Re: OT Re: some spoilers: language and THE DAVINCI CODE

Mark J. Reed wrote:


> On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 01:45:14AM -0400, Roger Mills wrote:
> > Just remember the magic words:  etaoin shrdlu
>
> ???
>
Most frequent letters of English, nos. 1-12, from the keyboard layout of the
old linotype machine.  Every now and again you would seem them in a
newpaper, where the typesetter had made an error and used them to fill out
the line (and then forgot to remove it before it went to press).
Photo-offset and computerized typesetting have eliminated the problem.

> > 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.
Not that hard...a phonemic rendering produces workable results, a close
phonetic one even better; of course it still sounds "off" because it's
difficult to talk while inhaling, which you should theoretically be doing.
Spanish is quite easy, due to simpler syllables than Engl. and unaspirated
stops. [aSt'namaled "raGulnune], maybe French [ésa~Rf uvelRap], ['mEt@Z
'uSit@pO~m].  Prof. John Lawler used to do a remakable "Humpty Dumpty sat on
a wall" at full speed....

The interesting thing about English is that a backwards recording clearly
shows the diphthongal nature of the tense vowels--e.g. meat /miyt/ > [tjim],
which accounts I guess for the Russian-like effect.

I've mentioned before "Ilsa Popping and her Pixieland Jazz Band" who
recorded at least 1 album in the 50s using backwards singing and music, but
it seems I'm the only person who bought it.......(and have since lost it).
Last I looked, they weren't even on google.