a [lotto] number just for an extra moment of time with her.
But many check-outs nowadays are self check-outs & they don't sell lotto numbers at the check-out anymore, you have to go the the service counter for lotto numbers/tickets.
So some "kid" who wasn't born yet when that song was written doesn't understand the particular bit of culture mentioned & thus their brain totally misinterprets the sentence.
Or, some kid who was around back then (*points at self*) first heard the song on a staticy FM radio that never quite came in clearly and, although she did know what the singer was talking about, still did a audio double-take the first time she heard that line. "'pick up number two' that can't be right..." *I listened closely the next time she heard the song* "Ohh, 'pick a number, too' that makes much more sense".
Then, as an adult, she wrote a parody based around the [often] misheard lyric but, because she's shy & can't sing, never recorded it in any way & posted it here even tho it's totally off topic to do so.
"About a Dog"
I need a furry friend
I do, with a paw to lend
I do think you ate this shoe
I do, and my homework too
I'm gettin' wetter while
You're shakin' yourself dry
I see you scratchin' every night...
...fleas
Fi-do
I'm standin' in the rain
I do think this is a pain
I do pick up number two
Have to clean up after you
I'm gettin' wetter while
You're shakin' yourself dry
I see you scratchin' every night...
...fleas
Fi-do
I need a furry friend
I do, with a paw to lend
I do think you ate this shoe
I do, and my homework too
I'm gettin' wetter while
You're shakin' yourself dry
I hear you barkin' every night
and I sure hope it's up the right...
...tree
Fi-do
Fi-do
Fi-do
Feel free to sing the new lyrics at your next karaoke night, and amaze/confuse your friends!
Anyway, the phenomena of misheard lyrics is so common they have a name for them -- mondegreens.
And the name "mondegreen" is itself a mondegreen....awesome. Don't you just love words that are their own definition?
And all this mishearing of words, phrases & lyrics is all due to the quirks of the way the human brain processes speech.
Comments
Oh my gosh! I hear those things too. I forgot about the ef word while gardening.
I also hear the male say something like "you dork" when he's playing a sport game with his wife like tossing the ball around and she drops it. I know they aren't actual words, but they are close and when I hear them I'm not surprised, it just makes me laugh. Every time this happens I start to think that I've been hearing them so long and that's the reason why I can understand what their saying.
There is syntax used in the structure of Simlish & how Sims communicate.
They don't just spew random sounds..... much.
There are similar patterns with many languages, including Simlish.
It's pretty easy for listeners to assign meaning to what they hear.
It's part of how our brains are wired for language.
I know that Simlish is a combination of several world's languages and finding a phrase or words that sounds like our own language can happen. But this was surprising, nonetheless. It's either that or I need to stand away from my game for awhile. LOL :P
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
And I know they give them specific simlish lyrics when they record the songs, but anytime I hear Katy Perry's Hot N Cold i sing the simlish lyrics in my head because I've heard it in simlish more than English. And the part where it's like "we fight we break up we kiss we make up" - I always hear the simlish as "we **** we we obb we kibb we we dobb" so it sounds like instead of fight it's the F word but I doubt that's really it
Clown Roleplaying.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
The only thing I recall right now is "you dork", which comes up in a casual conversation.
My studio: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/WatrDragon/mystudio
Just assume that every edit I make is because of typos.
All the way back in TS1, whenever sims got stuck in a room and started yelling up at the player I would often hear something like "Californiyayy!" being yelled at me. That makes no sense of course, why would anyone yell "California!" if stuck in a room unless they really wanted to be in California instead, but my brain doesn't know any other words with that many syllables that begin with "Califor" so it was probably filling in the rest for me.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
TS4 Sims in TS3
Our brains are pretty awesome (and cheating little liars, always making up stuff about our environment. For our own good, of course).
I actually prefer to not understand my sims. It makes them a bit too real.
My studio: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/WatrDragon/mystudio
Just assume that every edit I make is because of typos.
For examples:
There is one of the romantic interactions, I think one of the kissing ones, the sims can say "mmm...zexy..." --> "mmm...sexy...".
That bit of Simlish is pretty much just a small tweak of a real [English] word fitting the sim's reaction.
And when a sim invites their sweetie to cuddle on the bed, they'll say "doowahtoo duttle?".
That's "doowahtoo" --> "you want to" & "duttle" --> "cuddle".
I hear it that way because of the obvious context of the phrase as well as the similarity of the phonetics & intonations of the words.
A non-English speaker would hear those phrases as just gibberish, since the Simlish words would probably not resemble their language for those particular phrases, but they might hear resemblances to their language in other Simlish phrases that an English speaker would hear as just gibberish.
Basically, the brain does a bit of interpreting of its own when it processes the words we hear; especially unfamiliar words or phrases, especially especially when the unfamiliar words or phrases bear some similarity to familiar ones.
Alternate examples:
The other day my mom asked me to fix a hotdog for her. What did she want on it?
Mom: (shouting from other room) "Mustard & lots of relish"
What my ears heard was "ustrd n otsareli"
My brain went: "Custard & mozzarella? if you say so..."
Well, that's what it sounded like she said, even tho I could figure out what she actually wanted.
Also the second verse in this song & the poster's [incorrect] lyrics.
"I do pick up number two" :facepalm:
No, actually it's "I do pick a number, too." As in: he likes this girl & she works as a check-out clerk, so he gets in her line just to see her & he picks a [lotto] number just for an extra moment of time with her.
But many check-outs nowadays are self check-outs & they don't sell lotto numbers at the check-out anymore, you have to go the the service counter for lotto numbers/tickets.
So some "kid" who wasn't born yet when that song was written doesn't understand the particular bit of culture mentioned & thus their brain totally misinterprets the sentence.
Or, some kid who was around back then (*points at self*) first heard the song on a staticy FM radio that never quite came in clearly and, although she did know what the singer was talking about, still did a audio double-take the first time she heard that line. "'pick up number two' that can't be right..." *I listened closely the next time she heard the song* "Ohh, 'pick a number, too' that makes much more sense".
Then, as an adult, she wrote a parody based around the [often] misheard lyric but, because she's shy & can't sing, never recorded it in any way & posted it here even tho it's totally off topic to do so.
I need a furry friend
I do, with a paw to lend
I do think you ate this shoe
I do, and my homework too
I'm gettin' wetter while
You're shakin' yourself dry
I see you scratchin' every night...
...fleas
Fi-do
I'm standin' in the rain
I do think this is a pain
I do pick up number two
Have to clean up after you
I'm gettin' wetter while
You're shakin' yourself dry
I see you scratchin' every night...
...fleas
Fi-do
I need a furry friend
I do, with a paw to lend
I do think you ate this shoe
I do, and my homework too
I'm gettin' wetter while
You're shakin' yourself dry
I hear you barkin' every night
and I sure hope it's up the right...
...tree
Fi-do
Fi-do
Fi-do
Anyway, the phenomena of misheard lyrics is so common they have a name for them -- mondegreens.
And the name "mondegreen" is itself a mondegreen....awesome. Don't you just love words that are their own definition?
And all this mishearing of words, phrases & lyrics is all due to the quirks of the way the human brain processes speech.
Enjoy!