September 21, 2006
Bufalo Sentence with Only the Word Buffalo
Written by: JuanchitoA buffalo is not a buffalo. I found an article on Wikipedia that makes your head spin.
Take a look at this completely grammatically correct sentence:
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Here’s a description about the sentence:
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” is a grammatically valid sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs. It was featured in Steven Pinker’s 1994 book The Language Instinct, but is known to have been around before February 1992 when it was posted to Linguist List by William J. Rapaport, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.
Pretty incredible.
Here’s some other examples of this little trick:
English
* Badgers badgers badger badger badgers, by Boris Johnson in Have I Got News For You
* Dogs dogs dog dog dogs
* Who polices the police? – The police police. So, who polices the police police? Police police police police police police. (see Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
* A joke, in which a conductor, when asked how long will the train stay at the station, answered “From two to two to two two” (from 2 minutes to 2 O’clock, to 2 minutes past 2 O’clock). When asked the same question about a second train that will be at the station for the same period, he answered “From two to two to two two, too”.
* “I wonder whether the wether will weather the weather, or whether the wether the weather will kill” is a similar nature-related expression used to teach about homophones and syntax.
* If you have a mint after dinner, and then you have another, is the second one an after after dinner mint mint? This can be repeated to form longer and longer questions.
* “Wouldn’t the sentence ‘I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign’ have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?” (This is also an example of the use-mention distinction.)
Had had had
The linguistic folklore has several examples involving the verb “had” They are considered to be part of professional humor of linguists and included in many English language primers for foreigners for adding some amusement to the tedious work of language learning.
* The last boss she had had had had enough of her.
* John, where Bill had had ‘had’, had had ‘had had’. ‘Had had’ had had the teacher’s approval.
* Tom, when playing a game of scrabble against Dick who, whilst pondering the degree of legitimacy the last word that Harry (who had had ‘had’) had had had had, had had ‘had’, had had ‘had’. Had ‘had’ had more letters, he would have played it again.
Other languages
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma?
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Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma?
* In Balkan Slavic:
* In Bosnian, the sentence “Gore gore gore gore” (“Горе горе горе горе”), means “up there the hills are burning worse” (however, the words have different accents).
* In Croatian, the sentence “Gore gore gore gore” means “up there the hills are burning worse” (however, the words have different accents).
* In Serbian, the sentence “Горе горе горе горе” (Gore gore gore gore), means “up there the forests are burning worse” (however, the words have different accents).
* In Catalan, “Cap cap cap” means “no head enters”. A longer form is “En cap cap cap el que cap en aquest cap” that means “in no head enters what enters in this head”.
* In Chinese:
* in Cantonese, the phrase “gò go gó gò gòu gwó gò go gó gò” (in Yale romanization) means “That older brother is taller than that older brother”.
* In Mandarin Chinese, “Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma” means “Does Mother scold horses or do horses scold Mother?” However, Mandarin is a tonal language, so the words above are not true homophones. This sentence is used as an exercise to show the contrastive nature of Chinese tones and practice their correct realizations. A similar example is the poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den, in which shi is repeated with varying intonations.
* In Dutch, “Als In Bergen, bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen.” Roughly meaning: “If in Bergen, heaps of mountains salvage heaps of mountains, then heaps of mountains salvage heaps of mountains”.
* In Filipino the interrogative sentence “Bababa ba?”, which is translated to English as “(is someone) Going down?”, is used when a driver asks his passengers if they intend to go out of the vehicle. An extension is the following exchange in an elevator: “Baba, bababa ba?” “Bababa.” “Ba, bababa!” which means: “Baba (proper name), (is this elevator) going down?” “(Yes, it is) going down.” “Oh! (amazed) So it’s going down!”)
* In Finnish, “Kokoa kokko kokoon. Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko.” means “Build a bonfire. Whole bonfire? Whole bonfire.” Another sentence is “Piilevät piilevät piileviä piileviä piilevissä piilevissä”[citation needed]. Also, “Tuu kattoon kattoon kun kärpänen tapettiin tapettiin” (dialectal), meaning “Come to the ceiling to take a look at a fly that was killed on the wallpaper”. “Etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät”, meaning “Investigators search for investigators that search for investigators”.
* In French : “Si ton tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton tondu sera.” Which gives literally: If your uncle shaves your uncle, your uncle shaved will be.
o Also in French: “Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès.” Which translates to: “If six saws saw six cypress trees, six hundred saws saw six hundred cypress trees.” (Si, six, scies, scient, and the first syllable of cyprès are all pronounced more or less the same in French – similar to the English “see”.)
* In German, “Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach” means “If flies fly after flies, flies fly behind flies.”
* In Swiss German, “Da da da? Da da da. Da da da da!”. A conversation between two women from Schleitheim on a train discussing whether a toddler is allowed to lick the windowpane: “He’s allowed to do that?” “He can do that.” “That you let him do that!”. (In German: “Darf das [Kind] das [tun]?” “Das [Kind] darf das [tun].” “Daß das [Kind] das [tun] darf!”)
