R: Re: the i-language

> > In English there is a children's song whose only lyric is "I like to
> > eat apples and bananas".  On repetition, all non-schwa vowels are
> > replaced with long "a" /Ei/.  The next repetition replaces them all with
> > long "e" /i/, and so on through long "i" /Ai/, long "o" /ow/ ~ /@w/,
> > and long "u", normally /ju/ but in this case simply /u/.
>
> There's a much longer one that's traditional in Danish:
>
>         Tre små kinesere på Højbro plads
>         stod og spillede på kontrabas.
>         Så kom en betjent,
>         spurgte hvad der var hændt.
>         Tre små kinesere på Højbro plads.
Which sounds very familiar to my ears. In Italy we have

Tre cinesini con il contrabbasso
venne un giorno la polizia
uno di questi fu portato via
tre cinesini con il contrabbasso.

That has to be sung in the five vowels of the italian alphabet (sorry, we've
not so many as you do!)

Luca