When [It] Strikes Me

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

OK, so this is a little less of a Deep Thought and more of a mind f*ck.  I learned by chance this week that the following is a real, honest to god sentence:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

No, seriously, that’s it.  That’s a legit sentence.  Break it out by substitution and it becomes intelligible.  The wiki entry is not really much of a help, but it does tell you how to substitute (by just subbing the noun versions and changing the verb version to “bully”).  Essentially, you have three uses of Buffalo:

1. The city Buffalo
2. The noun meaning plural buffalo
3. The verb meaning “to bully”

So with that context, and replacing the noun with other animals, you get the following:

Buffalo geese [that] Buffalo ducks bully bully Buffalo chickens.

Yeah, I’m just flabbergasted that “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”

Find each word’s popularity in English and other languages at www.wordcount.org.

For example, learn that Internet is ranked 30,525. Telephone ranks 1,281 and Paper ranks 525. Guess technology hasn’t completely caught up yet.