* In Hebrew, אשה נעלה נעלה נעלה נעלה את הדלת בפני בעלה (Isha na’ala na’ala na’ala na’ala et hadelet bifnei ba’ala) means “A respectable woman put on her shoe, locked the door in front of her husband”. ‘נעל’ (na’al) means ‘put on (footwear)’ and hence also ‘shoe’, but also means ‘lock’. ‘עלה’ (‘alah’) means ‘raise’, from which the niphal ‘נעלה’ means ‘exalted’ or ‘noble’.
* In Hungarian Bölény bölény bölény bölény bölény bölény bölény bölény is roughly counting bison in an old folk legend, as sung by gradeschoolers in the playground.
* In Irish Tá leis-leis leis leis leis leis. A subidiary [leis-] thigh [leis] of its/his [leis i.e with him, belonging to him] has been stripped [tá ... leis] by him [leis] also [leis]. There are two people or animals being referred to.
* In Japanese, “Uraniwa niwa niwa niwa niwa niwa niwatori ga iru.” (There are two chickens in the back yard and two in the front yard.) is a well-known tongue-twister.
* In a Korean dialect, “Gaga gaga ga ga?” means “Is that person (first gaga) Ga family’s (second gaga) member (first ga) ? (last ga indicates it is a question)”.
* In Latin, “Malo malo malo malo” means “I’d rather be in an apple tree than a bad man in adversity.” In “Latin …For Dummies”, a similarly constructed sentence is found, though not of homonyms, but is very close and is made more difficult by the non-use of spaces between words in early Latin texts: Miminumiumnibiumminimimuniumnimiumbunimuniminumimminuibibiminimumbolunt; which tranlates to “The tiny mimes of the snow spirits in no way wish, while they are alive, the tremendous task of [serving] the wine of the defenses to be diminished.”
* In Malay lovers can say “Sayang, sayang, sayang sayang sayang. Sayang sayang sayang?”, which translates to “Darling, I love you. Do you love me?”. This is a true homophone as the same word is used for pronoun and verb. The person being asked can even reply “Sayang”, or “Sayang sayang sayang”, in return.
* In Norwegian, the sentence “Avstanden mellom Ole og og og og og Kari har økt”, meaning roughly “The distance between Ole and ‘and’ and ‘and’ and Kari has been increased.”, could be uttered to explain that three words on a sign (“Kari og Ole”) have been moved further away from each other.
* In Papiamento, “No ta Tatata ta tata di Tatata, sino ta tata di Tatata su tata ta tata di Tatata”. Rougly meaning: “It’s not Tatata who’s the father of Tatata, but the father of Tatata’s father is the father of Tatata.”
* In Persian, the word جعفر in “جعفري ديدم كه بر جعفر سوار، جعفري مي خورد و از جعفر گذشت” has four different meanings. It’s pronounced as “Jaffar” and is used to mean 1. name of a person, 2. an animal, 3. some kind of vegetable 4. a location…so it says, “I saw a jaffar, riding a jaffar, eating jaffar, passing jaffar” and in Farsi it rhymes.
* In Russian, a well-known brainteaser is the task to fragment the following sequence into words to make a meaningful text: “kolokolokolokola” (Answer: “kol okolo kolokola”, meaning “the stake (is) near the bell”, or “kolokol okolo kola”, meaning “the bell (is) near the stake”, or “kol, o, kol okolo kola”, meaning “The stake, oh, the stake near (another) stake”)
* In Spanish – “¿Cómo cómo como? ¡Como como como!” means ¿Qué quieres decir con ‘cómo me alimento’? ¡Yo como como yo como! or “What do you mean ‘how do I eat’? I eat how I eat!”, provided the correct emphasis on each como.
* In Spanish – “¡Papá! Papa pa Papa, papá.” means “Dad! This potato is for the Pope, father.” The pa is used as a short form of para (for/to).
* A short story by Robert Sheckley Shall We Have a Little Talk? (a 1965 Nebula Award for Best Novelette) describes a planet where language mutates so fast that an Earthman colonizer cannot catch up with it: the yesterday’s version he learned overnight hypnopaedically, tomorrow is no longer in use. The Earthman accepted his defeat when he was addressed thusly: Mun mun-mun-mun. Mun mun mun; mun mun mun; mun mun. Mun, mun mun mun–mun mun mun. Mun-mun? Mun mun mun mun!.
* In Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, “Far, får får får? Får får lamm!” which translates to “Daddy, do sheep give birth to sheep? (No,) sheep give birth to lambs!” Extended variant is: “Får får får? Nej, får får ej får för får får lamm.”
* In colloquial Swedish, “Nallar nallar nallars nallar?” which translates to “Do teddy bears steal (other) teddy bears’ teddy bears?”
