Nab-L archives: "Not content
merely to note the allusion to Browning’s “Pippa Passes,” Boyd finds in Mrs.
Sutherland Orr’s Handbook of 1892 an account of the origin of that poem in a
walk taken by Browning Ain a wood near Dulwich.” ...Boyd omits to alert us here
to the Index, where “marrowsky” is explained ...(Spoonerism is itself derived
from the phonemic transpositions of the Warden of New College Oxford named
Spooner)." (Charles Lock, University of Copenhagen; Nabokov's
Centenary: A V-shaped Hereafter)
JM: A spoonerism,
according to Kinbote, is present in the variants to the name
Komarovski ("marrowsky, makarovski, macaronski...") *
There was a real Marrowky (Cf.
wikipedia: A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on
words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see
metathesis). It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner
(1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this
tendency. It is also known as a marrowsky, after a Polish count who
suffered from the same impediment. While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips
of the tongue resulting from unintentionally getting one's words in a tangle,
they can also be used intentionally as a play on words. In some cultures,
spoonerisms are used as a rhyme form used in poetry, such as German
Schüttelreime. Spoonerisms are commonly used intentionally in humour, especially
drunk humour).
Besides, there is another significant
spoonerism that appears in Kinbote's invented "macaronski" which, in turn takes us
to his note to line 741:"a letter from the King did turn up giving his
address...A slip of paper was now produced on which Izumrudov, shaking with
laughter (death is hilarious), wrote out for Gradus their client’s alias...No,
the slip was not for keeps. He could keep it only while memorizing it. This
brand of paper (used by macaroon makers) was not only digestible but
delicious."
The slip of paper Gradus must swallow, the
one that carries Kinbote's name, address and place of work, is on
paper used by "macaroon makers."
Why did Nabokov mention "macaroon" and
"macaronski" - if not to give a hint about another type of
"spoonerism" that he employed in Pale Fire?, ie, the "macaronic
language"**?
We are familiar with
the "macaronic" transposition from Botkin into Kinbote, but are there
other pointed clues mentioned in the slip of paper, such as derived
from Goldsmith, New Wye, aso, which were hidden in the
Zemblan macaronic addresses Gradus memorized and gorged down?
btw: An example of modern "macaronic
language" is found in the names of characters in the Astérix series.
Two of the most famous ones were baptized with designations for symbols
used in foot-notes: Asterix (*) and Obelix (†).
Nabokov's wordgames in Ada are
often "macaronic" and the paragraph where she mentions the "inspired
logogriphs" teems with them***.
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
* - Pale Fire, note
to line 347: "... John
Shade...who displayed such fastidious care in his choice of fellow ramblers
liked to trudge with the gaunt solemn German [Paul
Hentzner] esteemed for knowing "the names of things" — though some of
those names were no doubt local monstrosities, or Germanisms, or pure inventions
...my friend sparkled with quips, and marrowskies, and anecdotes which I
gallantly countered with tales of Zembla...As we were skirting Dulwich
Forest...(the spot where the good farmer invariably stopped...his little
boy...pointed and remarked informatively: "Here Papa pisses.")..." and,
in the index: "Marrowsky, a, a rudimentary spoonerism,
from the name of a Russian diplomat of the early 19th century, Count Komarovski,
famous at foreign courts for mispronouncing his own name — Makarovski,
Macaronski, Skomorovski, etc."
**Here are some items found in the
wikipedia, related to "macaronic language":
Macaronic refers to text spoken or written using a
mixture of languages, sometimes including bilingual puns, particularly when the
languages are used in the same context (as opposed to different segments of a
text being in different languages). The term is also sometimes used to denote
hybrid words, which are in effect internally macaronic. A rough equivalent in
spoken language is code-switching, a term in linguistics referring to using more
than one language or dialect in conversation.Macaronic Latin specifically is a
jumbled jargon made up of vernacular words given Latin endings, or for Latin
words mixed with the vernacular in a pastiche (compare dog Latin).The word
macaronic comes from the New Latin macaronicus, from Italian dialect maccarone
("dumpling, macaroni", regarded as coarse peasant fare). The term macaronic has
derogatory overtones, and it is usually reserved for works where the mixing of
languages has a humorous or satirical intent. It is a matter of debate whether
the term can be applied to mixed-language literature of a more serious nature
and purpose...Texts that mixed Latin and vernacular language apparently arose
throughout Europe at the end of the Middle Ages—a time when Latin was still the
working language of scholars, clerics or university students, but was losing
ground to vernacular among poets, minstrels and storytellers. The Carmina Burana
(collected ca. 1230) contains several poems mixing Latin with Medieval German or
French. Another well-known example is the first stanza of the famous carol In
Dulci Jubilo, whose original version (written around 1328) had Latin mixed with
German, with a hint of Greek. While some of those early works had a clear
humorous intent, many used the language mix for lyrical effect. Another early
example in the Middle English recitals The Towneley Plays (ca. 1460). In play 24
(The Talents), Pontius Pilate delivers a speech in mixed English-Latin rhyme.A
number of English political poems in the 14th century alternated (Middle)
English and Latin lines...
