[thechat] language, slithey toves, and florists

[Bob Davis]

Ok, so the Lewis Carol thing got me thinking about language and this
little file I've had on my computers for years that demonstrates how
the mind hears vs. how it reads. The story goes like this - or so it
is quoted from the following site:

"This story, believe it or not, is the very familiar fable of Little
Red Riding Hood. This curious version was written in 1940 by a
professor of French named H. L. Chace, who wanted to show his
students that intonation - that is, the melody of a language - is an
integral part of its meaning. The words here are all common English
words, but not the ones you'd expect to tell the story of Little Red
Riding Hood."

	http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/ladle/

(warning, if you're not a native speaker or if you can't hear it in
your head with a southern accent, this might be hard to get)


Ladle Rat Rotten Hut

Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner
ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull
orphan worry putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk
raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.

Wan moaning, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut's murder colder inset. "Ladle Rat
Rotten Hut, heresy ladle basking winsome burden barter an shirker
cockles. Tick disk ladle basking tutor cordage offer groinmurder hoe
lifts honor udder site offer florist. Shaker lake! Dun stopper
laundry wrote! Dun stopper peck floors! Dun daily-doily inner
florist, an yonder nor sorghum-stenches, dun stopper torque wet
strainers !"

"Hoe-cake, murder," resplendent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, an tickle ladle
basking an stuttered oft. Honor wrote tutor cordage offer
groin-murder, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut mitten anomalous woof. " Wail,
wail, wail ! " set disk wicket woof, "Evanescent Ladle Rat Rotten
Hut! Wares are putty ladle gull goring wizard ladle basking?"

"Armor goring tumor groin-murder's," reprisal ladle gull. "Grammar's
seeking bet. Armor ticking arson burden barter an shirker cockles."

"O hoe! Heifer gnats woke," setter wicket woof, butter taught tomb
shelf, "Oil tickle shirt court tutor cordage offer groin-murder. Oil
ketchup wetter letter, an den O bore!"

Soda wicket woof tucker shirt court, an whinney retched a cordage
offer groin-murder, picked inner windrow, an sore debtor pore oil
worming worse lion inner bet. En inner flesh, disk abdominal woof
lipped honor bet, paunched honor pore oil worming, an garbled erupt.
Den disk ratchet ammonol pot honor groin-murder's nut cup an
gnat-gun, any curdled ope inner bet.

Inner ladle wile, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut a raft attar cordage, an
ranker dough ball. "Comb ink, sweat hard," setter wicket woof,
disgracing is verse. Ladle Rat Rotten Hut entity betrum an stud buyer
groin-murder's bet.

"O Grammar !" crater ladle gull historically, "Water bag icer gut! A
nervous sausage bag ice!"

"Battered lucky chew whiff, sweat hard," setter bloat-Thursday woof,
wetter wicket small honors phase.

"O Grammar, water bag noise! A nervous sore suture anomolous prognosis!"

"Battered small your whiff, doling," whiskered dole woof, ants mouse
worse waddling.

"O Grammar, water bag mouser gut ! A nervous sore suture bag mouse!"

Daze worry on-forger-nut ladle gull's lest warts. Oil offer sodden,
caking offer carvers an sprinkling otter bet, disk hoard hoarded woof
lipped own pore Ladle Rat Rotten Hut an garbled erupt.

Mural: Yonder nor sorghum stenches shut ladle gulls stopper torque
wet strainers

Cool, eh?

bob

--
bob davis
bob at bobdavis.org
http://www.bobdavis.org/