Thursday, December 28, 2006

Anguish Languish

This is something I just had to share!! We went to the library today and picked up the Children's Almanac of Words at Play by Willard R. Espy
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Lettuce Pray
When you hear the word anguish, you aren't likely to think it's English. And if you hear the word languish you aren't likely to think it is language. But if you hear someone saying "anguish language" you might think he or she is saying "English language." A man named Howard Chase discovered you can tell whole stories, and have them understood, by replacing most of the words with words that sound a little bit like them but mean something entirely different. Anguish languish was the name he gave to this kind of wordplay. Here is the Lord's Prayer in Anguish languish:

Hour Fodder wart unleavened,
Hottub beehive mane.
Tyke idiom crumb, Tie wilt bean numb,
Inert acid dizzy emblem.
Goofy dismay ordeal Libra head,
Ant reefer keeper dentist.
Leaners snot undo ten patients,
Buddy liverwurt frumpy fill,
Four thigh next seeking dumb,
Deep powwow, auntie chlorine
Fur river. Almond

-Mark Burstein

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P.S. You'll probably have to read it a few times and you actually sound like you are reading it with a transilvanian accent!

2 comments:

Pfingston said...

OH that is funny! And the whole premis behind the game "Mad Gab" Danny Harmond is the best at it! How funny!

Anonymous said...

"Hour Follower" was a clue in a crossword I was doing with my wife this evening (Answer: O'clock). Being an old fan of the Anguish Languish, I couldn't help myself...

Hour Follower
(Tell Oared Splay Her):

Brooders sand Zosters, lettuce play toot dull Oared inner Anguish Languish:

Hour Follower, pool hearten half-on, hollow beeline mane.

Tie kin come bum, die trilby dumb
Don yurt hazard tizzy leaven.

Gibbous Thursday airedale egret, spam

Four gibbons hour strep-task is,
Arse wean fore glib dose queue stress-parse are gun stays.

Ant heedless nut lean toot impatiens,

Mutt belittle arts primeval.

Fort dine sister ink-dorm, den powder enter gory,

Pour reverend heifer,
Ramen.

-David Drury