Latin-Italian macaronic [the term "macaronic" is
believed to originate from Padua in the late 14th century, apparently from
maccarona, a kind of pasta or dumpling eaten by peasants at that time. (That
word is also the presumed origin of the Italian word maccheroni.)] Its
association with the genre comes from the Macaronea, a comical poem by Tifi
Odasi in mixed Latin and Italian, published in 1488 or 1489. Another example of
the genre is Tosontea by Corrado of Padua, which was published at about the same
time as Tifi's Macaronea.Tifi and his contemporaries clearly intended to
satirize the broken Latin used by many doctors, scholars and bureaucrats of
their time. While this "macaronic Latin" (macaronica verba) could be due to
ignorance or carelessness, it could also be the result of its speakers trying to
make themselves understood by common folk without resorting to their "vulgar"
language. An important and unusual example of mixed-language text is the
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna (1499), which was basically
written using Italian syntax and morphology, but using a made-up vocabulary
based on roots from Latin, Greek, and occasionally others. However, while the
Hypnerotomachia is contemporary with Tifi's Macaronea, its mixed language is not
used for plain humor, but is rather as an aesthetic device to underscore the
fantastic but refined nature of the book. Tifi's Macaronea was a popular
success, and the writing of humorous texts in Macaronic Latin became a fad in
the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly in Italian. An important example was
Baldo by Teofilo Folengo, who described his own verses as "a gross, rude, and
rustic mixture of flour, cheese, and butter"
Other mixed-language lyrics:
Macaronic verse is especially common in cultures with widespread bilingualism or
language contact, such as Ireland before the middle of the nineteenth century.
Macaronic traditional songs, such as Siúil A Rúin are quite common in Ireland.
Macaronic songs became popular for a period among Highland immigrants to
Glasgow, using English and Gaelic as a device to express the alien nature of the
anglophone environment. The term "macaronic" itself was popular as it bears a
superficial resemblance to a common Gaelic surname form: Mac a ... meaning son
of the ..."...Macaronic verse was also common in medieval India, where the
influence of the Muslim rulers led to poems being written alternatingly in
indigenous medieval Hindi verse, followed by one in the Persian language. This
style was used by the famous poet Amir Khusro, and it also played a major role
in the rise of the Urdu or Hindustani language.
Unintentional macaronic
language - Homophonic translation:Occasionally language is unintentionally
macaronic. A Greek-French example, well-known among French schoolchildren, is
attributed to Xénophon by Alfred de Vigny in Pluton ciel que Janus Proserpine
"Ouk élabon polin, alla gar elpis éphè kaka." This means "They did not take the
city, as they hadn't a hope [of taking it]." but if read in French sounds
like:"Où qu'est la bonne Pauline? A la gare. Elle pisse et fait caca," meaning
"Where is the maid Pauline? At the station. She's pissing and pooping." [Ouk
elabon polin, FinnegansWiki]
Modern macaronic literature: Macaronic text is
still used by modern Italian authors, e.g. by Carlo Emilio Gadda. Other examples
are provided by the character Salvatore in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose,
and the peasant hero of his Baudolino. Dario Fo' s Mistero Buffo ("Comic Mystery
Play") features grammelot sketches using language with macaronic
elements.
The novel The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt includes portions of
Japanese, Classical Greek and Inuktitut, although the reader is not expected to
understand the passages that are not in English.
Macaronic language is one of
many language games used by the literary group Oulipo, in the form of
interlinguistic homophonic transformation: replacing a known phrase by a
homophonic equivalent in another language, the archetypal example of which is by
François Le Lionnais, transforming John Keats's "A thing of beauty is a joy
forever" into "Un singe de beauté est un jouet pour l'hiver" (A monkey of beauty
is a toy for winter).Macaronisms figure prominently in the The Trilogy by the
Polish novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz.
Poetry: Two well-known examples of
modern non-humorous macaronic verse are Byron's Maid of Athens, ere we part
(1810, in English with a Greek refrain);and Pearsall's translation of the In
Dulci Jubilo carol (1837, in mixed English-Latin verse).An example of modern
humorous macaronic verse is the anonymous English-Latin poem Carmen Possum ("The
Opossum's Song"), which is sometimes used as a teaching and motivational aid in
elementary Latin language classes. Other similar examples are The Motor Bus by
A. D. Godley, and the anonymous Up I arose in verno tempore.Recent examples are
the mużajki or mosaics (2007) of Maltese poet Antoine Cassar (that mix English,
Spanish, Maltese, Italian and French), the linguistic blendings of the Italian
writer Guido Monte,[10] or the late poetry of Ivan Blatný that combines Czech
with English.
Film: Macaronisms are frequently used in films,
especially comedies. In Charlie Chaplin's anti-Nazi comedy The Great Dictator,
the title character, who is a parody of Adolf Hitler, speaks a macaronic parody
of the German language in his speeches. He uses German words like "Juden (Jew)"
and "Sauerkraut" and English words that use macaronic German grammar, such as
"Cheese-und-cracken". Other movies featuring use of Macaronic language are the
Italian historical comedies L'armata Brancaleone and Brancaleone alle crociate,
by Mario Monicelli, in which the characters speak a mix of modern and medieval
Italian, as well as Latin (sometimes in rhyme, and sometimes with regional
connotations, such as the Italo-Normans using words from modern Sicilian
dialect).
(wiki doesn't mention Latin macaronic as it was
employed by Molière in Le Malade Imaginaire, and in several works written
by Portuguese and Brazilian poets and writers.)
*** - ADA: "Pedantic Ada once said that the looking up of words in a lexicon
for any other needs than those of expression - be it instruction or art - lay
somewhere between the ornamental assortment of flowers...and making
collage-pictures of disparate butterfly wings... Per contra, she suggested to
Van that verbal circuses, 'performing words,' 'poodle-doodles,' and so forth,
might be redeemable by the quality of the brain work required for the creation
of a great logogriph or inspired pun and should not preclude the help of a
dictionary, gruff or complacent. That was why she admitted 'Flavita.' The name
came from alfavit...It was fashionable throughout Estoty and Canady around 1790,
was revived by the 'Madhatters' (as the inhabitants of New Amsterdam were once
called) ... and now a century later seems to be again in vogue, so I am
told, under the name of 'Scrabble'..."