3 ms·

Coincidentally, I just watched this (posted 3 days ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWP9nvnRhw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWP9nvnRhw As a non-nativ

by smnscu 8y ago

Coincidentally, I just watched this (posted 3 days ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWP9nvnRhw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWP9nvnRhw As a non-native speaker I never understood the hate for puns, I've always found them inoffensive fun.

yxhuvud 8y ago
Dont you have puns in your native language?
- smnscu 8y ago
  Nope. Romanian is not a great fit for puns. I think English is a special case, since the "word density" is so high, due to a huge (largest actually) vocabulary, and the propensity to use short words, usually with multiple meanings. Also it's such a foreign thing to do that it'd be really weird to try, although there are some (very silly) examples (corcodus -> cur cu dus, furculita -> fur cu lita, etc.). I'm curious whether there are any other languages that are naturally "punny".
  - Avshalom 8y ago
    I don't know Chinese, but given the infamous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_... I'm guessing Chinese is exceedingly punny.
    - lainga 8y ago
      Famously and vigorously so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse
  - vram22 8y ago
    >I'm curious whether there are any other languages that are naturally "punny". I never thought of this before, although I know some Sanskrit (having learned it for some years in school) - but due to its overall design and the fact that words can be built up from other words, and also due to many short words having potentially many meanings (and hence longer words built up from short words, even more so), I think there is probably a lot of scope in Sanskrit for punning. Sanskrit poetry probably has a lot of it, but likely prose too. A very rich and enjoyable language to study, even just for its own sake, i.e. even if you are not studying it in order to understand Indian philosophies, yoga, etc.
    - jaldhar 8y ago
      I don't think puns so much but Sanskrit is the world champion of double entendres. Like one poem which can be read as a praise of ascetism or a description of an adulterous love affair. Or the one which if read forwards tells the story of the Ramayana and in reverse the Mahabharata.
      - vram22 8y ago
        Never heard of that last one, sounds amazing.
    - svat 8y ago
      Yes, puns are called śleṣa (shlesha, श्लेष) in Sanskrit poetry. (For a bit more, you can search under those two spellings, make sure to search the first two pages and also Google Books.) There are even entire long poems that are a “pun” — they tell two stories, depending on how you read each verse. Yigal Bronner has written a book about these: > Extreme Poetry - The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration (2010) though the book is a bit lighter on examples and heavier on theorizing (the price of academia) than I'd like.
      - vram22 8y ago
        Interesting, will check that out.
  - bradknowles 8y ago
    It has been my experience that different languages will usually have their own form of humor that tends to be more common, and other forms that are more rare or even unheard of. For example, with French, I have found that it is usually the double-entendre which is much more common.

by smnscu 8y ago

yxhuvud 8y ago

Dont you have puns in your native language?

smnscu 8y ago
Nope. Romanian is not a great fit for puns. I think English is a special case, since the "word density" is so high, due to a huge (largest actually) vocabulary, and the propensity to use short words, usually with multiple meanings. Also it's such a foreign thing to do that it'd be really weird to try, although there are some (very silly) examples (corcodus -> cur cu dus, furculita -> fur cu lita, etc.). I'm curious whether there are any other languages that are naturally "punny".
- Avshalom 8y ago
  I don't know Chinese, but given the infamous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_... I'm guessing Chinese is exceedingly punny.
  - lainga 8y ago
    Famously and vigorously so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse
- vram22 8y ago
  >I'm curious whether there are any other languages that are naturally "punny". I never thought of this before, although I know some Sanskrit (having learned it for some years in school) - but due to its overall design and the fact that words can be built up from other words, and also due to many short words having potentially many meanings (and hence longer words built up from short words, even more so), I think there is probably a lot of scope in Sanskrit for punning. Sanskrit poetry probably has a lot of it, but likely prose too. A very rich and enjoyable language to study, even just for its own sake, i.e. even if you are not studying it in order to understand Indian philosophies, yoga, etc.
  - jaldhar 8y ago
    I don't think puns so much but Sanskrit is the world champion of double entendres. Like one poem which can be read as a praise of ascetism or a description of an adulterous love affair. Or the one which if read forwards tells the story of the Ramayana and in reverse the Mahabharata.
    - vram22 8y ago
      Never heard of that last one, sounds amazing.
  - svat 8y ago
    Yes, puns are called śleṣa (shlesha, श्लेष) in Sanskrit poetry. (For a bit more, you can search under those two spellings, make sure to search the first two pages and also Google Books.) There are even entire long poems that are a “pun” — they tell two stories, depending on how you read each verse. Yigal Bronner has written a book about these: > Extreme Poetry - The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration (2010) though the book is a bit lighter on examples and heavier on theorizing (the price of academia) than I'd like.
    - vram22 8y ago
      Interesting, will check that out.
- bradknowles 8y ago
  It has been my experience that different languages will usually have their own form of humor that tends to be more common, and other forms that are more rare or even unheard of. For example, with French, I have found that it is usually the double-entendre which is much more common.