Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

[Skrej]

This has been around for a long time (circa mid 60's), but I ran across it the other day again. I thought it amusing enough to be worth sharing.

The following is a grammatical and meaningful sentence. See if you can work it out without googling it, but it plays on homonyms and homographs.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Hint: You'll need a bit of knowledge of US geography, as well as multiple meanings of the word in question.


I'll let you work it out before I post any answers or links.

 

[Skrej]

Here are three key hints to get you started:

• as a verb, 'buffalo' can mean to intimidate/bully or confuse (either meaning works in this example)
• the common noun 'buffalo' is used (unscientifically) as a synonym for 'bison'
• Buffalo is a proper noun for several US towns or cities, most notably Buffalo, NY

 

[suikerbossie]

Still confused!

 

[Amigos4]

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Guess what I will be counting in my sleep tonight!

 

[Skrej]

Here is a version with alliterated synonyms. Now all one has to do is work out the syntactic groupings!

Buffalo bison Buffalo bison baffle baffle Buffalo bison.

 

[Amigos4]

Here is a version with alliterated synonyms. Now all one has to do is work out the syntactic groupings!

Buffalo bison Buffalo bison baffle baffle Buffalo bison.

In order to "solve" the sentence, don't a few extra words (Non-"buffalo" words) have to be added before the sentence makes sense?

 

[Skrej]

No, it' works with just the original eight repetitions of 'buffalo'.

 

[Glizdka]

This is one of the many oddities found in English.

It appears in The english language is a giant meme.., along with other oddities.

 

[Skrej]

If you add some relative pronouns, it becomes a bit easier to parse.

Buffalo buffalo that Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Or adding a few more words and synonym substitutions:

Buffalo buffalo that (other) Buffalo buffalo intimidate (also) bully (even other) Buffalo buffalo.

Completely re-parsed:

Bison from Buffalo which are bullied by other bison from Buffalo themselves also intimidate yet even other bison from Buffalo.


You can also do with this with the town of Police, Poland and the verb and noun forms of 'police',

Police police Police police police police Police police.

Which then sets up a multi-level query of 'who will watch the watchmen watching the watchmen watching watchmen?"

 

[Amigos4]

In order to "solve" the sentence, don't a few extra words (Non-"buffalo" words) have to be added before the sentence makes sense?

No, it' works with just the original eight repetitions of 'buffalo'.

If you add some relative pronouns, it becomes a bit easier to parse.

Buffalo buffalo that Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Or adding a few more words and synonym substitutions:

Buffalo buffalo that (other) Buffalo buffalo intimidate (also) bully (even other) Buffalo buffalo.

Completely re-parsed:

Bison from Buffalo which are bullied by other bison from Buffalo themselves also intimidate yet even other bison from Buffalo.

It looks like words have been added!

 

[Skrej]

Yes, but the ones I added were for clarification purposes only, though. They're not necessary for it to be a functional sentence.