Apr 24, 2009

‘Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo’


You will be amazed to know that "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence, it uses the following meanings of the word buffalo:



Buffalo: The place Buffalo, New York.


buffalo: An animal, in the plural


buffalo: To bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate.



The sentence thus translates as:


‘Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo bully bully Buffalo buffalo’


To make things simpler let us replace the word buffalo with another animal, say ‘bison’. Thus it becomes:


‘Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully bully Buffalo bison’


To make it even simpler let us replace Buffalo the name of a place with another place, say Congo. Thus it becomes:


‘Congo bison Congo bison bully bully Congo bison’


Changing it even further it can be said to have the same structure as:


‘Naughty boys Naughty boys bully bully Naughty boys’


Therefore, it is grammatically correct. It was used in 1972 by William J. Rapaport, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.


Needless to say, a visual representation of this amazing sentence will follow soon .

7 comments:

  1. wow thats kinda cool. I love your artwork, very nice!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hey thanks haley... keep a comin back :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there ..I loved Ur blog.
    here is my blog:
    www.hprgraphic.blogspot.com
    bye...........

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks hpgraphic, liked urs too!

    Sanjeev

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  5. Hey hpgraphic thanks, and ur blog's pretty cool too...

    Sanjeev

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hmm pretty cool analogy!
    Cyber high five to you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi twelve ghosts, thanks so much. Sanjeev.

    ReplyDelete