{"id":1036,"date":"2021-09-21T18:28:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T18:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2021-09-21T18:28:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T18:28:44","slug":"smg-id-arapaho-roon-sala-tubar-and-nara-but-alas-no-oroha-paradigms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/2021\/09\/21\/smg-id-arapaho-roon-sala-tubar-and-nara-but-alas-no-oroha-paradigms\/","title":{"rendered":"SMG \u2013 I&#8217;d Arapaho, Roon, Sala, Tubar and Nara, but alas no Oroha paradigms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A palindrome is a linguistic delight: it reads the same in both directions. For example: <em>level<\/em>. Or <em>Anna<\/em>, or indeed <em>Hannah<\/em>. This is a visual trick: if you record yourself saying one of these words and play the recording backwards, it won\u2019t sound exactly the same. <\/p>\n<p>Palindromes hit the big time in the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/VmqZjVLokL8?t=285\">parrot sketch<\/a>. They were also promoted by ABBA, with their top hit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cvChjHcABPA\">SOS<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/5nntf9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"503\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1041\" srcset=\"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/5nntf9.jpg 500w, https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/5nntf9-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/5nntf9-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/5nntf9-268x270.jpg 268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a nice one from <a href=\"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/2019\/02\/27\/drinkable-houses-edible-canoes-and-trojan-horses\/\">North Ambrym<\/a> (an Oceanic language spoken in Vanuatu): <em>rrirrirr<\/em> &#8216;sound a rat makes when you try and kill it but you miss it&#8217;. And a long one from Estonian: <em>kuulilennuteetunneliluuk<\/em> &#8216;bullet flying trajectory tunnel\u2019s hatch&#8217;. I\u2019m not sure that one is used much (except in blogs about palindromes). <\/p>\n<p>We can go up a <em><strong>level<\/strong><\/em> (!), as it were, to palindromic phrases. A famous one of these is: <\/p>\n<p><center><em>A man, a plan, a canal \u2013 Panama!<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>This has been around at least since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fun-with-words.com\/palin_panama.html\">1948<\/a>. It has often been extended, as in this version due to Guy Jacobson:<\/p>\n<p><center><em>A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal \u2013 Panama!<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s a Russian sentence palindrome: <em>\u0420\u0438\u0441\u043b\u0438\u043d\u0433 \u0441\u0433\u043d\u0438\u043b, \u0441\u0438\u0440<\/em>. &#8216;the Riesling has gone off, sir&#8217; More Russian palindromes at <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3AtxBID\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/3AtxBID<\/a>.  For French sentence palindromes go to <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3kmC5LE\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/3kmC5LE<\/a>. And there are even songs based on such palindromes:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Weird Al Yankovic - BOB\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gAfIikFnvuI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>They have palindromes in American Sign Language:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ASL Poetry Palindrome - Morning\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ybev9mnZGYg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, palindromes don\u2019t translate. Though we can go up another <em><strong>level<\/strong><\/em> (!) of cleverness, to the bilingual palindrome: <em>I love \/ e voli<\/em>. This is half English, half Italian, and overall a palindrome. More of these at <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/39ohoZy\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/39ohoZy<\/a>. It\u2019s truly amazing what people can create, including whole poems as palindromes: <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3tTWtaa\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/3tTWtaa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Some time ago, I mentioned to linguist colleagues that Malayalam (a Dravidian language of southern India) is a palindromic language. One colleague\u2019s eyes opened wide, and he asked whether it was palindromic at the word level or the sentence level. What a great idea! Of course, it\u2019s just the name which is a palindrome (just as <em>Anna<\/em> is a palindrome but that doesn\u2019t make Anna a palindromic person \u2013 there are deep issues here: what does a name <em><strong>refer<\/strong><\/em> to?). <\/p>\n<p>It turns out that there are over seventy \u201cpalindromic languages\u201d, including some that are central to our research in SMG, notably <a href=\"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/?cat=94\">Iaai<\/a> (spoken in New Caledonia). Here are some more: Efe, Ewe, and Atta. <\/p>\n<p>What then of E (also called Wuse\/Wusehua), a Tai-Chinese mixed language, of Guangxi, China? Yes, it\u2019s a palindrome, just not a very impressive one. Just as the English pronoun <em>I<\/em> is a palindrome, though hardly one to get excited about (unless you\u2019re called <em>Anna<\/em> or <em>Hannah<\/em> of course). But it gets much better. You may have noticed that linguists increasingly give three letter codes after language names. These are the ISO codes that we use to