Word of the day

Macaronic – text using a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context; of or containing a mixture of vernacular words with Latin words or with vernacular words given Latinate endings; of or involving a mixture of two or more languages; mixed, jumbled.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 7th, 2013 at 6:42 pm and is filed under language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to Word of the day

  1. Andrei says:
    07/10/2013 at 7:11 pm

    This might be an example

    Dim (After being hit by Alex): What did you do that for?
    Alex: For being a bastard with no manners. Without a dook of an idea about how to comport yourself public-wise, O my brother.
    Dim: I don’t like you should do what you done and I’m not your brother no more and wouldn’t want to be.
    Alex: Watch that. Do watch that O Dim, if to continue to be on live thou dost wish.
    Dim: Yarbles, great bolshy yarblockos to you I’ll meet you with chain, or nohz, or britva, any time, I’m not have you aiming tolchoks at me reasonless. It stands to reason, I won’t have it.
    Alex: A nohz scrap any time you say.
    Dim: Right, right. Doobidoob. A bit tired may be best not to say more. Bedways is rigthways now, so best we go homeways and get a bit of spatchka. Right, right.

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  2. homepaddock says:
    07/10/2013 at 8:13 pm

    I’m impressed though bemused – where does it come from?

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  3. Andrei says:
    07/10/2013 at 10:06 pm

    That’s from Anthony Burgess (John Anthony Burgess Wilson) , “A Clockwork Orange”. It’s an admixture of English and Russian.

    Anthony Burgess was a multilingual who was proficient in several languages and it shows in his writing, particularly that – a book whose language is magnificent but overshadowed in the public consciousness by the violence and sex that drives its plot

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  4. homepaddock says:
    07/10/2013 at 10:31 pm

    Thanks.

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