On my dad's side of the family I have an Aunt Karyn and an Uncle Harry. More often than not their names come out of mouth as Haryn and Karry. For me, this is a perfect example of a Spoonerism because I've had this problem with saying their names together for years!

Spoonerism refers to the linguistic flip-flops that turn "a well-oiled bicycle" into "a well-boiled icicle" and other ludicrous ways speakers of English get their mix all talked up. Letters or syllables get swapped in words or phrases. This often happens accidentally in slips of the tongue (or tips of the slung!)

Apparently English is a fertile soil for spoonerisms because our language has more than three times as many words as any other - 616,500 and growing at 450 a year. Consequently, there's a greater chance that any accidental transposition of letters or syllables will produce rhyming substitutes that still make sense - sort of.

Anyways, our friend Janice officially introduced us to Spoonerisms when we moved up here to Canada. Many years ago she memorized the whole story of Rindercella, her sugly isters, and the Prandsome Hince. It's so funny to hear her tell it! Here is a version of the story off of YouTube, but Janice's version is our fav!

Do you have any common or favorite spoonerisms? Please do share...