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Re: Adopting a plural

From:Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
Date:Monday, October 11, 2004, 7:15
 --- John Cowan <jcowan@...> skrev:
> Philip Newton scripsit: > > > > Or "omnibi"? > > What is it that roareth thus? > Can it be a Motor Bus? > Yes, the smell and hideous hum > Indicat Motorem Bum! > Implet in the Corn and High > Terror me Motoris Bi: > Bo Motoris clamitabo > Ne Motore caeder a Bo -- > Dative be or Ablative > So thou only let us live: > Whither shall thy victims flee? > Spare us, spare us, Motor Be! > Thus I sang; and still anigh > Came in hordes Motores Bi, > Et complebat omne forum > Copia Motorum Borum. > How shall wretches live like us > Cincti Bis Motoribus? > Domine, defende nos > Contra hos Motores Bos! > --A.D. Godley, January 1914 (presumably an Oxonian) > > This works best if vowels are given the English > pronunciation. >
In Raymond Queneau's "Exercices de Style" (the same insignificant anecdote written in a lot of different styles), there is a page written in 'Macaronic' (I can't guarantee that the text is 100% exact, because I copied it from a quotation on a site, not from the original book; but it looks very close): "Sol erat in regionem zenithi et calor atmospheri magnissima. Senatus populusque parisiensis sudebant. Autobi passebant completi. In uno ex supradictis autobibus qui S denominationem portebat, hominem quasi junum, cum collo multi elongato et cum chapito a galono tressato cerclato vidi. Iste junior insultavit alterum hominem qui proximus erat: pietinat, inquit, pedes meos post deliberationem animæ tuæ. Tunc sedem libram vidente, cucurrit la. Sol duas horas in coelo habebat descendues. Sancti Lazari stationem ferrocaminorum passente devant, junum supradictum cum altero ejusdem farinae qui arbiter elegantiarum erat et qui apropo uno ex boutonis capae junioris consilium donebat vidi." "Statio Sancti Lazari" refers to the Paris railway station "Saint-Lazare". Anyway, here we have an example for the plural of "autobus": Autobi passebant completi. ===== Philippe Caquant Ceterum censeo *vi* esse oblitterandum (Me).

Replies

Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
John Cowan <jcowan@...>