Frère Jacques - Neatorama

Just about everyone knows the song Frère Jacques (Brother John). Here are 45 versions of the song, in many languages and several dialects of French. Link -via Metafilter

please correct me but surely Jacques is the french equivalent of jack
and jean is john

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...what tobot said

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You are correct. That's not a translation; it's the name of the song in English.

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I was taught that the English version of Frere Jacques is Brother John. Probably because it sounds nicer in English.

If I recall correctly, I think Jack is considered a derivative of John in English.

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all I know is Jacques job was watching a water clock all night long... which is presumingly why he fell asleep (it wasn't the most exciting of jobs).

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I found more songs in the chansons du monde section --> http://demonsaumonde.free.fr/carnet.de.chants/chants_monde.html

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actually i now remember the song being called that in my childhood.
i retract my earlier comment

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The chinese version they have posted on there isn't quite frere jacques.

it translates to something like:

two tigers, two tigers
running fast, running fast
one has no eyes, one has no nose
how weird, how weird

Oh I guess they figured that out with the translation in French they have below that.

It's still weird.

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"reggae hippie" version was total crap.

besides, it's not a language... and the singers tried to read the french lyrics phonetically, or so it sounds.

the others were adorable.

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