The cat, Felis theomorphis tigris, is a sage beast, and the ultimate arbiter in matters linguistical, as those who have studied their pronouncements can attest. Who else but a pheline philologist could have validated the daring neo-Chomskian Deep-Grammatical hypothesis that "No! Stop it!" is actually semantically synonymous with "Yes! Go ahead!" ?
The Ancient Egyptians acknowledged this expertise in a temple inscription at Karnak dedicated to the cat-god, Bâst:
I shewed Ye Khâtt a page of Khê-m-myn,
Ask'd him what he mayde of it.
With fangèd smyle he said, 'It lackes
Authentickality a bit.
Kath-hotep II (ca. 1500 BC, trans. Parmiggiano, 1745)
Ask'd him what he mayde of it.
With fangèd smyle he said, 'It lackes
Authentickality a bit.
Kath-hotep II (ca. 1500 BC, trans. Parmiggiano, 1745)
Taking this ancient advice to heart, I asked the views of my own tabby Guru, over a shared glass of mulled glühwein one dour winter's evening, after we'd been perusing some kemynous websites together, out of idle curiosity. He was not amused:
My stomach is going like a Mexican
Bean, 'cos a fur-ball is stuck—
Or maybe I've swallowed a lexicon
Of Kemyn, or similar muck'.
Bonsaí MacTìgeir (2006 AD)
Bean, 'cos a fur-ball is stuck—
Or maybe I've swallowed a lexicon
Of Kemyn, or similar muck'.
Bonsaí MacTìgeir (2006 AD)
No comments:
Post a Comment