Defamiliarization Word Game

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

And just like a newsboy and hawking those daily rags, it’s our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Extra, extra.

Read all about it, you guys.

Well, the quiz is all the way in the back of the newspapers.

Let’s take a look at it.

Oh, look at this.

This is very good.

I think you guys will enjoy this.

Oh, by John Chaneski.

How about that?

Yeah, it’s by me.

Look at that.

Sweet.

You know, I very much enjoy the work of humorist and cartoonist Nathan W. Pyle.

I don’t know if you guys know this guy.

Yeah, he does the alien cartoons where everything’s de-familier.

Oh, those.

Exactly.

Easily his most popular creation.

Yeah.

It’s a webcomic.

It’s called Strange Planet.

And in it, he sort of looks at our life and society through the almond-shaped eyes of bulbous-headed blue aliens.

Now, these aliens live in a world very much like ours, but their alienese speech gives everyday experience a sort of exotic flavor.

For example, if a being is dressing for a non-recreational event, they may need to don their seriousness cloth, which, of course, is alienese for a tie.

I was thinking of the Sunday go-to-meeting clothes, your dress clothes.

Yeah, yeah. I see that’s a little different sort of formality there, but theirs is a little more kind of technical.

Okay, gotcha.

I’ll give you some alienese. If you could please translate to human English, that’d be more than acceptable and cause great pleasure.

Okay?

Peace in the universe.

Here we go.

Now, you might have to tell your young one, you will diminish your sustenance needs.

What does that mean?

You will eat.

No.

Not exactly.

This is in response to their wish for a snack.

Oh, I see.

You’ll spoil your appetite.

Dinner’s in 10 minutes.

That’s right.

You will diminish your sustenance needs.

You’ll ruin your appetite.

Now, such sustenance might take the form of crisscross flop discs.

What are they?

Peanut butter cookies?

Pancakes?

What?

Close.

Not pancakes.

Crisscross flop discs.

Oh, waffles.

Waffles or crisscross flop discs, yes.

If they’re floppy, you’re not making them right.

That’s true.

They should be a little crispy.

They should be square.

Friends are paying a visit.

You would most likely need to use a roll suck.

What’s a roll suck?

Oh, a Hoover, a vacuum.

A vacuum cleaner, yes.

Now, personal physical improvement recreation.

No discomfort, no expansion.

Means what to earth beings?

No pain, no gain.

That’s right. No pain, no gain.

If a being notes that this is where the planet was when you emerged, what are they referring to?

This is where the planet was when…

Oh, happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

Oh, my goodness.

This is where the planet was when you emerged.

It’s your birthday.

At an event like that one, you might be encouraged to elevate your cylinders.

What are you being asked to do?

Raise your glasses.

Raise your glasses, indeed.

Make a toast.

Anyway, that is your brief foray into alienese.

Oh, John, your list of difficult questions, your quiz is always appreciated.

That’s right.

To be ignorant in order to stupefy you, hopefully, has been successful.

If you’d like to vocalize with us about vocalization, you can manipulate your pocket computer.

Call us 877-929-9673 or send us an email, words@waywordradio.org.

And you can find lots of other ways to reach us on our website, waywordradio.org.