
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo - rsp1984
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
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BLKNSLVR
I was just trying to explain this to my niece last week. She responded along
the lines of how messy the English language is, but my counter argument was
that it highlights the flexibility of language, which allows its use to be
artistic as well as functional to a degree that's entirely at the discretion
of the speaker / writer.

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Spare_account
The best I can do is "The space between Fish and And and And and Chips is too
small on that sign"

~~~
dannyfraser
Martin Gardner came up with a somewhat contrived but still brilliant extension
to this:

"Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And
and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation
marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And,
and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well
as after Chips?"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sentences)

~~~
Spare_account
This is fantastic, thank you.

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vesinisa
Similar tongue twister in Finnish:

    
    
        - Kokko, kokoo kokko!
        - Koko kokkoko?
        - Koko kokko!
    

Meaning (Kokko is a male name but also means 'bonfire'):

    
    
        - Kokko, gather up a bonfire!
        - You mean the whole bonfire?
        - The whole bonfire!

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eindiran
This one is pretty fun:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ono_no_Takamura#Takamura_in_la...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ono_no_Takamura#Takamura_in_later_literature)

"子子子子子子子子子子子子" \--> "the young of cat (猫, neko), kitten (子猫, koneko), and the
young of lion (獅子, shishi), cub (子獅子, kojishi)."

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Symmetry
See also garden-path sentences.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-
path_sentence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence)

"The old man the boat."

"The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families."

"The horse raced past the barn fell."

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Xophmeister
"The horse raced past the barn fell" is embedded just one level deep. Besides
it becoming completely unintelligible, there's nothing to say that you can't
nest arbitrarily:

    
    
        The dog the cat the mouse liked hated barked.
    

Of course, language isn't prescriptive, so it's arguable if this is allowed.
It's grammatical, in a technical sense, but not acceptable to, I'd imagine,
most English speakers.

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wjoe
See also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_h...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher)

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thomasedwards
Barely related but I love it: “it was warm” in Japanese can be said
‘atatakakatta’.

With the kanji gives it context within the language, 暖かかった, but written in
rōmaji it’s hard to know what’s what.

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rgoulter
I also enjoy:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-
path_sentence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence)

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Zhyl
Yorkshire (England) dialect.

"It is not in the tin."

"T'in't in tin"

\- Jimmy Carr

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PrimeDirective
WILL WILL SMITH SMITH? YES, WILL SMITH, WILL SMITH.

enjoy the uppercase!

~~~
Retric
Odd, I never noticed capitalization making things clearer, but it helps.

Will Will Smith smith? Yes, Will Smith, will smith.

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PrimeDirective
it doesn't and that makes it even funnier

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Retric
Sure it does, while not unambiguous both of these for example are valid.

    
    
      Will Will Smith smith? Yes, Will Smith, will smith.
      Will Will smith Smith? Yes, Will Smith, will smith.

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arethuza
A similar example from Doric Scots: "Fit fit fits fit fit"

