To copy right!

The Liver bird has a history, a history of mistakes, takes that didn't quite translate or copy.

• The Liver bird (pronounced /ˈlaɪvəbɜːd/) is the symbol of the city of Liverpool, England.
• The pronunciation of liver in this word is not homophonous with the first two syllables of Liverpool; rather it rhymes with "driver".
• What species?
• The bird's species has long been the subject of confusion and controversy.
• The earliest known use of a bird to represent the then town of Liverpool is on its corporate seal, dating from the 1350s, which is now in the British Museum. The bird shown is generic, but the wording of the seal contains references to King John, who granted the town’s charter in 1207. John, in honour of his patron saint, frequently used the device of an eagle - long associated with St. John. Further indication that the seal was an homage to King John is found in the sprig of broom initially shown in the bird’s beak, broom being a symbol of the royal family of Plantagenet.
• By the 17th century, the origins of the bird had begun to be forgotten, with references to the bird as a cormorant, still a common bird in the coastal waters near Liverpool. The Earl of Derby in 1668 gifted the town council a mace "engraved with ...a leaver" - the first known reference to a liver bird by this name. A manual on heraldry from later in the century confuses matters further by assuming this term is related to the Dutch word lefler, meaning spoonbill - a bird rarely found in northern England.
• When the College of Arms granted official arms to Liverpool in 1797, they refer to the bird as a cormorant, adding that the sprig in the mouth is of laver, a type of seaweed, thus implying that the bird's appellation comes from the sprig.
• The bird thus appears to have originally been intended to be an eagle, but is now officially a cormorant. Many modern interpretations of the symbol are of a cormorant, although several - notably that on the emblem of Liverpool Football Club - distinctly show the short head and curved beak more readily associated with a bird of prey. (Wikipedia)

Mis-translations, mis-hearings, mis-understandings, are capable of generating new ideas, and this is an area of our work at e-space lab that we are especially aware of whilst there is a real exchange of ideas in an inter-cultural context.

The science of botany didn't take off until the woodblock illustration (15th century onwards) created a fixed visual reference that connected to the names and properties of plants. And in the screen capture image in the post of 16th November 2008, the Wikipedia Ornithology entry, comments on field work and the breakthrough of photography:

• The study of birds in the field was helped enormously by improvements in optics. Photography made it possible to document birds in the field with great accuracy. High power spotting scopes today allow observers to detect minute morphological differences that were earlier possible only by examination of the specimen in the hand.

Tony Potts, the 'so-called' 5th member of the band Monochrome Set, worked on lyrics for a track on the Album Love Zombies, and called "The Weird, Wild and Wonderful World of Tony Potts" (Bid, Potts, Square) that included references to modern cinema, and were translated for a Japanese edition in a wonderful way. Rather than ask for a copy of the lyrics, somebody in Japan listened to the Album tracks and wrote down what was heard, and what was mis-heard! Fritz Lang becomes Bread Slam. The Bread Slam Theatre of Japanese Whispers was thus born in November 1990 at a "Raft" meeting at Tony's house on Dyers Hall Road!

Posted by Philip Courtenay