Thursday, January 31, 2008

 

Tafa-Lafa

Radaratoo, radarate, radara, tadara, tandore. Lechlachananilimniichot. Raphèl mà amècche zabì almi. Cacaracamouchen.

To those examples of literary gibberish add another from Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book 2, Chapter 11 (tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude):
Sidorov, turning to the French, winked, and began to jabber meaningless sounds very fast: "Kari, mala, tafa, safi, muter, Kaská," he said, trying to give an expressive intonation to his voice.
There are more nonsense syllables ("Tafa-lafa") in Book 3, Chapter 13; cf. also Aylmer Maude's note in that chapter:
The word German (németz) in Russian means a "dumb man"—one who cannot speak so that we can understand him.
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