Re: OT Re: some spoilers: language and THE DAVINCI CODE
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Wednesday, June 4, 2003, 16:04 |
|---|
On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 01:45:14AM -0400, Roger Mills wrote:
> Just remember the magic words: etaoin shrdlu
???
> English _recorded/spoken_ backwards-- now that is a wonderment. Sounds like
> Russian with a Swedish accent, or vice-versa.
And very hard to produce without mechanical assistance. I believe it was
Douglas Hofstadter who wrote about spending quite some time learning to
pronounce English backwards effectively - such that he could record himself
and then play it backwards and get intelligible English.
I've always supposed that was what Zatanna's spells actually sounded like
in the comics (speaking of magic words), which would make her skills
somewhat more impressive. Unfortunately, though predictably, when she
showed up in Batman: The Animated Series, she used the phonetic pronunciation
of backwards-WRITTEN English. Ah, well.
-Mark
Replies