Palindrome Syndrome


I think I happened to step in a very deep world... (Please click Read More)

A single hiragana (Japanese letter) indicates one sound. There are 50 hiraganas in total and every Japanese word is a combination of some of them. Even without a meaning, a new word can be developed and pronounced.

There is a Japanese word play utlizing the above character of hiragana: read a word/sentence from both ways. It is Kaibun ('a circulating sentence' if translated) and it goes like this:

A Japanese word for newspaper is SHINBUNSHI　and it is pronounced as:

SHI-N-BU-N-SHI: (5 sounds and shown with 5 Japanese letters)

This word is pronounced the other way round with exactly the same sound and meaning.

Here is another example, now a sentence: TAIYAKI YAITA ('(I) baked a fish-shaped cake') and pronounced as
TA-I-YA-KI YA-I-TA: (7 sounds with 7 Japanese letters)

Interesting ha? There are some trivia books about Kaibun. For example, Haruki Murakami, a popular Japanese novelist published a book about Kaibun several years ago.

I thought this would not happen in other languages as they use alphabets (or the like) and need two letters to indicate a sound except the vowels... but I WAS WRONG. I looked up in my Japanese-English dictionary, and found an English counterpart of Kaibun, palindrome. I never heard of the word in my whole life. The dictionary shows only one example: Madam, I am Adam. Yes, the sentence goes the other way round.

Now it is the time to Google, and it showed more than 120,000 hits with regards to palindrome. I had expected, but there is www.palindrome.com. (I do not link it as I did not ask for permission, so please copy and paste the URL if you are interested.) There are loads of examples, and there is someone who made 'the world's longest palindrome , 15,139 words. Well, the so-called longest one is a product with the aid of computer and I find no art in it.

One of my favorite palindromes is: No, Mel Gibson is a casino's big lemon.

Here comes a question: does this happen to the other languages? I am so sure that it does to those use alphabets. How about Arabic, they read from right to left, and can we read from left to right? It is a shame that I know nothing about Korean, our next door. How about African languages? Ah, this seems like digging a big hole!

Anyway please put a palindrome you find funny to the Comment box! If you have information/hint about palindrome of other languages is also appreciated!

Posted: (火) - 9 23, 2003 at 11:50 AM          

©