"cross-language homophonic poetry" -- or something

[Jonathan Lighter]

There may not be an established term for Van Rooten's sort of verse, which, by the way, amazed me when it was shown to me twenty-some years ago. In such a case, "macaronic" strikes me as a sort of a makeshift.

  JL

"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
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But still, JL, do you agree that "macaronic" is not the right answer
for the original question:
>There's been a conversation on our family list about _Mots
>D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript_, by Luis
>D'Antin Van Rooten (no false impressions: we usually gossip and
>discuss the weather), who produces poems that look like French
>but sound like English (that is, when read aloud they make sense
>as English sounds).
which refers to words sounding alike, but meaningless in the other
language? (But your cowboy song examples do fit.)

Joel

At 1/19/2006 10:14 AM, you wrote:

>I believe that in current usage a "macaronic" composition need not
>be, as OED stipulates, a "burlesque."
>
> JL
>
>"Joel S. Berson" wrote:
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
>Subject: Re: "cross-language homophonic poetry" -- or something
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>A correspondent rejects "macaronic" with the following argument:
>
> >Macaronic verse as defined here and in the article cited sounds more
> >like Chuck Berry's "He truly loved that mademoiselle/C'est la vie,
> >say the old folks, you never can tell" or Hank Williams' "I'm gonna
> >see my ma cher ami-o". It would also be a natural mode for speakers
> >of Spanglish or Franglais. Not at all the same thing as reproducing
> >the sound, as opposed to the sense, of a poem from another language.
>
>Looking at the OED2 definition and the Northwestern web page, I agree.
>
>However, JL's reference does fit the description (but it does not use
>the term "macaronic"):
> >This technique has now become a useful method of scholarship :
> >
> > http://www.parrotshorsechat.com/Parrots_Perch/mailinglist/chap7.html
>
>Joel
>
>At 1/18/2006 04:33 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >The general category of burlesque verse in which one language
> >masquerades as another is called "macaronics" or "macaronic verse."
> >But I've never come across another example of macaronics with the
> >precise phonological mapping found in __Mots D'Heures: Gousses,
> >Rames_.
> >
> >More on macaronic verse here:
> >
> >http://www.library.northwestern.edu/collections/garrett/frivreadings.html
>
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