uniquely identify a language, to make sure that we\u2019re talking about, say, the language Aja (a Nilo-Saharan language of Sudan), ISO code aja, and not Aja (a Niger-Congo language of Benin), ISO code ijg. So, what is the ISO code for the language E? It\u2019s eee. The language name and the code are both palindromes! Similarly there\u2019s U (an Austroasiatic language of the Yunnan Province of China), ISO code uuu. <\/p>\n<p>Here are the languages which are doubly palindromic (name and ISO code):<br \/>\n<center><\/p>\n<table style=\"width:40%\">\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Name<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>ISO code<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>E<\/td>\n<td>eee<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Efe<\/td>\n<td>efe<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ewe<\/td>\n<td>ewe<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Iaai<\/td>\n<td>iai<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Kerek<\/td>\n<td>krk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Naman<\/td>\n<td>lzl<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mam<\/td>\n<td>mam<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Nen<\/td>\n<td>nqn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ofo<\/td>\n<td>ofo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ososo<\/td>\n<td>oso<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Utu<\/td>\n<td>utu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>U<\/td>\n<td>uuu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Yoy<\/td>\n<td>yoy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>A real star is Naman, whose ISO code is quite different, lzl, but still palindromic. Where does that come from? Well, the language has an alternative name, Litzlitz, so when it\u2019s not a palindrome it\u2019s a reduplication!<\/p>\n<p>Back to the tricky use of \u201cpalindromic language\u201d. Iaai is a palindromic name. As we\u2019ve seen, its ISO code iai is also a palindrome. And the language does have some very nice palindromes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>aba<\/em> \u2018caress\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>ee<\/em> \u2018locative \u2013 near the interlocuter\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>ii<\/em> \u2018to suck\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>iei<\/em> \u2018to hurt, cause pain\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>ikiiki<\/em> \u2018repugnant\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>iwi<\/em> \u2018rudder\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>komok<\/em> \u2018sick\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>maam<\/em> \u2018your manner\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>mem<\/em> \u2018Napolean fish (<em>Cheilinus undulatus<\/em>)\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>omoomo<\/em> \u2018women\u2019<\/li>\n<li> <em>nokon<\/em> \u2018his\/her infant\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>on\u0323o<\/em> \u2018Barracuda (<em>Sphyraena sp.<\/em>)\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>\u00f6\u00f6<\/em> \u2018spear\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>\u00f6l\u00f6<\/em> \u2018mount, embark, disembark\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>\u00f6l\u00f6<\/em> \u2018legume (<em>Pueraria sp.<\/em>)\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>u<\/em> \u2018an old word for yam\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>uu<\/em> \u2018fall from a height, chop down (of tree)\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>\u00fb\u00fb<\/em> \u2018a dispute, to dispute\u2019<\/li>\n<li><em>\u00fbc\u00fb<\/em> \u2018similar, same\u2019 (a nice meaning for a palindrome!)<\/li>\n<li><em>\u00fbc\u00fb<\/em> \u2018to exchange, buy, shop\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It would be impressive if you could read this post backwards, and have it make sense. But that wouldn\u2019t be a BLOG but a GLOB, the latter being is an instance of a Semordnilap, but that is another story. For now, we welcome your favourite palindromes, in any language, in the comments.<\/p>\n<p>For examples, thanks to Jenny Audring, Sacha Beniamine, Marina Chumakina, Mike Franjieh, Erich Round and Anna Thornton, and for the title (you\u2019ve guessed what sort of title that is!), thanks to Steven Kaye. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A palindrome is a linguistic delight: it reads the same in both directions. For example: level. Or Anna, or indeed Hannah. This is a visual trick: if you record yourself saying one of these words and play the recording backwards, it won\u2019t sound exactly the same. Palindromes hit the big time in the parrot sketch. They were also promoted by ABBA, with their top hit SOS! Here\u2019s a nice one from North Ambrym (an Oceanic language spoken in Vanuatu): rrirrirr&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/2021\/09\/21\/smg-id-arapaho-roon-sala-tubar-and-nara-but-alas-no-oroha-paradigms\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,120,121,8,132,122,19,94,123,125,124,126,119,127,128,118,110,130,129,131],"tags":[],"coauthors":[51],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-sign-language","category-e","category-efe","category-english-languages","category-estonian","category-ewe","category-french-languages","category-iaai","category-kerek","category-mam","category-naman","category-nen","category-north-ambrym","category-ofo","category-ososo","category-palindrome","category-russian","category-u","category-utu","category-yoy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}