Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Buffalo bufflo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
The title of this post is a grammatically valid sentence in the English language. Seriously.
As the above chart indicates, the word "buffalo" is simultaneously a noun (the animal), a proper noun (the place), and a verb (to bully). The sentence roughly translates (ha!) to "Buffalo from Buffalo who are bullied by buffalo from Buffalo in turn buffalo other buffalo from Buffalo." That's a lot of buffalo.
According to Wikipedia the sentence was first used by William J. Rapaport in 1972 to demonstrate the potentially confusing nature of homonyms and homophones. I think it makes it pretty clear that English is a cruel and complex beast of a language. My condolences to every ESL student ever.
Thanks to Hayden for the heads up.
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