* Tamil, in the 12th couplet of the Thirukkural, it says, “Thuppaarkkuth thuppaaya thuppaakkith thuppaarkkuth thuppaaya thuuvum mazhai”. Roughly translated into English as “The rain begets the food we eat; And forms a food and drink concrete”. Many such couplets (with homophones) are found in this literary work.
* In Thai, “Mai mai mai mai, mai.” While, due to the tonal nature of the Thai language, each “mai” is pronounced differently, this is a complete sentence. The translation is something like, “New wood doesn’t burn, does it?” The canonical answer is “Mai mai mai mai,” again intoning each mai differently, which means “New wood doesn’t burn.” Word for word, the question is translated “Wood new not burn
* In Turkish, “‘Müdür müdür müdür’ müdür?” means “‘Is the manager [really] the manager?’, is that the question we are discussing?”. Also in Turkish, “Yüzeyden yüze yüze, yüz yüze yüzleşmiş yüz yüzü yüz.” means “Skin hundred faces that are facing each other as you are swimming above the water.”
* In Broad Scots Doric dialect (Scotland), ” Fit fit fits fit fit?” can be more easily understood if you imagine a Buckie fisherman in a shoe shop looking in a puzzled manner at a pair of shoes and asking: “What foot fits what foot?” i.e. “Which shoe fits which foot?”
September 12, 2006
Getting Map Directions and Streets Into Google
Written by: JuanchitoThis has to be one of the coolest stories I’ve ever found. It describes how google and all the other map companies out there know about all the streets on their maps and also how they can give directions to different places. I’ve always wondered how google maps and mapquest knows about exits, streets and where to turn using a gps.
Here’s an excerpt of how it works:
Have you ever wondered where the data for your favorite map-based GPS unit comes from? Who really does all of that work to make sure the road you are driving down doesn’t plunge you off a cliff? Meet Mark Vermeys, a geographic field analyst for Tele Atlas.
If you know anything about GPS devices, you’re probably familiar with Tele Atlas. This international corporation, which has its American headquarters in Boston, provides the GPS data for an array of device manufacturers, such as TomTom, Pharos and Navman, automobile makers including BMW, Ford, Honda and Toyota and Web sites like Google and Mapquest. As many GPS users know, the data available from these sources can quickly become out-of-date, frustrating drivers who turn down a wrong way and end up at a dead end.
Enter Vermeys and the Tele Atlas GPS Mobile Mapping Van.
The Tele Atlas GPS Mobile Mapping Van is a small, but very important part of the GPS data company’s mapping strategy. Drivers like Vermeys comb the United States in these specially equipped vans, hitting highways and side-roads in their quest to make sure you and I don’t end up in a ditch.
The Tele Atlas Van
A typical Tele Atlas GPS Mobile Mapping Van is a converted minivan which sports a roof rack like contraption holding a GPS antenna and four digital cameras. Inside the driver, in this case Vermeys, interacts with an IBM ThinkPad which runs several programs to help him in collecting map data. One program is the existing road data itself, with assigned roads for him to drive during a day. Another program monitors photographs which are taken by the four external cameras every ten meters.
September 6, 2006
Google Mashup with Video of a Car Driving Fast
Written by: JuanchitoI’ve seen a lot of google mashups, but this was pretty cool. A guy drives a car at break neck speeds through the middle of Paris. Having the google map really gives a bit of perspective. I can’t believe he didn’t kill someone or himself. The thing that would have made the video better would be if they had the spedometer reading on the video also.
August 29, 2006
Amazing Albert Einstein Robot
Written by: JuanchitoTake a look at this Albert Einstein Robot. The facial features are pretty amazing.
August 24, 2006
USB Powered Grill – What Will They Think of Next?
Written by: JuanchitoA USB Powered Grill pretty much speaks for itself:
August 23, 2006
Diamonds Not a Girl’s Best Friend
Written by: JuanchitoCNN officially reported something today that my wife may want to disagree with.
Here’s the title of the article:
Study: Tech replaces diamonds as girl’s best friend
I don’t know why they needed to do a study on this. How many girls do you see walking around with diamonds? Sure, the movie stars have bling, but these days you are much more likely to see an iPod on a girl than a diamon. That’s good for all of us guys out here.
July 14, 2006
Inspirational, Funny, Interesting Quotes
Written by: JuanchitoI ran across a large set of quotes(http://www.onlinediscountmart.com/quotable-quotes.html). They are nicely grouped into a lot of categories like Birthday Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Love Quotes, and just about every quote I think possible.
Here’s an example of one of the birthday quotes:
“I’m sixty years of age. That’s 16 Celsius.” George Carlin
I like the birthday ones because they were so funny.
Here’s an example of a post about mothers.
“God could not be everywhere, and so He made mothers.” -Jewish Proverb
That is an oldy, but a goody. Quotes have an interesting affect on you when you read them. I prescribe one quote a day to keep the psychiatrist away.








