Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten, Dan Weingarten & David Clark

Barney & Clyde

Recommended

Comments (14) (Please sign in to comment)

  1. Rod Gonzalez

    Rod Gonzalez said, 5 months ago

    Tongue twisters are NOT Lucretia’s forte.

  2. simpsonfan2

    simpsonfan2 said, 5 months ago

    Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

    This is a perfectly cromulent sentence.

  3. Randy_B

    Randy_B said, 5 months ago

    I think the point is that some people pronounce these similar words slightly differently, and look down on people who don’t do the same.

  4. Night-Gaunt49

    Night-Gaunt49 said, 5 months ago

    Do they pronounce two, to and too any differently?

  5. finale

    finale said, 5 months ago

    Breaking the wall?

  6. Stephen Gilberg

    Stephen Gilberg said, 5 months ago

    @simpsonfan2

    Actually, I’ve seen “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo,” still syntactically acceptable if semantically inane. (Hint for those who don’t get it: “Buffalo” can be a transitive verb.)

  7. Cartoonacy

    Cartoonacy said, 5 months ago

    @Randy_B

    It’s not that anyone’s looking down on anyone else. It’s just that regional dialects sound funny to kids. Here’s a map that shows the results of a national survey of how different regions pronounce Mary, marry, and merry: http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_15.html I’m in a blue zone, myself.

  8. Cartoonacy

    Cartoonacy said, 5 months ago

    @Stephen Gilberg

    If you think about it, you can repeat the word “buffalo” any number of times consecutively and still parse it as a valid sentence. (“Buffalo!”) If anyone still doesn’t get it:
    buffalo (noun): an ox-like animal
    buffalo (verb): to intimidate or bully
    Buffalo (adjective): coming from a city in upstate New York

  9. detourjones

    detourjones said, 5 months ago

    @Stephen Gilberg

    Buffalo has gender identity issues?

  10. saint74

    saint74 said, 5 months ago

    @Stephen Gilberg

    People from New England pronounce them differently. The rest of the country pronounces them the same.

    I guess they should look down on us for not pronouncing r as h when it is the last letter in a word as well.

  11. saint74

    saint74 said, 5 months ago

    oops that was supposed to be a reply to randy b not stephen gilberg

  12. Lynnskay

    Lynnskay said, 5 months ago

    @Cartoonacy

    I’ve lived all my life in a red zone and did not understand this strip at all untill I read the comments. I never knew there were different pronunciation, nor would I know how to pronounce them differently. Guess I need to meet someone from a blue zone to learn.

  13. Night-Gaunt49

    Night-Gaunt49 said, 5 months ago

    @Cartoonacy

    And the animal in question doesn’t live in the N. American continent but over in India and Asia. We have bison here.

  14. detourjones

    detourjones said, 5 months ago

    @Night-Gaunt49

    wow… this is bigger than gender identity issues… this is species identity issues…

  15. Refresh Comments.