Per my earlier query about our own "Jabberwocky," I'll get it going, but without any actual English words, a step Lewis Carroll didn't take. Let's see if we can end up with a "grammar" in our nonsense!

Og nymphal stags wir Pootant gir, zin saffig kald dan sehr.

Og salla stann wir Stallig ger, ted ento kunda korfig, korfig, korfig sehr.

Ah! heophantig glib dist Pootant, pomma salen gir,

Ent heophantig glib wir Stalling ger, ent rupus, sant, ent pir.

Thrippsy pillivinx,

Inky tinky pobblebockle abblesquabs? — Flosky! beebul trimble flosky! — Okul scratchabibblebongibo, viddle squibble tog-a-tog, ferrymoyassity amsky flamsky ramsky damsky crocklefether squiggs.

Flinkywisty pomm,

Slushypipp.

[edward lear, to Evelyn Baring, Winter 1862. Quoted in J.-J. Lecercle's The Violence of Language, p.1.]

"This appears to be a hoax. There is nothing to wonder about, nothing to understand. The only thing is that a man of 50 should still indulge in such childish games. We are faced with an instance of pure linguistic chaos, where language has utterly dissolved.

"But has it? A linguist will not confess impotence that easily. Since this is undoubtedly a text, complete with punctuation, capital letters, and signature, the linguist can approach it with his analytical tools."

[ibid. p.1.]

Ah, I see, a Germanic structure. We'll soon put a stop to that.

ell basineux y perillo san mensana esta purivee
por mistanique por quantrillo y por las trouvinees
"Sou Sou" ditamos ell "Soo Sou" diatamos mas
"Imoi mai trouve meen pantalones, trouve allebas!"

which by my reckoning is complete gibberish in any language.

purivee / trouvinees

Let's hope that final sigma is silent, lest CJ decend upon your Romantic notions.

Quando para mucho mi amore de felice carazon
Mundo paparazzi mi amore cicche verdi parasol
Questo abrigado tanta mucho que canite carousel

With appy polly loggies to John Lennon.

The 'silent green ideas' thread made me think of a game, too, but one with a little more structure than Jabberwhacky.

I was thinking more along the lines of the essay contest: someone proposes a grammatically correct nonsense phrase like 'silent green ideas ..." and the other participants try to write a paragraph or two containing the phrase. The prize goes to the person who most seamlessly integrates the phrase into the paragraph. I suggest calling this game "Chomsky".

And additional wild card could be the inclusion of a nonsense word, e.g. silent green ideas sleep flimtingly. I suggest calling this game Chomskywacky.

As best I can tell, Bob Hale has lost his pantaloons to a band of Basque shepherds.

Xota! Hwanto sanj em glastove snape.

Qumphing latusish, ib zelding noth sprate.

Thanks, jheem, for the neat referral!

Neveu, get it started - sounds good!

And, of course, y'all know: Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames by Louis d'Antin van Rooten? Ancient French nonsense poetry, which when read aloud in an outragious accent sound curiously a lot like English nursery rhymes.

Un petit d'un petit
S'étonne aux Halles
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! degrés te fallent
Indolent qui ne sort cesse
Indolent qui ne se mène
Qu'importe un petit d'un petit
Tout Gai de Reguennes.

Complete with great mock commentary (cf. Pale Fire).

quote:

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Neveu, get it started - sounds good!

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Well, it's hard to think of meaningless phrase. I'm tempted to fall back on a phrase from a computer generated poem I remember: "Push the button that I may battle the ham" but that's probably too easy.

How about 'acidic chairs emit fragrant stars'?

Nonsense

The Russian Formalists wrote about zaum 'trans-sense, nonsense'.