Wednesday, September 19, 2007

OK, This Is Just Freaky

Check out this article in Wikipedia. It's about a particular linguistic oddity....

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs.

I had to keep reading and squint for a while before I got what it's saying, but yeah, it does work. That doesn't make it any less freaky, though, LOL!

I love stuff like this. :)

Angie

7 comments:

writtenwyrdd said...

My brain hurts just looking at it.

Charles Gramlich said...

I think I'll go home and nap now.

Angie said...

WW -- My eyes were crossed for longer than I like to admit while I tried to work it out, heh.

Charles -- probably a good idea. [nodnod]

Angie

Richard said...

I think it needs some commas and buffalo as a verb is new to me. Without the knowledge (and understanding) of buffalo as a verb, the sentence is meaningless. I have to mentally substitute bully for buffalo at the point it is used as a verb for it to make any sense.

Angie said...

Richard -- I've heard "buffalo" as a verb before, but not for a very long time and it was never terribly common. I don't think the point was to necessarily come up with a sentence which would be instantly comprehensible by anyone, although that would've been neat. It's a stunt to make people squint or go cross-eyed or say, "Wha--??" and maybe make a point about how screwy English can be. From that POV, I think it succeeded. :)

Angie

DarkNightJess said...

I'mma need more coffee..

Hi Angie, I followed a link to a link adn then got here. *looks around* Wow.

Hi!

Angie said...

Jess -- wait, my Jess? Jess-and-Katie Jess? Cool! Welcome to my home away from LJ. [grin/hugz]

Angie