Can any of your conlangs do this?
From: | Padraic Brown <pbrown@...> |
Date: | Monday, May 17, 1999, 20:01 |
This cute joke, Histoire de pommes, just showed up on sci.lang; can any of
our conlangs do this or similar? Or perhaps beat it?
Pierre raconte qu'il a mange beaucoup de pommes.
-Combien en as-tu mange? demande Paul. [How many apples did you eat?]
-Sept. [7]
-Tu dis? [say what?]
-Je dis sept. [I said 7]
-Dix-sept! [17!]
-Non, sans dix. [no, without the 10]
-Cent dix! [110!]
-Non, sans dix!...sept. [no, without the 10 ... 7]
-Cent dix-sept. [117]
-Non, sept, sans dix! [no, 7, without the 10]
-Sept cent dix! [710!]
-Mais non, je dis sept sans dix sept! [no way, I said 7 without the 17]
-Dix-sept cent dix sept! [7017!]
-Va, tu me fatigue! [go away, you're bothering me!]
Of course, it makes absolutely no sense in English: the translation is
just so you know what's being said. The joke's basis is that dis (said)
and dix (ten) sound alike; as do sans (without) and cent (100). So "je
dis sept" sounds like "je, dix-sept".
Padraic.