Anguish Languish, The Wonders of English

We talked about this in Cultural Anthropology the other day, and I thought I'd share it with you guys.

http://www.justanyone.com/allanguish.html#_Toc505953305

O darts fairy gourd!

It's very very hard for me. I am not sure if I get it at all. Is this somehow like "Feersum Endjinn"?

Vetch-ji,

The secret is that If you can't hear the words in your head, you have to read it aloud or have someone read it to you. The sounds of Anguish should blur into the "correct" English phrases.

I have seen this before. It is a very funny thing. I think you have to be a native to get it though.

Yes, being a native English speaker and knowing these stories would help a lot toward understanding them.

And if you enjoyed that...

ACHTUNG - ALLES LOOKENPEEPERS

Das Machine is nicht fur gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fur gewerken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren musten keepen das cotten-pickenen hands in das pockets - relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.


http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article09-100


We had a sign like this on the copying machine in my elementary school when I was in 3rd-4th grade.

Huh. I just can't pass something like that before I've figured it out, can I? Well, the "wicket woof" part tipped me off. Though I have to say that to my ears "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut" sounds nothing like what it's apparently supposed to sound like, no matter how many times I read it aloud. I guess being a native is a must.

About being a native: I got through "Feersum Endjinn" (a book by Iain M. Banks with parts of it written phonetically), I took me some time to get it, for sure, but I got it.

But this ... as Tuuli says. Reading loud doesn't help me much... lack the wiring, I guess.


Hehe, whereas the Blinkenlights are easy. I love that! Put it on our school comp last year, but, sigh, no-one cared.

On the topic of corrupted language in books don't forget the classic

Ridley Walker by Russel Hoban. If you've never read it, it is very well worth picking up. The first paragraph is below.

"On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he wernt all that big plus he lookit poorly. He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and made his rush and there we wer then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, 'Your tern now my tern later.' The other spears gone in then and he wer dead and the steam coming up off him in the rain and we all yelt, 'Offert!'
"

The whole book is written in this style, it does start to become natural after you've read it for a while! Its a dystopia after a nuclear war, technology is lost but not forgotten, along with the government.

Believe it or not, that sign was posted on the BLUEPRINT machine at my dad's office ca. 1960! Been around!

Amazingly enough, I -- who am normally very in tune with puns -- was only yesterday able to parse "Anguish Languish" as "English Language". Actually reading "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut" put me in the proper frame of mind to make the connection, I guess.

When you've done that, Let Stalk Strine by Afferbeck Lauder:D Kttktkt

Ah yes, Strine.

On a very similar note, Youngest Daughter was watching They're A Weird Mob on dvd the other day. Anyone wanting a crash course in Australian English could do worse than to pick this one up.

John O'Grady's They're a Weird Mob, I still see these in 2nd-hand bookshops [and Saly Army and City Mission shops], almost 50 years after it was published for 'new Australians', as non-Anglo migrants were called when they were allowed in after the war.

O'Grady used the pen-name Nino Culotta so he'd seem a migrant writing for other migrants, and not an Aussie writing a primer on contemporary Aussie culture.

Let Stalk Strine, a dictionary of Australian English, by Afferbeck Lauder ["alphabetical order"] was written as a knowing parody of these, humour for Australians, especially better-educated ones who would see the difference between actual Aussie accents and the fading, 'half-crown', half-English received accent that the well-bred and the ABC announcers still used in 1961.

Ironically Let Stalk Strine, full of terms like 'Egg Nishner' and 'Aorta' was written well before anyone considered actually writing a formal Australian dictionary, with words only we used and with local variant meanings, syntax, grammar, etc. That had to wait until the late 1970s when Macquarie arrived.

These books are now extremely dated, as they represent accents and slang of 45+ years ago, and we've had Asian, So.American & African migrants since then, as well as two entire generations of anglos grow up here and mangle things with Americanisms even more. But it's a good start till you can find current equivalents, or at least only five years out of date.

What it does show you, beyond the very real differences between English, US English & Aust & NZ English, is how things have changed since 1960, largely thru using real voices on radio & TV instead of semi-BBC accents.

it still bewilders me that non-Australasians can't tell the difference between Aust & NZ accents. We whine fragmented sentences thru our noses while Kiwis suy ivirythung in uh fluttuned Scuts ikscent - Fish'n'chips sounds like Fush'un'Chups, six sounds like sux, even if ivirythungs funtistic.

as the man at the bar said "You say it's my shout. Why you say I should shout?" :D

Kkkktktkttt! 1046 [0046GMT, 1746PST] F.28 Aug 2009

This post has been edited by Hakkikt on Aug 28 2009, 12:59 AM