Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

[koganbot]

In his blog, Paul Krugman links to William Rapaport's search for the various sources of grammatical, intelligible (if you already know what the person is trying to say) sentences made entirely of the word "buffalo." Rapaport created this one in 1972:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

It works along the lines of:

"Mice cats chase eat cheese"; i.e., Mice THAT cats chase eat cheese.

In Rapaport's version, "Buffalo" when capitalized means the city in western New York State, "buffalo" can mean either the noun "bison" or the verb "to buffalo" (which is a transitive verb meaning either "to intimidate" or "to baffle and bewilder"), and "to Buffalo buffalo" some creature is to buffalo that creature in a way that's unique to Buffalo buffaloes. (According to Rapaport there are bison in the Buffalo zoo.) "Buffalo" (meaning bison) in the plural can be spelled "buffalo," "buffalos," or "buffaloes."

So, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Meaning: buffalo from Buffalo that are Buffalo buffaloed by Buffalo buffalo, in turn Buffalo buffalo other Buffalo buffalo.

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The plural bit is key really - you need a noun that's spelled the same when pluralised, which is also a plausible adjective AND a plausible verb.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

what's the "and" sentence? i'm sure it's about putting more space on the pub sign between bull and and and and and gate but that's only five. unless you imagine a pub called the bull and and gate in which case you could have more space between bull and and and and and and and and and gate, but i think that's cheating...