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).
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