Here’s another reason, as if one were needed, to love Philadelphia: Stu Bykofsky, a gossip columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, can unselfconsciously write -- and have published -- a sentence like this one:
“At the nuptials, South Philly sausage king Anothony L. Maglio whispered to Bobby Rydell, ‘I think you’re bad luck. Why doesn’t he get someone else?’” [Emphasis added.]
Vaara, world-renowned linguist, admitted ümlaut lover, and former author of the late, great weblog Silt, checks in with the Review today, providing a link to “Finnish Tongue Twisters,” a phrase I would have thought was redundant.
A personal favorite: “Kokko, kokoo koko kokko kokoon!” “Koko kokkoko?” “Koko kokko.” It means: “Kokko, gather up the whole Midsummer fire!” “The whole fire?” “The whole fire.” (Kokko is a person’s name. Midsummer is a holiday.)
And this: järjestelmällistämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän (43 letters), which is said to be the longest word in the Finnish language, although epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkään (also 43 letters), is reportedly cited by The Guinness Book of World Records, so I guess it’s some sort of linguistically psychotic tie.
And this: Saippuakippokukkakivikakkukoppikauppias, which must be the world’s longest single-word palindrome.
The home page of the site where these were found -- The First International Collection of Tongue Twisters -- also links to “Dutch Tongue Twisters,” another redundancy, I think, and to similar challenges in some 90 languages, including 18 different tongue twisters in Esperanto.
You know, you really can find anything on the web.
[Note: This article was published earlier today in a slightly different form at The Rittenhouse Review.]
A week or so ago I was watching “The Golden Girls” on Lifetime -- Hey, I like sitcoms with older Jewish actresses playing even older Italian characters who bear an uncanny, almost eerie, resemblance to my paternal relatives, okay? -- and Sophia Petrillo, the character played by Estelle Getty, said, get this: “Let’s roll!”
“Let’s roll!” Yes! “Let’s roll!” How about that? “Let’s roll” was a phrase in wide and very generic use even before 1992, the year of the series finale, at least nine years before the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
I wonder if the litigious über-widow and uncompromising trademark claimant, Lisa Beamer, was watching.
I wonder if Lisa Beamer is planning to sue the producers for trademark infringement.
I wonder if Lisa Beamer is planning to sue the increasingly disabled Miss Getty for the same.
I wonder if Lisa Beamer will get royalties every time that rerun is aired.
I wonder why Lisa Beamer is appearing at the Target store in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., tomorrow.
I wonder when Lisa Beamer’s attorneys will start hounding me.
I wonder if I can trademark the phrase, “Let’s barf!”