Murciélago... Now I shall remember it...

Question

Murciélago is just one of those words that I've found really hard to remember in Spanish, no matter how many times I've looked at it... It just wouldn't stick. I've always managed to remember the French for it, chauve-souris, because that's a bald mouse, and who could forget that image ? And for some reason I even know the German for it, Fledermaus, despite not speaking German (I think that's because there's a piece of music by Strauss that bears the same name).

But murciélago !! Have I been able to make it stick... ? Nope, not a bat's chance in hell... Until today.

Thanks to my Spanish tutor, I now know that murciélago is the only animal name in Spanish that uses all five vowels (or so she claims).

And for some reason, this seems to be making it stick...

¡¡¡ Holy caramba, Batman, your name only uses one vowel !!!

This word murciélago is driving me 'batty' lol - FELIZ77, Jun 24, 2015

Answer 1

Murciélago is also a proparoxytone word (esdrújula). These words sound very musical for me.

There is a song called El murciélago, that uses proparoxytones words in the rhymes:

El murciélago

En noche lóbrega, galán de incógnito

Las calles sórdidas atravesó

Y bajo clásica ventana gótica

Templó su cítara y así cantó:

"Niña purísima, de faz angélica

Que en níveas sábanas roncando estás

Despierta y óyeme mi canto esdrújulo

Suspiros prófugos escucharás."

Pero la sílfide que oyó este cántico

Entre las sábanas se arrebujó

Y dijo: "¡Cáspita con el murciélago!,

Es un romántico, no le abro yo."

proparoxytone=stress is on the third-to-last syllable. (for anyone, like me, who didn't know this) - Sassette, Jun 23, 2015

Thanks, Sassette... :-) - Faldaesque, Jun 23, 2015

It is not angélical but angelical - txustaboy, Jun 23, 2015

Luis, d'you have a translation of this ? ;-) - Faldaesque, Jun 23, 2015

You are right, Txustaboy: "angelical". - LuisCache, Jun 23, 2015

In other version it says: "angélica". - LuisCache, Jun 23, 2015

I searched a translation of this, but couldn't find one, Falda. You can hear the song in Spanish here: http://www.parqueexplora.org/micrositios/murcielago/musica.html - LuisCache, Jun 23, 2015

Answer 2

The mind / brain works in strange ways but I never had any problems with the Spanish for bat. - mouse + lake for me.

But butterfly - easy to remember in French from a film of that name.

Even as I write I can't think what it is.

Mariposa - perhaps I will remember it now :))) - ian-hill, Jun 22, 2015

Papillon! - LuisCache, Jun 22, 2015

Sip amigo :) - ian-hill, Jun 23, 2015

Eso es,, Luis :) - FELIZ77, Jun 24, 2015

Answer 3

Thanks to you, Falda, I don't think I'll ever forget it: murciélago.