Lost in Translation, OR: What did Raymond Domenech REALLY Say About the Irish?
By: Laurie | November 16th, 2009
Awhile back, Chris reported on the scandal created before the UEFA World Cup playoffs when France NT coach Raymond Domenech reportedly called Ireland “England’s B side.”
Scandal! Outcry! Off with his head!
Except not really. Turns out this was all simply a homophonic misunderstanding. [EDIT: Or not. See comments.]
Did Domenech actually say, “B”? No. What he said was, “bis.” This comes from Doumé, a French-born regular commenter on France WCB:
What’s really funny in that whole press thing that was blown out of proportion, is that it was a bad translation of Domenech’s words, when he said “c’est l’Angleterre bis”; BIS means like an exact replica (in French we also use it as “encore”), of course whatever foreign press translated it as B, meaning the bench team. It was great for firing up the whole Irish nation (who showed up a little overconfident too, he he).
It is not unlike the fake fabricated quote “from” French swimmer Alain Raymond that was repeated ad nauseam to motivate Phelps and the US team (we will break the US 4×100 team like a stick).
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Comments
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Doumé should probably check his Bescherelle again.
“Bis” as an adverb would not be grammatically correct if used as such, since it is a complement to a noun that is not a numeral, and not complement to a verb. So the only grammatically correct meaning is that of “bis” as an adjective.
What does “bis” as an adjective mean? Grey or otherwise degraded (generally used to describe old bread). It is highly pejorative and is typically used to refer to imitation or outdated produce.
http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/bis
(”Bis” as a synonym of “Encore” is only valid in three situations : complement of a numeral (2, 2 Bis, 2 Ter…); as a particule (Bis! Bis! Bis!); and as a substantive (Ils demandèrent bis.).) Domenech surely meant it to mean “Encore”, but the construction of his sentance is a common grammatical error (to use “bis” as “encore” without a numeral but with a noun instead). As such, the Irish press was correct, either knowingly or not.
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Ooh. The plot thickens.
Thanks to both of you. I’ve been searching for the idiomatic definition for “bis” since this whole thing broke.
In the end, as always, only Domenech knows what he meant.
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