Madame Levy shares this sentence, magnificent in it’s almost Mandarin reliance on pitch and emphasis:
Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
She translates the sentence as follows:
"American bison habitually bamboozled by members of their own
species that have themselves been bamboozled by others of their ilk
(that is, buffalo whom other buffalo who have themselves been buffaloed
by buffalo regularly buffalo) tend to engage in bamboozlement."
I for one am glad that she did not confuse us further by suggesting an urban origin of these shaggy beasts… say a city in western New York State.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Stu Savory 04.27.05 at 10:29
And this is the relevant press cutting, Frank
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-13336424,00.html
Stu
madame l. 04.29.05 at 4:08
fp, i got it off languagelog: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/
stu, great photo in your link. crash course in american history.
Dean Landsman 04.30.05 at 12:28
Frank, the way to make people think of that city in western NY state is as follows:
Snow, snow, cold weather, more snow, snow except in July and August (but not always, could snow then, sure), snow, nearby Niagara Falls, snow, more cold weather, pro football team that couldn’t, snow, minor league baseball team that could but didn’t matter, snow, snow, snow, snow, and more cold weather.
That’ll do it every time.
Oh, did I mention the snow?
fp 04.30.05 at 9:58
Madame L… thank you for the Language Log Link. It’s a wonderful site.
Stu… thank you for the graphic illustration of life on the modern prairie.
Dean… thank you for the weather report.