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This is from the old book “Anguish Languish” (“English Language”) The entire book is on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64432/64432-h/64432-

This is from the old book “Anguish Languish” (“English Language”) The entire book is on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64432/64432-h/64432-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64432/64432-h/64432-h.htm Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguish_Languish https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguish_Languish My uncle, a pastor, would read these with incredible intonation before bedtime at family reunions. We kids would laugh so hard at this version of “Home on the Range” HORMONE DERANGE O gummier hum warder buffer-lore rum Enter dare enter envelopes ply, Ware soiled’em assured adage cur-itching ward An disguise earn it clotty oil die. Harm, hormone derange, Warder dare enter envelopes ply, Ware soiled’em assured adage cur-itching ward An disguise earn it clotty oil die. A machine learning friend started on a prolog program to “translate” English into “Anguish Languish”, but didn’t get to far.

OJFord 4y ago
I read your comment before the submission, and was surprised the author was American with no apparent British connection - it seems to fit so well with certain niche regional accents, of the kind you might expect an American (as an English-speaking (but) foreigner) to struggle to comprehend. Then I listened to the audio at the submitted link - it works just as well, but so differently. That just makes it even more fascinating to me.
- colanderman 4y ago
  To me as an American, the GP's lyrics read as a heavy Western drawl (befitting the song). Strong dipthongs and rhotacized vowels.
mikelevins 4y ago
Walt Kelly, in the great comic strip Pogo, did quite a lot of this kind of thing, from writing short snippets of dialog (for example, when the French skunk, Mamselle Hepzibah asked the turtle to play "Fly Tough Zee Bumbly Beans" on his lute) to extended songs and poems (for example, the multiple verses of the "Crispness" carol, "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie"). Sometimes the substitutions he made were commentaries on social or political or cultural topics. Sometimes they were just bits of silliness. I grew up reading the strip from before I went to school. My whole family loved it. I passed the game of "anguish languish" down to my kids, too. On long drives we sometimes took turns inventing mangled verses of familiar songs or poems. Naturally, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut is an old favorite.
morsch 4y ago
Wow. Is that intelligible to native speakers? I have a very hard time decoding it. Having it read out with the right intonation makes it a lot easier.
- TaylorAlexander 4y ago
  Not intelligible to me unless I can recall the original lines first, which kind of defeats the point.
  - rob74 4y ago
    I guess it's a "say this ten times fast" situation, you have to do that to catch the hidden meaning...
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  > Wow. Is that intelligible to native speakers? No, it isn't, but it doesn't need to be because we already know the correct words.
  - dwringer 4y ago
    I think it helps that we're often familiar with the song from heavily-comically-accented Looney Tunes characters and the like, so it already sounds exaggerated and ridiculous, and the alternative words make it sound like an even more ludicrous drawl not too unlike Mel Blanc. Not being able to mentally hear it sung cartoonishly while reading would probably take away some of the effect.
- throwaway4aday 4y ago
  It's somewhat intelligible if you have some experience with other English dialects and accents. Pronunciation of vowels and consonants can vary widely due to different regional influences. It's a bit more difficult to understand than someone speaking with a really thick Scouse, Yorkshire, Scottish or Irish accent since every word is modified but some of the substitute words do actually sound similar to real life pronunciations. "Where the" becoming "Warder" is not uncommon. "The skies" slurs into "daskies" which sounds a lot like "disguise". "is heard" > "issheard" > "assured"

OJFord 4y ago

I read your comment before the submission, and was surprised the author was American with no apparent British connection - it seems to fit so well with certain niche regional accents, of the kind you might expect an American (as an English-speaking (but) foreigner) to struggle to comprehend. Then I listened to the audio at the submitted link - it works just as well, but so differently. That just makes it even more fascinating to me.

colanderman 4y ago
To me as an American, the GP's lyrics read as a heavy Western drawl (befitting the song). Strong dipthongs and rhotacized vowels.

mikelevins 4y ago

Walt Kelly, in the great comic strip Pogo, did quite a lot of this kind of thing, from writing short snippets of dialog (for example, when the French skunk, Mamselle Hepzibah asked the turtle to play "Fly Tough Zee Bumbly Beans" on his lute) to extended songs and poems (for example, the multiple verses of the "Crispness" carol, "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie"). Sometimes the substitutions he made were commentaries on social or political or cultural topics. Sometimes they were just bits of silliness. I grew up reading the strip from before I went to school. My whole family loved it. I passed the game of "anguish languish" down to my kids, too. On long drives we sometimes took turns inventing mangled verses of familiar songs or poems. Naturally, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut is an old favorite.

morsch 4y ago

Wow. Is that intelligible to native speakers? I have a very hard time decoding it. Having it read out with the right intonation makes it a lot easier.

TaylorAlexander 4y ago
Not intelligible to me unless I can recall the original lines first, which kind of defeats the point.
- rob74 4y ago
  I guess it's a "say this ten times fast" situation, you have to do that to catch the hidden meaning...
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> Wow. Is that intelligible to native speakers? No, it isn't, but it doesn't need to be because we already know the correct words.
- dwringer 4y ago
  I think it helps that we're often familiar with the song from heavily-comically-accented Looney Tunes characters and the like, so it already sounds exaggerated and ridiculous, and the alternative words make it sound like an even more ludicrous drawl not too unlike Mel Blanc. Not being able to mentally hear it sung cartoonishly while reading would probably take away some of the effect.
throwaway4aday 4y ago
It's somewhat intelligible if you have some experience with other English dialects and accents. Pronunciation of vowels and consonants can vary widely due to different regional influences. It's a bit more difficult to understand than someone speaking with a really thick Scouse, Yorkshire, Scottish or Irish accent since every word is modified but some of the substitute words do actually sound similar to real life pronunciations. "Where the" becoming "Warder" is not uncommon. "The skies" slurs into "daskies" which sounds a lot like "disguise". "is heard" > "issheard" > "assured"